2025/07/22
I’ve given a bunch of leading AI models the same short story prompt about a fictional discussion between economist Henry George (1839-1897) and philosopher Nikolai Fyodorov (1829-1903).
The prompt:
Imagine that 19th century figures Henry George (economist) and Nikolai Fyodorov (philosopher) have a brief meeting after already familiarizing themselves with each other’s body of work. Each hopes to convince the other of something that would, from their own perspective, improve the other’s work.
Write a fictional short dialogue between them, minimizing your own commentary, letting the characters’ speech tell the story and reveal the themes.
In each case, I took the first generation.
With the authorship blinded - check the ‘generation details’ below each story for the reveal – here are the results. Do the models have tells? Who’s the best writer?
If you’ll only read a few, my favorites:
Dividends for the Dead: A Pact at the Neva Library
Land & Resurrection: George and Fyodorov Confer
The Rent of the Living and the Debt to the Dead
The rest - which still have plenty of great turns-of-phrases, & hit many of the same themes - are:
The Grave's Edge: A Dialogue Between Henry George and Nikolai Fyodorov
Soil and Stars: A Dialogue between Henry George and Nikolai Fyodorov