Introduction This article was originally part of the piece on Roman naming conventions, more or less a rant on the egregious liberties—especially from Hollywood—when dealing with history. Later, I began sketching two case studies on how I incorporate history into my alternate-history fiction, and that naturally suggested turning it into a series on my approach […]
Introduction I know far less about Greek names—particularly in antiquity—than I do about Roman ones. When I first needed some, I took the approach of using Greek words almost as personifications. After all, names in myth and history often worked that way. Pandora (Πανδώρα) means “all gifts.” Theodora (Θεοδώρα) means “gift of god.” Both show […]
It is surprising how ignorant people are about what LLMs actually do, even in the very sectors that actively leverage large language models. Take one step back from that—say, to businessmen and the media—and the picture gets even more distorted. No wonder so many writers end up totally misinformed about them.
I did, however, run across an article—though I wish I remembered who wrote it and where it was published—that I think was related to the stock forecasting of NVIDIA. The reporter wrote, to paraphrase: an LLM predicts the next word in a string. Period. Finally, someone who actually understands.
In a very real sense, an LLM is the opposite of machine intelligence. It is not “thinking.” It is not “reasoning.” It is simply a massive statistical model. It has no semblance of reasoning, no capacity even for basic if–then logic. At one point, I went through a phase of calling these AI systems (both text and image) BASM: big ass statistical models. It was my way of driving home that point. While the phrase is a cute encapsulation of what they are, it doesn’t really capture what they do.
While I have no Norse characters in my novels, as the period I’m writing in is simply too early for the Norse, I’ve learned something about Norse naming conventions while working on Restitutor Reipublicae. Originally, the title character in my draft from 40 years ago was named Michael Fischer, which felt too generic for my modern version, so he was reimagined as Mikkel Friðriksson, son of Friðrik Eiríksson and Brynja Káradóttir. Why Icelandic? I’ve always had a fascination with the land of fire and ice. I chose to visit Iceland to celebrate finishing my doctorate, and later, I worked closely with several Icelandic engineers at a tech company. With a basic understanding of Icelandic culture, having read a few sagas, and with Icelandic friends,I felt it was the ideal ethnicity for my protagonist. I only hope I don’t offend any of my friends with this article.
Roman Names
Introduction
Lately, I’ve been frequenting author and self-publishing sites, and I’ve noticed a recurring question among historical fiction and fantasy writers: many budding authors get stuck on character names or other types of names. While I can’t speak for all eras or cultures, I’ll offer advice on three ethnicities that feature in my novels and books — Roman, Greek, and Nordic. In this article, the focus is on Roman names.