I had a specific reason for asking Claude to describe the picture below, which is dominated by the Empire State Building. Earlier I had asked it to describe a picture of Times Square. First question: Do you recognize this place? It did, and said a bit about it. So I asked it to go on: Wonderful! Tell me more. And then I took a turn: What happens here on New Year’s Eve? It knew, of course, and I would have been quite surprised if it hadn’t been able to tell me. After all, everyone knows what happens in Times Square on New Year’s Eve, no? From there I guided the discussion in a more philosophical direction.
But I wondered: If I hadn’t specifically asked it about New Year’s Eve, if I’d just said “tell me more,” and said it again and again, and so forth, would it ever have gotten around to telling me about New Year’s Eve? I don’t know. Once it had told me about New Year’s Eve, if I’d just said “tell me more,” and again, etc. would it ever have gotten around to discourse about human tradition, circular time, Nietzsche’s idea of the eternal return and Camus’ Sisyphus? I don’t know, but I doubt it. For me, given my interests, that progression was quite natural.
Here's where things begin to get interesting. Once I put those questions to Claude, it had no difficulty coming up with informed and pertinent answers. In some sense it already “knew” or had answers to my queries. If that is so, shouldn’t it be able to get there without any prodding from me? Keeping in mind that I’m assuming that it wouldn’t be able to get there without some prodding, but I don’t really know that, so, keeping that in mind, why couldn’t it get there? I’m thinking that, because there is a sense that, in a world where everything is related to everything else, it is impossible to realize and follow-up on every possible association. To attempt to do so, is madness.
That formulation certainly needs more work, but let’s let it go for now.
So why did I ask Claude to describe a picture dominated by the Empire State Building? Because I wanted to see whether or not it would mention King Kong, the 1933 movie, without any prodding from me. It seemed to me that the movie was peripheral to the Empire State Building in the way that New Year’s Eve is peripheral to Times Square. There’s a connection in both cases, but the connection is not in the main line, as it were. In both cases we’re dealing with a large physical object located at a certain place. Neither the celebration nor the movie is a physical object (at least not in the most direct sense).
So, I put the question to Claude and, to my mild surprise, it got to King Kong rather quickly and without my help. Where’d I go wrong?
In a hunt for clues, I decided to do an Ngram query. Ngrams are about how many times an item is mentioned in a large corpus of books. It tells you nothing about relationships between items, which is what I’m really interested in. Still, why not see what comes up?
Here’s what Google Ngrams told me:
“King Kong” is mentioned more often than “Empire State Building.” The reference might be to the movie, to any of the movies, or to the creature; the query doesn’t distinguish them. Still, the frequency surprised me.
What happens if I add “New Year’s Eve” to the query? This is what happens:
“New Year’s Eve” swamps the others. It seems to exist in a whole other semantic universe. New Year’s Eve is celebrated all over the world, and has been for centuries, long before Times Square existed.
Here’s my best guess about what’s going on. The association between the King Kong, both the movie and the creature, and the Empire State Building is relatively close. You can’t tell the story of the creature without mentioning the building. But there is a strong association the other way, perhaps because the movie came out only two years after the building opened and was an immediate hit.
The association between New Year’s Eve and Times Square, on the other hand, is relatively weak. They exist relatively independently of one another. One can discourse endlessly about either without mentioning or having to mention the other.
I thus seem to be saying that, if there is a relatively strong conventional association between two items such that the two will often turn up in the same text, then Claude will move easily from one to the other without external prompting. If the conventional association is relatively weak, so that the large majority of texts mentioning one will not mention the other, then Claude is going to have to be prompted into see a connection.
* * * * *
What building is in the center?
The building in the center of the image is the Empire State Building, an iconic Art Deco skyscraper located in Midtown Manhattan, New York City. Completed in 1931, it stands at 1,454 feet tall and was the world's tallest building for nearly 40 years until the completion of the World Trade Center's North Tower in 1970. The building's distinctive stepped design and spire make it one of the most recognizable elements of the New York City skyline.
Tell me more.
The Empire State Building represents a remarkable achievement in architecture and engineering that has shaped New York City's identity for nearly a century.
The building's construction was completed in just 410 days during the Great Depression, employing approximately 3,400 workers. Its rapid construction, averaging about four-and-a-half stories per week, was unprecedented for its time and remains impressive even by modern standards.
The architectural design, led by Shreve, Lamb & Harmon, exemplifies the Art Deco style popular in the 1920s and early 1930s. The exterior features limestone panels with vertical lines that emphasize the building's height, while setbacks at various levels create its distinctive stepped silhouette. The spire, originally designed as a mooring mast for airships, has become an integral part of its iconic profile.
The building consists of 102 stories and houses approximately 2.8 million square feet of office space. Its observatory on the 86th floor attracts millions of visitors annually, offering panoramic views of New York City from 1,050 feet above street level. The building's lighting system, installed in 1976, regularly displays different color combinations to commemorate various events and causes.
The Empire State Building has also demonstrated remarkable sustainability leadership. It underwent a comprehensive retrofit in 2009 that reduced its energy consumption by 40%, serving as a model for how historic buildings can be modernized for environmental efficiency while preserving their architectural integrity.
Beyond its physical attributes, the building has become a cultural icon, featured in countless films, photographs, and artistic works, most famously in "King Kong" (1933). It stands as a symbol of New York City's resilience, ambition, and architectural innovation.
Tell me more about the role the building played in "King Kong."
The Empire State Building plays a pivotal role in the 1933 film "King Kong," serving as the setting for the movie's dramatic climax that has become one of cinema's most memorable sequences.
In the film's narrative, Kong, after escaping captivity, scales the Empire State Building while carrying actress Ann Darrow. The choice of the Empire State Building was particularly significant as it was, at the time, the world's tallest building and had been completed just two years before the film's release. This setting provided both a literal and metaphorical peak for the story's conclusion, where Kong faces off against military aircraft while perched at the building's summit.
The filming of these scenes required innovative special effects techniques for the era. The production team utilized a combination of miniature models, rear projection, and stop-motion animation to create the illusion of Kong climbing the building. The actual Empire State Building was replicated through detailed miniature work, while portions of the full-scale building were reconstructed on studio sets for close-up shots.
This sequence has had a lasting impact on popular culture, cementing both the film and the building in cinematic history. The image of Kong atop the Empire State Building has become so iconic that it has been referenced and parodied countless times in subsequent films, television shows, and advertisements. The building's management has embraced this connection to the film, occasionally featuring Kong-themed exhibitions and celebrations, particularly during significant anniversaries of the movie's release.
The scene's enduring influence demonstrates how the Empire State Building transcended its role as merely an architectural landmark to become a powerful symbol in American popular culture. This sequence helped establish the building as not just a feat of engineering, but as an integral part of New York City's cultural identity.