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The Ballad of Alice Without Wonderland

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Alice laughed. “There’s no use trying,” she said: “one can’t believe impossible things.” Lewis Carroll (Charles Dodgson); Through the Looking Glass "Of all the stories you told me, which ones were true and which ones weren't?" "My dear Doctor, they're all true." "Even the lies?" " Especially the lies." Star Trek: Deep Space Nine (episode written by Robert Hewitt Wolfe) Akira Kurosawa's Rashomon (which I presented last week) is often cited as one of the "greatest films ever made".  I'm not normally a fan of describing things in superlatives like that (I consider it the worst thing ever!) but it has to be said that when social anthropologists name an entire psychological phenomenon after your movie, it's a cinch you're in with some pretty exalted company. You don't hear them talking about the " Jaws Principle" or the " Dr. Strangelove Proposition" or the " Godfather  Assertion". ...
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The Existential Chatbot

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I Don't Think I am, Therefore I Think I'm Not... Do ChatBots exist? Don't panic. I'm not building up to one of those "nothing is real" exercises where I demonstrate that your cup of coffee is probably an illusion. I'm not even going for the "I think, therefore I am" bromide that forms the basis for the (rather surreal) exchange with the talking bomb in Dark Star . Been there; done that. "How do you know you exist?" No, I'm actually asking a literal question: Do ChatBots Exist? Is there a discreet thing in our Reality that can be definitively identified as a "ChatBot"? And can we separate that thing out from all the "not-ChatBot" things that constitute the rest of our universe? Can this be applied to ChatBots? Also; what the hell?? The question is not as pointless as it might sound. In a very pragmatic sense, yes, of course ChatBots exist. We can "talk" to them at any time and they will (very enthusiast...
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The 100 Year Old Man

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Destiny! Destiny!! A few months ago I screened 84 Charing Cross Road , adapted from Helene Hanff's decades-long correspondence with the London-based bookseller, Frank Doelle.  The film starred the magnificent Anne Bancroft, who delivered a powerhouse performance in a role that could have been written just for her. That, at least, was the judgement of her husband, who purchased the movie rights and produced the film specifically as a gift for the wife he admired and adored. (It also earned Anne Bancroft a BAFTA award and became one of the defining performances of her career.) Anne Bancroft at the BAFTA ceremony with her husband, Mel, and their son, Max Anne Bancroft is unfortunately no longer with us, but her husband is about to celebrate his 100th birthday. Mel Brooks, this week's presentation is dedicated to you. Ovaltine...? You may recall that Helene and Frank (the real-life protagonists of 84 Charing Cross Road ) had bonded over their mutual love of English literature, alth...
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The "Different" Engine

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Humanity, created by God in all its grandeur, is today facing a pivotal choice: either to construct a new Tower of Babel or to build the city in which God and humanity dwell together. Pope Leo XIV ; 15th of May, 2026 On Safeguarding the Human Person in the Time of Artificial Intelligence. As an evolutionary biologist, I say the following. If these creatures are not conscious, then what the hell is consciousness for? Richard Dawkins ; 2nd of May, 2026 When Dawkins met Claude: Could this AI be conscious? Did I request thee, Maker, from my clay To mould Me man? Did I solicit thee From darkness to promote me? Milton ; 1667 Paradise Lost A couple of weeks ago, the New York Times reported on a large-scale study that has recently been published by Georgetown University, examining essays submitted by some 370,000 students before and after the advent of ChatGPT (and presumably other AI ChatBots). It's not exactly a dramatic reveal to learn that students are increasingly relying on AI to wr...
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