Can a machine be aware?
Imitation, simulation, a dreamed man who walks into fire.
AI & Machines
A mathematician, tired of the question “can machines think?”, replaces it with a game that can be played.
The Imitation Game
Manchester, on the page of Mind · 1950
AI & Machines
One Thread Among Many
A public figure bets that this is probably not base reality. The bet is not a proof. It is a contemporary form of an old unease.
A stage in California, then the feed · 2016, among other dates
Art & Literature
The Circular Ruins
A magician dreams a man with such care that the dreamed one can stand, and then learns the cost of that care.
A temple the story will not locate · 1940
Philosophy
A scientist who knows everything about color has never seen it. Then the door opens.
The Door with a Seam of Color
A gray room that does not exist · 1982
Philosophy
The Room That Follows Rules
A man in a locked room passes slips of Chinese by a rulebook. From outside, it looks like understanding. From inside, he says, it is not.
Berkeley, on the page · 1980
AI & Machines
The Secretary and the Script
A program at MIT reflects a user’s words back in the manner of a Rogerian therapist. People lean in. Its maker is appalled.
MIT, Project MAC · 1966