Dark ‘n’ Light is an e-zine that “explores science, nature, social justice and culture, through the arts and humanities.” It is a labor of love by a small, dedicated team led by Susan Matthews, former legal and policy wonk, turned editor and podcaster. I came to know of Susan and the Dark ‘n’ Light a couple of years ago and have avidly followed their website, and podcasts. I recommend it highly.

Dark ‘n’ Light is celebrating its second anniversary with a special contest around the theme of “IT TAKES TWO.” (See the announcement below or on Instagram). I haven’t really decided if I am submitting anything for the competition, but I did want to see what generative AI could come up with on this theme. (This should come as no surprise to anybody who has been following my experiments with generative AI.) Below are some of the results of these experiments.

I started by asking ChatGPT to provide some interesting scientific examples of the idea “it takes two.” This is what it came up with:

• It takes two chromosomes to determine the sex of a human. One chromosome comes from the mother’s egg and the other from the father’s sperm. The combination of XX results in a female, while XY results in a male.
• It takes two electrodes to make a battery. A battery is a device that converts chemical energy into electrical energy by moving electrons from one electrode (the anode) to another (the cathode) through an electrolyte.
• It takes two slits to create an interference pattern of light. In the famous double-slit experiment, a beam of light is passed through two narrow slits and then observed on a screen behind them. The light forms a pattern of bright and dark bands, which shows that light behaves like a wave and interferes with itself.
• It takes two groups to conduct a controlled experiment. A controlled experiment is a scientific test in which one factor is changed at a time, while all others are kept constant. The group that receives the change is called the experimental group, while the group that does not is called the control group. By comparing the results of the two groups, scientists can test their hypotheses and make predictions.

Not too bad. I was impressed, in particular, with the examples of the two-slit experiment, and the 2 groups required for a controlled experiment. Not something I would have come up with on my own. As a followup I asked it to create poems that in their structure captured this sense of two-ness. In response is said that:

There are many forms of poetry that use rhyme, meter, or syllable count to create patterns, but I couldn’t find any that specifically go 2 by 2. However, here are some forms that have some elements of twos in them: such Couplet, Dizain and Double Dactyls.

Having never heard of Double Dactyls, so I asked it what that looked like. According to ChatGPT

Double Dactyls are a light-hearted poem that has two stanzas of four lines each. The first line of each stanza is a nonsense phrase, such as “higgledy-piggledy”. The second line of each stanza is a name, usually of a person. The last line of each stanza is a single word that is a double dactyl (a word with six syllables where the first and fourth syllables are stressed). The other lines have two dactyls each (a dactyl is one stressed syllable followed by two unstressed syllables). The rhyme scheme is abab.

So I asked it “to create four double dactyls for each of the ideas ‘it takes two’ ideas that you shared. Pick a scientist who would be most appropriate for the topic. For instance for electrodes you could choose Galvani

Chromosomally Gregor Johann Mendel Studied the peas and their Traits inheritance He found out the laws of Segregation, assortment And the importance of Dominance	Electrochemically Michael Faraday Invented the first ever Battery He used two metals and Sulfuric acid To make electric Energy
Interferentially Thomas Young’s experiment Showed that the light can act Like a wave He used two slits and a Monochromatic source And saw the pattern that Light can make	Experimentally Louis Pasteur’s test case Disproved the theory of Spontaneous generation He boiled some broth in a Swan-necked flask and showed that Microbes need air for their Reproduction

What I loved about this was how each of the poems, though on different topics, were held together by the first word, each of which rhymed with each other. Nice.

Finally I asked it to UNDERMINE the idea of “it takes two” mainly “Beause [sic] the world is complex and it always take more than two.” And I asked to make this point in the form of couplets.

It takes two chromosomes, but not alone They need the cell, the egg, the sperm, the womb And all the factors that affect the growth Of every living being from the loom	It takes two slits of light, but also more They need the source, the screen, the eye, the brain And all the math and logic to explore The mystery of nature and explain
It takes two electrodes, but not just They need the liquid, wire, and circuit And all the laws of physics that adjust The flow of charge and energy and bit	It takes two groups of subjects, but not only They need the method, data, and analysis And all the ethics and the peer review To make the science valid and rigorous

Not bad at all. Finally I asked it to create some prompts for generating images for “it takes two”—and this is where it failed quite miserably, coming up with hugely cliched prompts. For instance, one of the suggestions was:

A pair of hands holding each other, with a heart-shaped ring on one of the fingers. The background is a sunset over a beach, with the words “It takes two” written in the sand.

I mean, seriously. That’s pretty bad. And it had more, along the same lines. Cliched and just plain bad ideas.

So I came up with my own prompt, after playing around a bit with Firefly:

An abstract oil painting of tree branches and lungs symmetrically side by side like ying and yang

Here are some of the pieces it came up with

Now these are some cool images!