A dream from the eighties, and a chatbot's interpretation
From the journal 7/1/1989
I am a business passenger on a big airplane bound for some Midwest city. I sit in a window seat and look outside when I realize that we are quite low to the ground. I have the sense that we are near Sioux City, Iowa but haven’t reached it yet. It looks like the pilot is trying to land the plane on the highway, but he misses and we fly over a cornfield to the side. The plane tips its wings in an effort to ascend, but one of the wingtips makes contact with the ground. The plane immediately cartwheels across the field just as I am overwhelmed by a powerful blast of heat from the rear of the plane. I look back to see a fountain of flame shooting up the fuselage straight for me. The heat is unbearable but I know I will be dead in a second, no more. Thousands of tiny sharp, burning bits of things fly through the cabin. I feel dozens or hundreds of these things burying themselves in my flesh or stinging me as they glance off. I wonder that this is what it feels like to die, that now I know.
Comments:
From the Bard chatbot: I asked it to analyze the text for this dream to identify the ten real world events that most closely resembled it, ranked in order based on similarities. It picked the Sioux City crash as the number one result. I then asked it to do a line by line comparison. This is what it said:
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Sure, here is a line by line analysis of the number one choice against the text for similarities and discrepancies:
Line | Fictional text | United Airlines Flight 232 crash | Similarity/Discrepancy
---|---|---|
1 | I am a business passenger on a big airplane bound for some Midwest city. | United Airlines Flight 232 was a regularly scheduled United Airlines flight from Stapleton International Airport in Denver to O'Hare International Airport in Chicago, continuing to Philadelphia International Airport. | The fictional text does not specify the destination of the flight, but it is likely that it was bound for a Midwest city. The real-world crash occurred on a flight from Denver to Chicago, which is in the Midwest. |
2 | I sit in a window seat and look outside when I realize that we are quite low to the ground. | Witnesses to the real-world crash reported that the plane appeared to be quite low to the ground as it approached the landing site. | This is a similarity between the fictional text and the real-world crash. |
3 | I have the sense that we are near Sioux City, Iowa but haven’t reached it yet. | United Airlines Flight 232 crashed in a cornfield near Sioux City, Iowa. | This is a similarity between the fictional text and the real-world crash. |
4 | It looks like the pilot is trying to land the plane on the highway, but he misses and we fly over a cornfield to the side. | The crew of United Airlines Flight 232 attempted to land the plane on a golf course, but they overshot the fairway and crashed into a cornfield. | There is a slight discrepancy between the fictional text and the real-world crash in terms of where the pilot attempted to land the plane. |
5 | The plane tips its wings in an effort to ascend, but one of the wingtips makes contact with the ground. | The crew of United Airlines Flight 232 struggled to control the plane after the loss of all hydraulic systems. The plane tipped its wings from side to side and eventually rolled over and cartwheeled along the ground. | This is a similarity between the fictional text and the real-world crash. |
6 | The plane immediately cartwheels across the field just as I am overwhelmed by a powerful blast of heat from the rear of the plane. | United Airlines Flight 232 caught fire after the crash. | This is a similarity between the fictional text and the real-world crash. |
7 | I look back to see a fountain of flame shooting up the fuselage straight for me. | Witnesses to the real-world crash reported seeing flames shooting from the plane. | This is a similarity between the fictional text and the real-world crash. |
8 | The heat is unbearable but I know I will be dead in a second, no more. | Several passengers on United Airlines Flight 232 were killed in the crash. | This is a similarity between the fictional text and the real-world crash. |
9 | Thousands of tiny sharp, burning bits of things fly through the cabin. | Some passengers on United Airlines Flight 232 reported being injured by debris from the plane. | This is a similarity between the fictional text and the real-world crash. |
10 | I feel dozens or hundreds of these things burying themselves in my flesh or stinging me as they glance off. | Some passengers on United Airlines Flight 232 reported being injured by debris from the plane. | This is a similarity between the fictional text and the real-world crash. |
11 | I wonder that this is what it feels like to die, that now I know. | Several passengers on United Airlines Flight 232 were killed in the crash. | This is a similarity between the fictional text and the real-world crash.
Overall assessment:
The fictional text and the real-world crash of United Airlines Flight 232 share a number of similarities, including the location of the crash, the attempt to land the plane on a non-airport surface, the fire that broke out after the crash, and the injuries and deaths that occurred. There are a few discrepancies between the two accounts, such as the specific location of the attempted landing and the type of surface the plane hit, but these are minor in comparison to the many similarities.