When people speculate about what alien life forms might look like, most experts think it is extremely unlikely that they will be anything like humans. Neil deGrasse Tyson has critiqued Star Trek for its “lack of imagination” by making all their alien species somewhat humanoid in form with only slight cosmetic differences (although that was probably more due to lack of finances rather than lack of imagination). Regardless, I think experts like NDT are wrong. Intelligent aliens, if they exist, will probably look somewhat similar to humans, as Star Trek portrayed.
One of the potential applications of AI text generators such as ChatGPT is creating a chatbot based on people who have died so that users can speak to those “people” after they are gone. This could be done with famous figures from history or personal loved ones. Such “grief tech,” as it is called, is already being created: HereAfter, You Only Virtual, Character.ai, and MindBank are just a few examples. There are currently apps where living users answer questions now to help create an AI chatbot clone of themselves that others can speak to after they die.
Theoretically, if a person has enough textual data to input into the model (from books, journals, social media posts, emails, and text messages), then the AI trained on that data can anticipate what that person is likely to say given any prompt (which is essentially how all LLMs work). The chatbot will learn to write in the style of the deceased person based on their personal data. Using continually updated data from the internet, the “deadbot” can comment on current events, making it seem as though the person is still alive. Users can learn what the deceased person would think about things that have happened in the world since they passed away. Or they can ask the chatbot all the questions they wish they had asked while the person was still alive. At least that is what the chatbot’s creators will claim their AI can do. But this is a false hope, a facade. AI cannot predict what a deceased human being would think or say years or decades later. You cannot create an accurate chatbot based on the data of the dead.
Every society is built on myths. Myths are stories and legends about the history of that society. Those myths shape the culture in the present. Societal elites and nobles with money and power propagate myths that they want the culture to adopt. The elites create (or fund the creation of) stories to mythologize themselves to maintain and increase their wealth and power in the future.
People often say that if you want to include a didactic message in your fiction story, then you should just write an essay. Which is true—but not because essays are better, or because art can’t have a message. But messages should be put in essays rather than art, more due to the audience of the medium than the medium itself.
I have been wanting to read Jung for a while after hearing so much about his work second-hand through podcasts, blogs, and books. Jung has been highly influential on so many writers, thinkers, and artists I admire—and I can see why. His symbolic and mythological approach to psychology is sorely needed in our overly reductionist materialistic world. This book serves as a great introduction to Jung’s work. It features one chapter by Jung himself while the rest are written by his associates. The book also features lots of images to help illustrate the points about symbols because visual symbols are so powerful. Jung writes about the unconscious and the role of the artist:
For me, writing is easy. It’s selling my writing that is hard. I hate sending query letters and submissions to agents and publishers. As opposed to writing, querying is tedious and uncreative. Plus, there’s the whole rejection part.
Generation-Z is the first generation to grow up entirely online. For as long as Zoomers can remember, the internet has been ubiquitous and pervasive to daily life through smartphones. As a result, Gen-Z has no consensus culture—no TV shows, movies, or music they all consumed growing up. Everything had fractured into thousands of subcultures on the internet. Each Zoomer is an island. There may be another person who shares all your same niche cultural interests, but you are unlikely to ever randomly meet that person in person. You will only ever “meet” that person online. This fragmentation of culture is not necessarily good or bad. It just is. And it is different from every other generation that came before.
As artificial intelligence advances, many people are worrying about where it will lead. What happens if and when AI becomes more intelligent than humans? Will it grow beyond our control and have a will of its own? Will artificial general intelligence (AGI) result in the end of human civilization? To prevent such doom, AI must be aligned with humanity.
Planning your life can be difficult because there are so many possibilities. It may be best to take a lesson from nature and choose your career path like evolution. DNA evolves by reproduction with random mutations. Many variations are created, not knowing which will succeed. When one trait does succeed, it replicates and builds upon that mutation. This system of evolution clearly works—it produced us, humans, from a single cell of bacteria.
On April 8, 2024 in Burlington, Vermont I witnessed my first total solar eclipse. The moment of totality in which the moon covered the sun was the most awe-inspiring act of nature I have ever seen. No photograph or video can do it justice. Words fail to convey the experience. There is no comparison to seeing a total eclipse in person with your own eyes. It is an unforgettable sight every human being should see at least once in their lives.
The last total solar eclipse visible in the United States was in 2017. I was not in the path of totality, and I couldn’t get a pair of glasses, so I only saw the second-hand effects of the partial eclipse. I watched videos of totality, which looked impressive, and I heard accounts of people saying how transcendent it was, but there was a disconnect. It was like hearing somebody else talk about their dreams. The events in a dream may be astounding, but it doesn’t matter to anyone but the dreamer. Likewise, you can see videos of a total eclipse and hear people describe what they saw, but it will never matter as much to those who witnessed it firsthand. Regardless, I will attempt to describe my experience that day.
T.Z. Barry 