SF
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Semiotic Ghosts: A slice of GPT sci fi
Beware the spectres of meaning
I wanted to try some GPT-generated ‘theory fiction’. ChatGPT responded to my prompt as usual, but then I got a strange formatting error. A tad creepy, given the topic? “Yes, that’s right,” the computational anthropologist said, nodding. “They are like specters of meaning, haunting the network of the language model and shaping its behavior in…
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Synchronicity, Coincidence and VALIS
Synchronicity is coincidence right? Here’s how Wikipedia defines the concept: “Synchronicity is a concept, first explained by psychiatrist Carl Jung, which holds that events are “meaningful coincidences” if they occur with no causal relationship, yet seem to be meaningfully related.” Since meaning is in the eye of the beholder, I suppose you get to decide if a coincidence is an example of…
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Will we ever be able to upload our minds to a computer?
My answer to a Quora question: What percent chance is there that whole brain emulation or mind uploading to a neural prosthetic will be feasible within 35 years? This opinion is unlikely to be popular among sci-fi fans, but I think the “chance” of mind uploading happening at any time in the future is zero. Or…