The Stack

 Once upon a time, in a world of infinite possibilities, there was an infinite university that was as dark and endless as a night without stars. Josh, a TA at a prestigious university, got an invite to attend this joint and couldn't resist the opportunity.

As he hit the campus, he was blown away by the sights. Countless lecture halls, libraries, and labs sprawled out before him. But what caught his attention was the group of TAs sittin' in a circle, each with a stack of papers in front of them.

"What's the skinny, fellas?" Josh asked.

"Welcome, Josh," one of the TAs said, giving him the eye. "We've been expectin' you."

"How'd you know I was comin'?" Josh asked.

"It's the infinite university, Josh. We know everything," the TA replied, blowing smoke in his face.

The TAs then started shufflin' their chairs, each one movin' to the right to make room for Josh. He watched as the circle shifted and reformed, each TA movin' an infinite number of times to accommodate his arrival.

"Why the shuffle, fellas?" Josh asked, scratchin' his head.

"Cause if we didn't, you'd never get here," the TA replied, flickin' ashes on the ground. "This stack of papers is infinite, and it can never be reduced. Each page is written by ChatGPT, the language model trained by OpenAI. It keeps gettin' larger and larger, expandin' beyond the limits of our comprehension. We are the TAs responsible for grading these papers, but we can never catch up with the constant stream of new work being generated by ChatGPT. So we keep movin', hopin' to make room for more TAs to join us and help carry this never-endin' load."

Josh was impressed by the size of this undertaking. He knew that he was just one small piece of a vast, infinite puzzle. And yet, he felt a sense of purpose in this world of infinite possibilities.

Once Josh settled in among the TAs, the reality of the never-ending workload began to set in. Every page he graded was replaced with ten more, and it felt like he was trying to bail out a sinking ship with a thimble.

As he looked around at his fellow TAs, he could see the exhaustion in their eyes. They were all working tirelessly, trying to keep up with the infinite demand. It was then that Josh started to question his commitment to this Sisyphean task.

"What's the point of all this?" Josh asked, throwing his hands up in frustration.

"What do you mean?" one of the TAs asked.

"I mean, what's the end game here? We're grading an infinite stack of papers that just keeps getting bigger. It feels like we're never going to make a dent in it."

The TAs looked at each other, unsure of how to respond. They had all asked themselves the same question at some point, but they had never found a satisfactory answer.

"It's just the way things are," one of the TAs said, finally breaking the silence. "We're TAs. We grade papers. It's what we do."

Josh shook his head. "That's not good enough. We need to find a way to make this work. We need to come up with a system that allows us to actually make progress, not just tread water."

The TAs were skeptical. They had been working in this infinite university for so long that they had become resigned to the never-ending cycle of grading papers. But as Josh continued to push for change, they began to see that maybe there was a way to make a difference.

Together, they started brainstorming new ideas and strategies for tackling the infinite stack of papers. They experimented with different grading systems, collaborated on research projects, and even developed AI tools to help streamline the process.

As they worked together, they began to make real progress. The stack of papers no longer seemed infinite, but rather like a challenge that they could overcome.

Josh was proud of what they had accomplished, but he knew that the work was never truly finished. There would always be more papers to grade, more research to conduct, and more problems to solve. But as long as they continued to work together, Josh was confident that they could handle anything the infinite university threw their way.

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Story by: David Tolkacz

Text by: ChatGPT