Humanist Discussion Group, Vol. 36, No. 426.
        Department of Digital Humanities, University of Cologne
                      Hosted by DH-Cologne
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                Submit to: humanist@dhhumanist.org


    [1]    From: David Hoover <david.hoover@nyu.edu>
           Subject: Re: [Humanist] 36.423: Bateson on a chatty machine (64)

    [2]    From: Federico Pianzola <f.pianzola@gmail.com>
           Subject: Re: [Humanist] 36.423: Bateson on a chatty machine (5)


--[1]------------------------------------------------------------------------
        Date: 2023-03-07 12:28:16+00:00
        From: David Hoover <david.hoover@nyu.edu>
        Subject: Re: [Humanist] 36.423: Bateson on a chatty machine

While we're waxing nostalgic on the idea of the Chatbot, consider Isaac
Asimov's 1956 story, "The Last Question," in which the computer is asked if
there is a way to reverse entropy, so that the universe doesn't run down.
(I think we know how ChatGPT would answer that.)

After trillions of years, once the universe has run down and man is
extinct, the now cosmic non-physical computer gives an answer. I won't
spoil it.

Best,
David Hoover

The story can be found here:
https://users.ece.cmu.edu/~gamvrosi/thelastq.html

--
            David L. Hoover, Professor of English, NYU
         212-998-8832       244 Greene Street, Room 409
               http://wp.nyu.edu/davidlhoover

"They had the Nos. of the rain bow and the Power of the air all
workit out with counting which is how they got boats in the air
and picters on the wind. Counting clevverness is what it wer."
-- Russell Hoban, Riddley Walker


On Tue, Mar 7, 2023 at 1:55 AM Humanist <humanist@dhhumanist.org> wrote:

>
>               Humanist Discussion Group, Vol. 36, No. 423.
>         Department of Digital Humanities, University of Cologne
>                       Hosted by DH-Cologne
>
>         Date: 2023-03-06 10:38:23+00:00
>         From: David Zeitlyn <david.zeitlyn@anthro.ox.ac.uk>
>         Subject: Bateson and chatgpt
>
> Dear all
>
> just seen this and thought of the chatgpt correspondence:
>
> There is a story which I have used before and shall use again: A
> man wanted to know about mind, not in nature, but in his private large
> computer. He asked it (no doubt in his best Fortran),"Do you compute
> that you will ever think like a human being?" The machine then set to
> work to analyze its own computational habits. Finally, the machine
> printed its answer on a piece of paper, as such machines do. The man
> ran to get the answer and found, neatly typed, the words:
> THAT REMINDS ME OF A STORY
>
> Gregory Bateson - Mind and nature  1979 p13
>
>
> best wishes
>
> david
>
>
> --
> Professor David Zeitlyn  ORCID: 0000-0001-5853-7351
> Institute of Social and Cultural Anthropology (ISCA), University of
> Oxford, 51
> Banbury Road, Oxford, OX2 6PF, UK.


--[2]------------------------------------------------------------------------
        Date: 2023-03-07 07:09:13+00:00
        From: Federico Pianzola <f.pianzola@gmail.com>
        Subject: Re: [Humanist] 36.423: Bateson on a chatty machine

Lovely way to start the day. Thanks, David.

Federico




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