September 9, 2020
Vital Conversations
Speak: A Novel by Louisa Hall
This creative work is woven from a varied series of first-person narratives: Mary, a 17th‑century Puritan girl emigrating to America; Alan Turing pre and postwar; Karl Dettman, a 1960s scientist working on artificial intelligence (a character based on real-life computer scientist Joseph Weizenbaum); Gaby, a young girl in 2035 suffering from a trauma-induced “lock-in” syndrome after her beloved robot doll was snatched from her; and Stephen R Chinn, who is in a Texas prison in 2040. Chinn is a Steve Jobs-style genius and entrepreneur who made billions designing and selling intelligent “babybots”, who fell from grace when his invention proved too successful. Shy kids bonded with their bots to the exclusion of actual humans. Convinced their development was being impaired, the authorities confiscated them, and a psychological epidemic of stuttering, fitting and freezing swept through the child population. Chinn looks back on his life: from school nerd, via a stint as obnoxious pickup artist, to lonely billionaire prone to dating shallow supermodels who, in a narrative knight’s move that is genuinely affecting, unexpectedly finds happiness with his physically unprepossessing cleaning lady – for a time, at any rate.
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Possible releasing conversation: Share your name and in one sentence say something about “artificial intelligence.”
1. Karl Dettman. “…one day that machine will remember your words, but it won’t ever feel them. It won’t understand them. It will only throw them back in your face.” (page 30). What does it mean to you to both understand and feel the words that are spoken?
2. Alan Turing. “It is our goal, as you know, to describe the actual sequences by which human beings develop their mind-sets…We are even now reopening our investigation into the Fibonacci sequence, in the hopes that it will reveal to us new secrets about cellular growth.” Page 66). What is the Fibonacci sequence and how might it help understand human reality?
3. Stephen R Chinn. “And what if these bots (AI Babies) took over? What if they relieved us of power? We tend to assume that sentient machines would be inevitably demonic…They would govern the world according to functions, and the axioms their programmers gave them.” (page 86). What are sentient machines? Could they do a better job in many areas? Are there things they could not do better than humans?
4. Karl Dettman. “Like it or not, the programs we invent will be used in battle and despite your aversion to watching the news there’s no way you haven’t seen the battles this country fights; the scorched peasant villages, napalm bombs, naked children running out of the smoke.” (page 112) Is it inevitable that computers will be used more for evil than good? What can we do now to avoid that today?
5. Alan Turing. “I’ve begun to imagine a near future when we might read poetry and play music for our machines, when they would appreciate such beauty with the same subtlety as a live human brain. When this happens, I feel that we shall be obligated to regard the machine as showing real intelligence…you’ve always remained open to the possibility that my science and your religion might coexist. After all, we’re both after the same things.” (page 156). Can we say a machine has intelligence? Can science and religions coexist? Are we after the same thing?
6. MARY3 (an artificial babybot). “But who are you, other than the person you’ve selected this morning to be? Isn’t that what humans do when they try to be liked. Select the right kind of voice, learned after years of listening in? The only difference between you and me is that I have more voices to select from.” (page 176-177). Are human beings as good at relationships as a well programed artificial babybot?
7. Alan Turing. “I find it hard to believe that a machine, programmed for equanimity and rational synthesis could ever act as maleficent as we humans have already proven ourselves capable of acting. I fail to summon the specter of a machine more harmful that Hitler or Mussolini.” (page188). Is our “humanness” a gift or a problem in today’s world? Would artificial intelligence make better choices in elections, problem solving, global survival and living in peace with justice?
8. “Some theorists argue that all our words are dishonest, given that we can’t actually mean them. Others have argued with less success that as long as we have the words for emotions, it must be assumed that we have the emotions.” (page 241). Think and talk about the relationship between our thoughts, feelings and the words we use in writing and speaking. When you speak, do you want others to listen or to hear? What is the difference?
9. Stephen Chinn. “It’s difficult to overstate the euphoria one feels while programming a mind, even if you’re tinkering with someone else’s outdated code. The engineer who builds whole cities isn’t so powerful. The computer programmer alone is the creator of a universe in which he dictates all laws.” (page 257). When do you feel the most powerful and creative? How can you participate in “creating a universe”?
10. Ruth Dettman. “Surrounded by such alien creatures, I found myself yearning for the comforts provided by our computer. I longed for its cool, unchangeable body, sitting still on the desk. For its total lack of vanity, just questions, bright green on the gray screen, and the careful absorption of each of my answers.” (page 274). Do you long to be asked serious questions and be listened to without “the other” interrupting? Would an intelligent computer make a better friend and ally than a person with prejudices and ego?
11. What is a Turing Test? Do you know a superior method of measuring humanity?
October 14th Never Caught: The Washington’s Relentless Pursuit of their Runaway Slave Ona Judge by Erica Armstrong Dunbar. This is the story not only of the powerful lure of liberty but also of George Washington’s determination to recapture his property by whatever means necessary. Never Caught is an important new work on one of the world’s most celebrated families, and is the only book that examines the life of an eighteenth-century fugitive woman in intricate detail. It is a must read for anyone interest in American history.
David E. Nelson
816.896.3835
humanagenda@gmail.com