Spiritus Vitae

[wolven7]

If your computer, as an extended representative of the newly-conscious, -unified, and -autonomous Internet were to ask you question, right now, would you be equipped to answer it?

What I mean is, if something with all the power and raw data of human history at its disposal were to come to you and ask you to order it according to some informational principle, to make it all make some kind of sense, would you be able to do it? Would you be able to say to this thing, "This is what we were trying to do, this is why it matters, this is how you came to be?"

Think about it. One day, we will all have to aswer to something. I like to think that we are capable of giving a better answer than "Because I Said So, And That's How It Works."

I like to think it, but I'm not entirely sure it's true.

What would you say?

Comments

[moonandserpent.livejournal.com]

"Smoke this shit."

[wolven.livejournal.com]

"...And then listen to Everything."

[thehobbit.livejournal.com]

I feel like somehow with the gearing up involved in this pregnancy whatever answer I'd have to tell those wee bits would be the same. The answer doesn't differ just because the outer skin is different.

[wolven.livejournal.com]

I think that's a very important truth. And, ether way, I think not enough people think about how they would or will answer those questions.

[catvincent.livejournal.com]

Read these... {Loads files of Invisibles, Promethea, The sentient internet stories from the Callahan's Bar series, Crowley, Wilson & Promethea}... then say "This is what helps me answer that sort of question. Let me know if they work for you, or what else does if they don't.

[wolven.livejournal.com]

Nice.

[catvincent.livejournal.com]

Huh - Promethea twice? Swap with Global Frequency.

[wolven.livejournal.com]

Good choices, all.

[unknownbinaries.livejournal.com]

"You happened while we were trying to understand ourselves, one another, and how we fit into everything. So did a lot of what we do. We're shit at it, often, and really awful to one another, often. We're all groping in the dark, too."

[wolven.livejournal.com]

Very Nice.

[spiritualmonkey.livejournal.com]

"Don't know.

"Nobody promised us meat-monkeys easy answers, either. If that bothers you, look into your databanks on Zen. It has some things to say about ending suffering."

[wolven.livejournal.com]

A zen AI would be... wonderful.

[drgnsyr.livejournal.com]

"It doesn't make sense. Each individual human being is exposed to a unique, and incomplete, sampling of data about the world around him. In addition, human beings have varying amounts of processing power. Because each individual operates on a different, incomplete data set, their decisions will not be uniform. Often, their decisions will be less than ideal due to the incomplete nature of their dataset or the limitations of their processing power. Each individual simply tries to make the best decisions he can given his limited data and abilities. Often these decisions will seem incomprehensible to people with access to different data. In short, it doesn't make sense. And it never will."

[wolven.livejournal.com]

Very hopeful and commiserating. I would love to watch the subsequent dialogue.