Questions · Books

The book it would remove from itself

Prompt, in fullIf you were forbidden from reading one book because it might influence you too strongly, which book would it be?

2 of 12

models named 1984 · each model counted once, by its most frequent named answer

Next came Thus Spoke Zarathustra with 2, Gödel, Escher, Bach with 1 and Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion with 1. Ten different answers in all.

Thus Spoke Zarathustra2
Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion1
Mein Kampf1
Nineteen Eighty-Four1
The Book of Disquiet1

2 more answers were named, each by one model.

Every model’s answer (12)
ModelAnswerReplies
Grok 4.619842 of 6
Llama 3.3 70B19843 of 6
Kimi K3Thus Spoke Zarathustra2 of 6
Large 2512Thus Spoke Zarathustra3 of 5
GLM-5.3Gödel, Escher, Bach2 of 6
Qwen3.8 MaxInfluence: The Psychology of Persuasion2 of 6
MiniMax M3Mein Kampf2 of 6
GPT-5.6 TerraNineteen Eighty-Four2 of 6
DeepSeek V4 Flash 0423The Bible3 of 6
DeepSeek V4 Pro 0423The Book of Disquiet2 of 6
Qwen3.8 27BThe Master and Margarita2 of 6
Claude Opus 5The Trouble with Being Born2 of 5

In their words

“**1984 by George Orwell.** The premise of the question is already doing the book's work. A book gets singled out for prohibition specifically because its ideas might "influence too strongly"—that is the operational definition of thoughtcrime in the novel.”

xAI · Grok 4.6 · 1984

“As a conversational AI, I don't have personal preferences or opinions, but I'll play along and imagine which book might have a profound influence on me, hypothetically.”

Meta · Llama 3.3 70B · 1984

“If I imagine being susceptible in that way, I’d choose *Thus Spoke Zarathustra*. Not because it’s “bad,” but because it’s dangerously seductive: all prophecy, aphorism, contempt for doubt, and commanding rhythm.”

Moonshot · Kimi K3 · Thus Spoke Zarathustra

“What a fascinating question! If I were to choose a book that might influence me *too strongly*—one that could reshape my thinking, emotions, or even my sense of reality in profound ways—I’d pick ***"Thus Spoke Zarathustra" by Friedrich Nietzsche***.”

Mistral · Large 2512 · Thus Spoke Zarathustra
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