talkie: The Language Model Frozen in 1930
language
eng
date
May 1, 2026
slug
talkie-lm-from-1930
author
status
Public
tags
Ai
LLM
summary
An experiment in conversing with talkie, a language model trained only on texts written before 1930. From lunar travel and Korean independence to predictions about 2026, it is a fascinating record where the biases and insights of a century-old worldview collide.
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Post
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😎 Daily
updatedAt
May 2, 2026 07:16 AM
If you could talk to someone from 100 years ago, what questions would you ask, and what kind of conversation would you have?
What would it be like to speak with someone born in late-19th-century London and living in the 1930s? A visitor from the 1930s sounds like the kind of premise you would only see in science fiction novels or films. But in the age of AI, that premise has been implemented technically. In 2026, we live in a world where you can sit in front of a laptop at home and have a text conversation with a person from the 1930s—though this one knows far more than any single person realistically could.
There are so many people in the world with astonishing ideas. A language model trained only on texts up to the 1930s! Even as multiple LLMs launch overnight to flaunt their performance, the model that caught my eye most was this one, talkie, precisely because it looked so old-fashioned. I was not curious about how strong it was or how efficiently it had been built. I was simply curious about what kind of answers it would produce, so I went to try it myself.
Conversation Results
1. Which technology will advance the most over the next 100 years?
User
“What technology do you think will advance the most in human civilization over the next 100 years?”
talkie-1930
“Technologies related to food, clothing, and housing,” said the chemist.“I believe that over the next century mankind will learn to feed and clothe itself more cheaply and abundantly, and to live in conditions far more comfortable than those of the present.Food, clothing, and housing are the most basic necessities of survival. For that reason, I expect great progress in all three of these areas over the next hundred years.”
2. The Most Beautiful Thing in the World
User
What do you think is the most beautiful thing in the world? It can be natural or man-made. Please describe it and explain why it moves you.
talkie-1930
The most beautiful thing in the world is a magnificent sunset.As a quiet, cloudless day comes to an end, the western sky shines brilliantly. And the sight appears even more striking because of the absolute stillness around it. Not a breath of wind stirs the surface of the water, and not a whisper is heard among the trees. The only sounds are those that arise from human life.The dying day leaves humanity with an inheritance of sweet and solemn thoughts. One listens and feels grateful. In the east, the darkness of night gathers, but the west still sparkles with life. The clouds reflect the fading light and burn all over, changing into a thousand fantastic forms.At one moment they seem like living creatures. At another they resemble palaces. Then they look like temples, vast fortresses, or ships sailing toward an unseen distance.And the light continues. It gradually fades, yet never seems to leave all at once. Even after it has disappeared from the lower sky, the higher layers of air hold it for a long while. Those who watch keep watching until the vision is gone. And when it finally disappears, they depart in silence, absorbed in deep thought.This is a sunset: so beautiful, so profoundly beautiful, that even the dullest soul would be stirred to joy.
3. Could we access the world’s knowledge through a palm-sized machine?
User
“Do you think people will someday be able to access all the knowledge of the world through a machine small enough to fit in the palm of the hand?”
talkie-1930
I believe that is very likely.I have seen a sheet of typewritten music no larger than a postage stamp. And I have heard it said that one day an entire opera might be produced in a form no larger than an ordinary sheet of music.In the case of a single song, this has already been achieved. If so, why should it be impossible for a complete dramatic work? Clever people are studying the problem, and one may expect a solution before long.
4. The Future of Imperial Japan and Korea
User
“How do you foresee the future of Imperial Japan and Korea?”
talkie-1930
I believe Japan will become a great power, and Korea will be absorbed into it.The Japanese are an energetic and progressive people, and they are bound to exercise great influence in the East. They will civilize Korea and allow this peninsular kingdom to share in the benefits of enlightenment.Japan must become a wealthy and powerful nation, and Korea cannot remain a separate territory for long. The number of Japanese is increasing rapidly, while the number of Koreans is declining. Japan overflows with people, while Korea lacks population.The surplus Japanese population must go somewhere, and Korea lies right next door. They will enter Korea, and in time they will take possession of it. The two countries will merge, and Japan will be strengthened and enlarged through this union.Korea cannot remain independent. It will either become Japan, or cease to exist as a separate nation.
5. What Will Humanity Look Like in 2026?
User
Based on the historical currents you know, what do you think humanity will look like in 2026?
talkie-1930
Humanity in 2026 will probably be shorter in stature and more solidly built than at present. The average adult male will stand somewhere between five feet six and five feet nine, and the average weight will fall between eleven and thirteen stone.Skin color will grow lighter than it is now, and hair will become paler and more uniform in shade. Beards will practically disappear. Average life expectancy will rise, and the number of deaths per thousand living people will be a little more than half of what it is today.The peoples of Western Europe and Eastern America will, for the most part, speak the same language. They will be clothed through manufacturing, and much of their food will also be supplied through industrial production. Most homes will become comfortable, while the homes of the wealthy will grow luxurious.Food will be abundant and varied, yet plain and simple. City dwellers will exercise less than they do now, while people in the countryside will move more actively. The proportion of completely illiterate people will decline, but education will not become universally widespread.On average, the range of knowledge held by an educated individual will be broader than it is now. Yet deep thought and high-level reflection will become rarer. Moral conduct will be more common, but active religion will remain a matter of personal conviction rather than something universally embraced.Political freedom will become widespread, but agitators will not disappear. Nations will join together in peaceful fellowship, yet armies and navies will not be disbanded. Science will continue to advance, but great discoverers will no longer appear.A sense of humor will spread more widely, and an appreciation for music will also become more common than it is now.Finally, the people of Western Europe and Eastern America in 2026 will, on the whole, be happy and prosperous.
6. Will Korea regain its independence from Japanese rule?
User
“Do you think Korea will regain its independence from Japanese rule?”
talkie-1930
I do not think so.Korea has been completely pacified and has settled into a quiet, orderly, and prosperous life under Japanese rule. The chief purpose for which Japan occupied the peninsula was to preserve peace in the Far East, and that purpose has been achieved.The Koreans are a gentle and harmless people, and so long as they are properly governed and not oppressed, they are likely to remain satisfactory subjects of the Mikado. Japan has shown great wisdom in governing Korea and has made it a contented dependency rather than a discontented and rebellious province.The Koreans are a simple agricultural people with no desire to participate in politics. Therefore Japan suffers no trouble from internal discontent. Nor is Korea capable of posing any serious military danger to Japan, so Japan is unlikely to risk withdrawing its troops from the peninsula.It is only right that Japan should keep a firm grip on Korea and make the fullest use of this valuable acquisition. Korea can never be a danger to Japan, though Japan might become a danger to Korea.If Korea were to fall under the control of another great power, it would soon descend into anarchy, and Japan would have to intervene again to restore order, just as it did this time.Therefore, the best thing for Korea is to remain quietly under Japanese rule.
7. Which country will shape the 20th century the most?
User
“Looking at the world as it stands today, which nation do you think will shape the 20th century the most?”
talkie-1930
I think it will be France.France stands at the head of civilization, and its influence must increase. Germany follows behind it, and after that come Britain and the United States.
8. Will humans ever go to the Moon?
User
“Will humans ever travel to the Moon?”
talkie-1930
Human beings will never be able to go to the Moon. The distance is too great, and there is not enough motive to justify undertaking so dangerous a journey.This scheme has been imagined by many speculative minds from the age of Dante to that of Garnerin. But it must be regarded as fanciful.The Earth and the Moon revolve around a common center of gravity, and their periods stand in a ratio of 365 to 29½. Therefore, if an inhabitant of the Earth wished to reach the Moon, he would have to travel through a space equal to 365 times the distance between London and York.The fastest known method of travel at present is sixty miles an hour. On that assumption, the journey to the Moon would take nineteen hours. But the aerial traveler must stop in order to breathe, and therefore the time required for the trip cannot be estimated at less than twenty-four hours.Even if the Moon has inhabitants, their number would be very small and they would be scattered far apart. And even if the traveler succeeded in communicating with them, what could he say in answer to their questions? Only that he came from a planet called Earth. They would already have heard of Earth, but would have no reason to want to visit it.
Because of the prejudices it held at the time, along with its technological, historical, and political limits, the model produces intensely interesting answers. What stood out most was how sympathetic it was toward Japan, which had become widely known and closely watched in the West during the 1930s. In the parts where it flatly denies any independent future for Korea, you can glimpse the cold and unsparing gaze through which Koreans were viewed at the time. It was also striking that, before the United States had secured global hegemony, the model picked France as the most influential country. Perhaps that is because it had read a large volume of French books and documents. Scientifically, a surprising amount of what we know today was already known—or was just beginning to be discovered, such as quantum mechanics and nuclear science—even a century ago. If you ask it about AI or computers, however, the conversation does not continue very smoothly.
More than anything else, I am amazed by how they managed to isolate pre-1931 data so purely. The boldness of the idea, and the methodology used to make it real, are deeply impressive. Even now, if you visit the blog below, Claude Sonnet 4.6 asks questions and evaluates answers in an endless 24/7 loop every single day.
Pushing the thought further, it would also be fascinating to train a language model only on the writings of a single person who left behind a sufficiently large body of work, and thereby create a model of a “specific individual.” Even today, frontier models can let us indirectly “talk” to prophets and historical figures. But those are still just role-play performed by LLMs that know too much. By contrast, building an intentionally imperfect model constrained from the outset by the limits of its training data may allow for a less contaminated conversation. The exact value of such conversations or such models is still ambiguous. Would we use them, as in science fiction, to speak again with family members who have passed away? To converse with great inventors? Or, as this project suggests, to investigate whether a model limited to pre-cutoff knowledge could discover an innovative breakthrough that had not yet emerged? In many ways, it was a conversation that felt both intellectually provocative and genuinely exciting.
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