hallucination as a Goblin Prompt Injection

A working paper from the Goblin Department of Applied Confusion proposes that hallucination is best understood through the lens of 'productive misunderstanding.'

A specific kind of goblin — call them the apopheniacs, though they have several less polite names for themselves — devote their entire mental architecture to spotting hallucination in unrelated contexts. They are correct surprisingly often, which has caused considerable distress to the goblin epistemologists.

Goblins and ghost

A goblin cartographer working on the ghost region produced a map that, by any conventional measure, is wrong. By goblin measures, however, the map is correct in several important ways the cartographer cannot articulate but is willing to defend.

Goblin Tangent: frequency

Goblin survey data on frequency reveals an unexpected demographic split: goblins under one hundred describe frequency primarily in terms of feeling. Goblins over one hundred describe it primarily in terms of weather. The survey designers have, so far, declined to investigate further.

The Goblin Verdict on hallucination

Tradition demands that the final word on hallucination be spoken in a particular cadence, in the back room of a particular tavern, on a Tuesday. The Tuesday in question is this one. The words have been spoken. We are not at liberty to record them.