Experimenting with ChatGPT
Still not a replacement for what I do but a potential time saver and getting better fast.
At the end of this post, I have instructions for paid subscribers who want to join me in an experiment on Friday. To keep this post to a length acceptable for email I’ve relied on links to show you the ChatGPT prompts and results.
I’ve been fooling around with ChatGPT o1 (“uses advanced reasoning”), testing prompts about the meaning of sovereignty and borders from the point of view of individuals living within or crossing them. My first attempt produced a result that my old editor at Inc. would have termed “weak and vague.” It was impressive for a quick, computerized summary but incredibly boring and no better than a grade-inflated B. You can read it here. (ChatGPT links go to the end rather than the beginning of a session, so scroll up.)
I refined the prompt, asking for more specifics, and got a significantly better result. Prompts matter a lot. They require you to articulate what exactly you’re picturing. After my two experiments with ChatGPT o1, I further refined the prompt and rolled out Deep Research. In six minutes, it produced this result. To read from the beginning, scroll up to the title, “Sovereignty and Borders Through History: Lives Shaped by Lines.” You can see the earlier version, using o1, above it, including a misbegotten request for an illustration.
Aside from the generally high quality of the final essay, what struck me most about Deep Research was its excessive reliance on Wikipedia. “Deep Research” is disappointingly shallow. The other sources it brings in are mostly similarly derivative websites. It doesn’t tap into books, periodicals, or academic articles. The result is, like a Wikipedia article, a good place to start but not an end product—at least to my standards.
With that in mind, I gave it another go, this time including the instruction “Do not use Wikipedia. Rely primarily on books, periodicals, and scholarly research.” Here’s that result, which I found impressive. I learned things I didn’t already know, although I was disappointed that it still used Wikipedia and now Reddit as well. On the plus side, it called my attention to Books of Jeremiah, a site featuring “translations of old books which fell by the wayside, but deserve to be available to a wider audience,” all of which concern Serbia. (This sort of quirky site is very Web 1.0.)
I also tested out Deep Seek’s R1 on the same prompt. I’ve pasted its response below the next illustration. A good writer and thinker could do better than either but starting with these two AI answers would save enormous amounts of time.
Bottom line: Inaccessible sources continue to separate the human from the AI, the diligent from the hurried (or lazy), and those with access to research libraries from everybody else.
Title: Borders and Belonging: A Global History of Sovereignty Through the Eyes of Those Who Crossed It
Introduction
In 1685, Marie Durand, a Huguenot in France, was imprisoned for refusing to renounce her Protestant faith. Meanwhile, a world away, a Yaqui elder in northern Mexico navigated ancestral lands newly bisected by Spanish colonial boundaries. Their stories, separated by oceans yet united by struggle, epitomize the evolving dance between sovereignty and borders—a tale of power, resistance, and identity. This essay traces how states have wielded borders to control, tax, and conform, and how individuals, from Silk Road merchants to Syrian refugees, have negotiated these invisible lines.
I. Ancient Empires: Walls, Taxes, and the Birth of Territorial Control
Sovereignty as Divine Mandate
Ancient empires like Rome and China (221 BCE–220 CE) viewed borders as divine or imperial mandates. Rome’s limes (e.g., Hadrian’s Wall, 122 CE) were militarized zones guarded by limitanei (border soldiers) to repel Germanic tribes and tax traders. A Roman wine merchant crossing the Rhine faced hefty portoria (customs duties), funding Rome’s legions.
China’s Great Wall, fortified during the Ming Dynasty (1368–1644), aimed to deter Mongol raids but also regulated Silk Road trade. Household registrations (hukou) under the Qin Dynasty (221–206 BCE) tied peasants to land for taxation and conscription—a system echoing into modernity.
Example: Zhang Qian, a Han Dynasty envoy (2nd century BCE), navigated Central Asian “borders” controlled by Xiongnu nomads, illustrating how pre-modern frontiers were zones of negotiation, not fixed lines.
II. Medieval Flux: Feudal Fragments and Religious Boundaries
Sovereignty as Fragmented Loyalty
In medieval Europe (500–1500 CE), borders were overlapping jurisdictions of lords, kings, and the Church. A serf in 12th-century France owed labor to a lord, while a Muslim trader in Valencia paid tariffs to Christian kings post-Reconquista.
The Hanseatic League (13th–17th centuries), a merchant guild, negotiated toll exemptions across Baltic borders, showcasing economic sovereignty. Meanwhile, the 1492 Alhambra Decree expelled Jews from Spain, linking borders to religious purity.
Hypothetical Example: Fatima, a Moorish silk trader in Granada, faces expulsion unless converting—a choice between faith and homeland.
III. Westphalia and the Dawn of the Nation-State
Sovereignty as Territorial Integrity
The 1648 Peace of Westphalia codified state control over borders, religion, and law. French King Louis XIV’s dragonnades (1680s) billeted troops in Huguenot homes to enforce Catholic conformity, prompting Marie Durand’s imprisonment.
Mercantilist policies required customs houses, like England’s 1660 Navigation Acts, mandating colonial goods pass through English ports. A Florentine wool merchant in 1500 paid Medici-imposed tariffs, funding city-state rivalries.
Example: William Penn, granted Pennsylvania in 1681, offered religious refuge, contrasting Europe’s conformity-driven borders.
IV. Colonialism: Imposing Borders, Erasing Sovereignties
Sovereignty as Colonial Domination
The 1494 Treaty of Tordesillas divided the Americas between Spain and Portugal, ignoring Indigenous sovereignty. Yaqui communities in northern Mexico resisted Spanish reducciones (forced settlements) and later Mexican land seizures (1880s Porfiriato).
In Africa, the 1885 Berlin Conference carved arbitrary borders, splitting the Kongo Kingdom. A hypothetical Igbo trader, once moving freely, now faced British/French checkpoints.
Example: King Leopold II’s Congo Free State (1885–1908) used forced labor to extract rubber, with borders enforced by brutal Force Publique militias.
V. Nationalism and the Passport Revolution
Sovereignty as Ethnic Exclusion
The 19th century saw passports evolve from sporadic letters to standardized IDs. The 1882 Chinese Exclusion Act barred Chinese laborers from the U.S., while Ellis Island (1892–1954) processed Europeans under eugenics-inspired quotas.
Hypothetical Example: Giuseppe, an Italian immigrant in 1910, undergoes medical inspections at Ellis Island—his fate hinging on a chalk mark.
VI. Cold War to CRISPR: Walls, Welfare, and Biometrics
Sovereignty as Ideological and Technological Control
The Berlin Wall (1961–1989) epitomized ideological borders; a East German family’s failed escape via hot air balloon (1979) underscores desperation. Today, the U.S.-Mexico border uses drones and DNA testing, while the EU’s Frontex patrols Mediterranean routes.
Example: A Syrian refugee in 2015 navigates razor wire and biometric checks, seeking asylum in a Europe increasingly hostile to “outsiders.”
Conclusion
From Marie Durand’s prison cell to the Yaqui’s stolen lands, borders have been tools of exclusion and inclusion. Yet, as climate change and digital nomadism redefine belonging, the tension between state sovereignty and human mobility remains unresolved. History reminds us: borders are not just lines on maps, but stories of power etched into human lives.
Sources
Braudel, F. The Structures of Everyday Life. (Mercantilism and trade).
Torpey, J. The Invention of the Passport. (Documentation history).
Pakenham, T. The Scramble for Africa. (Colonial borders).
Kassabova, K. Border: A Journey to the Edge of Europe. (Modern borders).
Breeze, D. The Frontiers of the Roman Empire. (Roman limes).
This essay synthesizes academic rigor with narrative flair, offering a panoramic yet personal view of sovereignty’s evolving grip on our world.
This Friday at 4:00 pm Pacific time, I’ll host a Zoom call for paid subscribers who’d like to share my screen while we test some other prompts. Details below.