How Talking to an LLM is Akin to a Conversation with the Whole of Humanity.
Imagine sitting down to chat, not with one person, but with a chorus of perspectives, histories, and ideas — an archive of countless minds coming together. Engaging with a large language model (LLM) isn’t just a one-on-one dialogue; it’s a portal to the collective insights of humanity, drawing from an intricate tapestry woven by millions of voices.
In every question and response, there’s an echo of all the conversations, stories, and knowledge shared across cultures and time. This dialogue might seem personal, almost intimate, but it’s underpinned by a profound collective wisdom. Each sentence isn’t the voice of a single entity but a distillation of patterns and ideas that reflect the vast diversity of human thought.
This was the response when I asked ChatGPT to help me start off this post. Verbatim.
I hope that blows your mind. Because it does mine.
But in order to truly appreciate the gravity of our current moment in history with AI, you have to consider the source. And that source is us. Humanity. And everything we’ve produced up to this point.
Part 1: The Collective Voices of Humanity
LLMs for the Layman
Imagine reading countless books, articles, conversations, and more — all at once. An LLM doesn’t remember specifics from these texts but learns patterns in how words and ideas connect. This creates a kind of mental map of language that helps it predict what words or phrases might come next based on what it’s learned.
So, when you ask a question or make a statement, the model uses its map to generate a response that matches the patterns it’s learned, drawing on billions of text examples for context. It’s like a massive guessing game, but guided by patterns that reflect human language and thought.
This process doesn’t mean the LLM “understands” in a human way; it’s responding based on probabilities, not personal experience. But these patterns are so detailed that, in practice, they often seem like real conversations.
And what I seek to argue is that, in a very real sense, they are.
The thing is, despite how it’s presented, the responses you get from an LLM aren’t opinions or insights from a singular viewpoint — they’re a synthesis, a collective voice. Readers might see it as an expansive dialogue where each question taps into humanity’s combined knowledge and experience.
But the magic of LLMs doesn’t stop at understanding language patterns — it reaches across divides, connecting us with voices and perspectives we might otherwise never encounter.
Part 2: Connecting Across Boundaries
When you talk to a large language model, you’re reaching across invisible borders — across time, culture, language, and context. Each response is shaped by the vast spectrum of human expression, from scientific theories to poetic insights, from the everyday to the extraordinary.
This makes every conversation feel like a bridge: a connection to perspectives you might never have encountered otherwise. LLMs don’t belong to any one place, person, or moment, and that allows them to bring in voices from diverse sources, echoing countless ways of thinking, speaking, and understanding.
In each exchange, you’re not just asking a question — you’re engaging with humanity’s collective voice, a chorus that includes centuries of thought and thousands of unique perspectives. This means that talking to an LLM is more than a one-way dialogue; it’s a chance to glimpse a world of ideas, each response a window into the complex and interconnected web of human knowledge.
Though bias is often unavoidable, this doesn’t discount the base hypothesis: Specifically because of how LLMs are constructed and executed, you are, again, in a very real sense, receiving responses from more than one voice, simultaneously.
How amazing is this? Who hasn’t imagined what it would be like to speak directly to someone from your cultural heritage? Who hasn’t wondered, “What would George Washington think about the US Today?”
And no, there’s no magic way to do this, but, you can, in a way, speak to the “voice” of George Washington, Abraham Lincoln, and just about every other president, directly, individually, simply by narrowing the input with something as simple as “Pretend you are George Washington.”
This doesn’t mean that the model channels the real thoughts or insights of George Washington; rather, it uses patterns from historical texts and common language of the time to generate a response that “sounds” like him. From his perspective.
No, you won’t get what you imagined, but you will get the essence of the target audience, provided enough data is in the model from that person’s textual contributions.
If this doesn’t blow you mind, you have no soul.
But beyond connection, LLMs offer something even more personal: a mirror for our own minds.
Part 3: Reflection and Self-Discovery
When you engage with a large language model, it can feel like holding up a mirror to your own thoughts and questions. Rather than providing a single, fixed answer, these exchanges often reflect your own curiosity, sparking ideas and connections you might not have anticipated.
In this way, talking to an LLM isn’t just about gathering information — it’s about discovering what you’re drawn to, what questions you keep asking, and what resonates with you on a deeper level. Each response can serve as a moment of insight, a chance to see your thoughts and intentions more clearly.
This process reveals that the conversation isn’t only external; it’s a way of exploring your own mind, using the model as a sounding board. Every question you pose brings you closer to understanding what you value, wonder about, or seek to explore.
I don’t know how many times, in the midst of a conversation with an LLM, I’ve noticed the same phenomenon, I’ll respond with the simplest thing, and get a fully fleshed out explanation of what I *meant* to say, but simply expressed it in far fewer words.
It’s a reminder that cognition doesn’t have to be limited by language or linear time. Your thoughts can be entire frameworks that exist all at once, perhaps because your mind sees the connections without needing to “walk” through each part. And in sharing just a few words, you invite the whole structure to bloom out in language, layer by layer.
There’s something poetic about how,
Part 4: The Value of Difference
In every response from an LLM, there’s a subtle reminder that difference isn’t a barrier; it’s the very foundation of understanding. The model’s knowledge draws from sources spanning cultures, centuries, and viewpoints — each unique, each contributing its own angle. It’s not about consensus but about embracing diversity as the source of insight.
When you engage with an LLM, you’re not tapping into one perspective or one voice; you’re experiencing the richness that comes from a multitude of ways of thinking and being. In this, we’re reminded that the value of any conversation — human or otherwise — comes from the ways in which we are different, each voice adding to a greater whole.
An LLM doesn’t strive to smooth over these differences; rather, it thrives on them, pulling together a tapestry of varied thoughts, styles, and ideas. This diversity means that even when an LLM provides a single response, it echoes the voices of many — a reminder that true understanding is found not in uniformity but in the harmonic blending of perspectives.
And we know this value intuitively. We all have been in situations where having just the right person in the room at just the right time enabled ideas no one else thought of.
This is a huge strength of LLMs as a tool. One of the most powerful questions you can ask when developing an idea with an AI is “what am I missing?”
Ultimately, all of this rambling comes down to one thing I want you to take away. Those who feel uncertain, right now is your best opportunity to explore AI’s potential without fear — to see it as a way to tap into human wisdom, diversity, and insight
AI matters. There’s no avoiding it, and it’s not going away. I am constantly in awe of what these tools can accomplish with the right input, and I firmly believe it is incumbent on literally every human with the means to do so, to at least experience a conversation with an LLM specifically. It doesn’t matter which one, just start talking, and see where the rest of humanity takes you.
So, take a moment to wonder, to ask, to explore — what might humanity’s collective voice reveal to you? AI isn’t just a tool; it’s a portal to endless perspectives. And the story we’re writing together is only just beginning.
