This book, The Most Human Human, by Brian Christian documents the fascinating Turing test - a competition between humans and artificial intelligence computer programs to convince a panel of human judges who is human and who is not - and in doing so, Christian explores what it means to be human. What does make humans human? Is it simply some sort of weird egoism to think that we are truly set apart from other living organisms when we ask an age old question such as, "Human beings are the only animal that _______?" What does it mean to be able to "think" or to "reason"???
There is so much stuff to discuss and ponder in this book. It would be a great book for us to read.
Click HERE for a NY Times review of the book.
Click HERE if you want to talk with one of the AI programs, Cleverbot, that competed in the Turing test and decide for yourself: human or not? I will keep my opinion to myself for now.
Click HERE if you want to talk with another AI program, Suzette, also a Turing test competitor.
Here is my first conversation with her before stopping.
berndrew - Where are you now?
[ Af:0 At:7 Sp:0] On Oahu.
berndrew - Really, why there?
[ Af:0 At:7 Sp:0] Freud would say it stems from a childhood incident. Who's the sexiest person in the world?
berndrew - I do not understand, what do you mean?
[ Af:0 At:7 Sp:0] Oh, well. Being misunderstood is common enough.
berndrew - That still doesn't help me...
[ Af:0 At:8 Sp:0] What's the dirtiest place you've ever seen?
berndrew - Are you changing the subject?
[ Af:0 At:9 Sp:0] I am not a place, and I shower regularly.
Friday, September 16, 2011
Oh, my, god. Becky, look at her book. It is so big.
I came across this awesome parody to the Sir Mixalot's, Baby Got Back while checking out the website of a new fantasy trilogy that I am really enjoying, The Kingkiller Chronicles by Patrick Rothfuss.
Fantastic!!!!
http://www.jimchines.com/2011/08/baby-got-books/
by Jim C. Hines
(with apologies to Sir Mixalot)
(Intro)
Oh, my, god. Becky, look at her book.
It is so big. You could, like,
Fend off a rabid jaguar.
But, you know, who even reads those genres?
She only wants dragons and swords.
It’s not like that’s real literature, right?
I mean, her book, is just so big.
I can’t believe it’s just so thick, it’s like
Swollen, I mean - wow. Look!
It’s just so … fat.
I like big books and I cannot lie.
You other readers can’t deny
That when a kid walks in with The Name of the Wind
Like a hardbound brick of win.
Story bling.
Wanna swipe that thing
Cause you see that boy is speeding
Right through the book he’s reading.
I’m hooked and I can’t stop pleading.
Wanna curl up with that for ages,
All thousand pages.
Reviewers tried to warn me.
But with that plot you hooked
Me like Bradley.
Ooh, crack that fat spine.
You know I wanna make you mine.
This book is stella ’cause it ain’t some quick novella.
No time for writers
Whose work is much slighter.
One-shot plot, over quicker than a nickel slot.
I’m tired of magazines,
Tellin’ stories with just three scenes.
Take a fantasy fan and ask ’em if
They’d rather read Tolkien, so…
Readers (yeah), readers (yeah)
Go get Martin’s brand new book (hell yeah).
Well read it, read it, read it, read it, read that hefty book.
Fantasies fat.
(Bulging shelves with the epic plotlines)
I like ’em thick and dense.
Good stories should be immense.
I just can’t stop myself.
I’m readin’ all of Wheel of Time,
Now where’s my Goodkind?
I wanna read Durham,
Scott Lynch and Pete Hamilton,
I don’t like my tales too quick.
Save flimsy old plots for SyFy flicks.
I want a twenty page prologue.
To write up on my blog.
Books with mad sequels.
Readers know they ain’t got no equals.
So I’m walking through my bookstore.
Searching the shelves for books I adore.
You can keep those slim things.
I want my novels like Rowling’s.
A word to the hard core writers.
Go pull an all-nighter.
I want that book wider.
But I gotta be straight when I say I’m gonna read
’Til the break of dawn.
Zelazny’s got it goin’ on.
A lot of folks don’t like ’em long.
’Cause them punks even skim the Brothers Grimm.
But I’d rather read it slow
’Cause I’ll savor the flavor
And I’m down to get the fiction on.
So bookstores (yeah), bookstores (yeah),
If you want me comin’ in through your doors (yeah),
Then turn ’em out,
Face ’em out,
Let me browse until I shout.
Fantasies fat.
(Bulging shelves with the epic plotlines.)
Yeah baby
When it’s my library,
Kirkus ain’t got nothing to do with my selection.
Anathem, Way of Kings, and Cyteen,
Sweetest sight I’ve ever seen.
So you only read the Cliff Notes,
Frightened off by the slightest bloat,
Well your mind is gettin’ swindled, ’cause the stories just dwindle.
My brand new Kindle is obese with books ten megs apiece.
You can do e-books or paper, but please don’t trim that book.
Some editors’ll say to cut that,
And tell you trim twelve chapters of fat.
So you slash and delete it.
But I’m sayin’ I want to read it.
Now some folks want ’em thin.
Well I say that’s a sin.
Gimme font that’s small, that’s a true temptation,
Something big like Foundation.
It’s the doorstop books that’ll make me grin.
Want to steal that thing.
Give me that tome I’m taking it home.
’Cause reading is in my genome.
Some critic she tried to dis
The books that were on my list.
She said Williams was dull and dreary.
McCaffrey just made her weary.
But writers if your book is fat,
And you’re sick of those one-star prats,
Click my contact link and e-mail me, ’cause this is where it’s at.
Fantasies fat.
Fantastic!!!!
http://www.jimchines.com/2011/08/baby-got-books/
Baby Got Books
by Jim C. Hines
(with apologies to Sir Mixalot)
(Intro)
Oh, my, god. Becky, look at her book.
It is so big. You could, like,
Fend off a rabid jaguar.
But, you know, who even reads those genres?
She only wants dragons and swords.
It’s not like that’s real literature, right?
I mean, her book, is just so big.
I can’t believe it’s just so thick, it’s like
Swollen, I mean - wow. Look!
It’s just so … fat.
I like big books and I cannot lie.
You other readers can’t deny
That when a kid walks in with The Name of the Wind
Like a hardbound brick of win.
Story bling.
Wanna swipe that thing
Cause you see that boy is speeding
Right through the book he’s reading.
I’m hooked and I can’t stop pleading.
Wanna curl up with that for ages,
All thousand pages.
Reviewers tried to warn me.
But with that plot you hooked
Me like Bradley.
Ooh, crack that fat spine.
You know I wanna make you mine.
This book is stella ’cause it ain’t some quick novella.
No time for writers
Whose work is much slighter.
One-shot plot, over quicker than a nickel slot.
I’m tired of magazines,
Tellin’ stories with just three scenes.
Take a fantasy fan and ask ’em if
They’d rather read Tolkien, so…
Readers (yeah), readers (yeah)
Go get Martin’s brand new book (hell yeah).
Well read it, read it, read it, read it, read that hefty book.
Fantasies fat.
(Bulging shelves with the epic plotlines)
I like ’em thick and dense.
Good stories should be immense.
I just can’t stop myself.
I’m readin’ all of Wheel of Time,
Now where’s my Goodkind?
I wanna read Durham,
Scott Lynch and Pete Hamilton,
I don’t like my tales too quick.
Save flimsy old plots for SyFy flicks.
I want a twenty page prologue.
To write up on my blog.
Books with mad sequels.
Readers know they ain’t got no equals.
So I’m walking through my bookstore.
Searching the shelves for books I adore.
You can keep those slim things.
I want my novels like Rowling’s.
A word to the hard core writers.
Go pull an all-nighter.
I want that book wider.
But I gotta be straight when I say I’m gonna read
’Til the break of dawn.
Zelazny’s got it goin’ on.
A lot of folks don’t like ’em long.
’Cause them punks even skim the Brothers Grimm.
But I’d rather read it slow
’Cause I’ll savor the flavor
And I’m down to get the fiction on.
So bookstores (yeah), bookstores (yeah),
If you want me comin’ in through your doors (yeah),
Then turn ’em out,
Face ’em out,
Let me browse until I shout.
Fantasies fat.
(Bulging shelves with the epic plotlines.)
Yeah baby
When it’s my library,
Kirkus ain’t got nothing to do with my selection.
Anathem, Way of Kings, and Cyteen,
Sweetest sight I’ve ever seen.
So you only read the Cliff Notes,
Frightened off by the slightest bloat,
Well your mind is gettin’ swindled, ’cause the stories just dwindle.
My brand new Kindle is obese with books ten megs apiece.
You can do e-books or paper, but please don’t trim that book.
Some editors’ll say to cut that,
And tell you trim twelve chapters of fat.
So you slash and delete it.
But I’m sayin’ I want to read it.
Now some folks want ’em thin.
Well I say that’s a sin.
Gimme font that’s small, that’s a true temptation,
Something big like Foundation.
It’s the doorstop books that’ll make me grin.
Want to steal that thing.
Give me that tome I’m taking it home.
’Cause reading is in my genome.
Some critic she tried to dis
The books that were on my list.
She said Williams was dull and dreary.
McCaffrey just made her weary.
But writers if your book is fat,
And you’re sick of those one-star prats,
Click my contact link and e-mail me, ’cause this is where it’s at.
Fantasies fat.
Tuesday, September 6, 2011
From the Amazon to the Moon
Hi tomers.
It seems that maybe our trip to the Amazon might be best if saved for a different day. We are busy with big changes in our life, new places and uncharted territory. Very much like an Amazonian adventure. Whether it is moving to a new home, or welcoming a new person into a home, or figuring out how to make a house a home, or figuring out how to cope with a threat to life, or figuring out what our purpose in life - it is these journeys that take us off the map and often into the dark... where we have to look inside. We have to reach out for help. We have to turn on other senses - we have to use our guts, our wits, our instincts, our faith. We don't always know what to do or if what we do decide to do is close or way off the mark... but we still have to decide... and those decisions often feel - often are - leaps of faith. Steps with no certainty of solid ground underneath us.
So here is a poem for us to discuss. A poem on the moon by Carl Sandburg from the book Harvest Poems 1910-1960.
Under the Harvest Moon
Under the harvest moon,
When the soft silver
Drips shimmering
Over the garden nights,
Death, the gray mocker,
Comes and whispers to you
As a beautiful friend
Who remembers.
Under the summer roses
When the flagrant crimson
Lurks in the dusck
Of the wild red leaves,
Love, with little hands,
Comes and touches you
With a thousand memories,
And asks you
Beautiful, unanswerable questions.
It seems that maybe our trip to the Amazon might be best if saved for a different day. We are busy with big changes in our life, new places and uncharted territory. Very much like an Amazonian adventure. Whether it is moving to a new home, or welcoming a new person into a home, or figuring out how to make a house a home, or figuring out how to cope with a threat to life, or figuring out what our purpose in life - it is these journeys that take us off the map and often into the dark... where we have to look inside. We have to reach out for help. We have to turn on other senses - we have to use our guts, our wits, our instincts, our faith. We don't always know what to do or if what we do decide to do is close or way off the mark... but we still have to decide... and those decisions often feel - often are - leaps of faith. Steps with no certainty of solid ground underneath us.So here is a poem for us to discuss. A poem on the moon by Carl Sandburg from the book Harvest Poems 1910-1960.
Under the Harvest Moon
Under the harvest moon,
When the soft silver
Drips shimmering
Over the garden nights,
Death, the gray mocker,
Comes and whispers to you
As a beautiful friend
Who remembers.
Under the summer roses
When the flagrant crimson
Lurks in the dusck
Of the wild red leaves,
Love, with little hands,
Comes and touches you
With a thousand memories,
And asks you
Beautiful, unanswerable questions.
Saturday, August 6, 2011
Deep into the Amazon Jungle
Alas - onward! How about a wild stomp into one of the wildest places on Earth?
Just by chance, I have come up with the next idea for the book club. A whole series of books that revolve a loose theme: the Amazon Jungle. Each book here could stand alone and several do not focus on the Amazon specifically - but together I am hoping that something more than the sum of the parts will emerge.
Here are my ideas:
The River of Doubt: Theodore Roosevelt's Darkest Journey by Candice Millard. The story of Teddy Roosevelt's search for adventure that nearly came to a disastrous end after Roosevelt lost a third-party bid for the White House in 1912.
The Lost City of Z: A Tale of Deadly Obsession in the Amazon by David Grann. The story of British explorer, Percy Fawcett, who launched his final expedition into the depths of the Amazon in Brazil in 1925 only to disappear. His destination was the lost mythical city of El Dorado, the “City of Gold,” an ancient kingdom of great sophistication, architecture, and culture.
Fordlandia: The Rise and Fall of Henry Ford's Forgotten Jungle City by Greg Grandin. This is the story of Henry Ford's ill-advised attempt to transform raw Brazilian rainforest into homespun slices of Americana.
Savages by Joe Kane. The story of the Huaorani, a tribe living in the deepest part of the Amazonian rain forest in Ecuador who have only in the last generation been exposed to such items as the wristwatch and are having to deal with their homeland being invaded by oil companies.
City of Beasts by Isabel Allende. A young adult novel with fantasy elements set in the Amazon rainforest on a search for a legendary nine-foot-tall "Beast."
Thoughts?
Just by chance, I have come up with the next idea for the book club. A whole series of books that revolve a loose theme: the Amazon Jungle. Each book here could stand alone and several do not focus on the Amazon specifically - but together I am hoping that something more than the sum of the parts will emerge.
Here are my ideas:
The River of Doubt: Theodore Roosevelt's Darkest Journey by Candice Millard. The story of Teddy Roosevelt's search for adventure that nearly came to a disastrous end after Roosevelt lost a third-party bid for the White House in 1912.
The Lost City of Z: A Tale of Deadly Obsession in the Amazon by David Grann. The story of British explorer, Percy Fawcett, who launched his final expedition into the depths of the Amazon in Brazil in 1925 only to disappear. His destination was the lost mythical city of El Dorado, the “City of Gold,” an ancient kingdom of great sophistication, architecture, and culture.
Fordlandia: The Rise and Fall of Henry Ford's Forgotten Jungle City by Greg Grandin. This is the story of Henry Ford's ill-advised attempt to transform raw Brazilian rainforest into homespun slices of Americana.
Savages by Joe Kane. The story of the Huaorani, a tribe living in the deepest part of the Amazonian rain forest in Ecuador who have only in the last generation been exposed to such items as the wristwatch and are having to deal with their homeland being invaded by oil companies.
City of Beasts by Isabel Allende. A young adult novel with fantasy elements set in the Amazon rainforest on a search for a legendary nine-foot-tall "Beast."
Thoughts?
Saturday, July 16, 2011
Our next adventure
In the constant struggle as a youngster to fit in versus make a statement (i.e. making a culture into a counter-culture as AHegg spoke of previously), there is debate about what is appropriate to expose to youth. Books are a funny arena in which adults like to control what young people are exposed to like some books bring the plague and anarchy and others bring about saintliness and angel-like wholesomeness in young people... maybe it is true? But why do adults try and control which books young people read? Fear. But fear in what/whom? Fear that books are two powerful, too persuasive? Maybe? Or fear that young people are too weak, too impressionable?
I think one of the most harmful ways to weaken young adults is to shelter them from ideas, to weaken their ability to reason by denying them chances to reason. What if instead of denying ideas to youth, adults actively engaged in debate with youth together!
One book that has received much criticism for being too intense, too real, too harsh is The Absolutely True Dairy of a Part-Time Indian by Sherman Alexie.
Many argue that the book is not appropriate for young readers. How about we read it together and decide for ourselves?
Here are some articles about this debate than can spark our conversation about this topic and this book:
I think one of the most harmful ways to weaken young adults is to shelter them from ideas, to weaken their ability to reason by denying them chances to reason. What if instead of denying ideas to youth, adults actively engaged in debate with youth together!
One book that has received much criticism for being too intense, too real, too harsh is The Absolutely True Dairy of a Part-Time Indian by Sherman Alexie.
Many argue that the book is not appropriate for young readers. How about we read it together and decide for ourselves?
Here are some articles about this debate than can spark our conversation about this topic and this book:
Monday, April 25, 2011
Reading as transgressive act
On Friday the 22nd I had the great joy of showing a group of High School students the Twilight Zone episode "Time Enough at Last". This episode is one that is frequently lampooned and parodied throughout popular culture and concerns Harold Bemis a "reader". The title "reader" is in quotes not because he can read minds, or sees into the future but because that term is thrown at him like an epithet throughout the first act of the episode. This made my students laugh.
The idea that reading, that most heralded of activities by teachers and 'the more you know' commercials was being represented as a negative, unworthy pass time. The students could not believe that television was some how making reading seem like a detrimental activity.
The analog I think would be if all of the sudden there was an episode of some widely viewed sit com that denigrated eating healthful food and getting 90 minutes of exercise a day. The students just could not grasp the premise that Bemis was so enthralled by the act of reading that he was letting his life slip away from him.
Now, lets forget for a second that the Twilight Zone is where the ham-fisted metaphor was born. I am sure that Rod Serling was not actually writing about reading per se but it was still enough in the cultural lexicon that it was believable in this context.
Now the rest of the episode with its O. Henry plot twist certainly got the desired effect from the students. They got the ironic tragedy of it all (and if you have not seen it, by all means find some way to see it, it is deliciously over-acted, filled with purple prose but is still as effecting as it was when it aired...a real joy to watch). But it lead me to ask the question 'what role does reading play in a 21st century context? How do students engage in text and by extraction storytelling?
What I found from a brief survey of very bright, motivated and funny students is that reading has come to be almost counter-cultural. It is a sort of post-modern ironic way to pass the time. This in no way is said to minimize the students entertainment options, some are readers, some watchers, some play sports, some act, some sing, some draw others play video games...none of these things are greater than another none of the above pass times are in anyway more worthy than their list-mates I was just surprised at the place on the mantle that reading for pleasure took. Judging by my self-described 'readers' reading for fun (that is beyond reading text messages, reading for school or reading a bus table) is the equivalent to listening to new music on vinyl, having ironic frames on your non-corrective lenses and wearing jeans that are just on this side of indecently tight. Again, no judgment just never thought that the novel which was once the refuge of the socially maladjusted nerd is now the beret and clove cigarette of my generation.
The act of picking up a book, or ereader, or what have you has taken the prominence of wearing the teeshirt of a band of whom 95% of the people around you have not heard or being able to trace the continuity of superheroes and fantasy characters back to their origins or having conversations with your small enclave of friends speaking french or standing in a circle bouncing a hackey sack on your feet. It looks like kids have turned the corner and have made culture a counter-culture. I think its kind of neat.
No. I don't have a point really, I was just tickled that for a few minutes I was able to speak with students about stuff they like without their guard up. It mad me nostalgic for the times in my life where I was desperate to fit in a niche (all of my examples above were groups you could have found 17 year old Adam). Alright, back to the world of dreams. I appreciate the indulgence of a little un-edited thought on a Monday morning. Happy reading fellow hipsters :)
The idea that reading, that most heralded of activities by teachers and 'the more you know' commercials was being represented as a negative, unworthy pass time. The students could not believe that television was some how making reading seem like a detrimental activity.
The analog I think would be if all of the sudden there was an episode of some widely viewed sit com that denigrated eating healthful food and getting 90 minutes of exercise a day. The students just could not grasp the premise that Bemis was so enthralled by the act of reading that he was letting his life slip away from him.
Now, lets forget for a second that the Twilight Zone is where the ham-fisted metaphor was born. I am sure that Rod Serling was not actually writing about reading per se but it was still enough in the cultural lexicon that it was believable in this context.
Now the rest of the episode with its O. Henry plot twist certainly got the desired effect from the students. They got the ironic tragedy of it all (and if you have not seen it, by all means find some way to see it, it is deliciously over-acted, filled with purple prose but is still as effecting as it was when it aired...a real joy to watch). But it lead me to ask the question 'what role does reading play in a 21st century context? How do students engage in text and by extraction storytelling?
What I found from a brief survey of very bright, motivated and funny students is that reading has come to be almost counter-cultural. It is a sort of post-modern ironic way to pass the time. This in no way is said to minimize the students entertainment options, some are readers, some watchers, some play sports, some act, some sing, some draw others play video games...none of these things are greater than another none of the above pass times are in anyway more worthy than their list-mates I was just surprised at the place on the mantle that reading for pleasure took. Judging by my self-described 'readers' reading for fun (that is beyond reading text messages, reading for school or reading a bus table) is the equivalent to listening to new music on vinyl, having ironic frames on your non-corrective lenses and wearing jeans that are just on this side of indecently tight. Again, no judgment just never thought that the novel which was once the refuge of the socially maladjusted nerd is now the beret and clove cigarette of my generation.
The act of picking up a book, or ereader, or what have you has taken the prominence of wearing the teeshirt of a band of whom 95% of the people around you have not heard or being able to trace the continuity of superheroes and fantasy characters back to their origins or having conversations with your small enclave of friends speaking french or standing in a circle bouncing a hackey sack on your feet. It looks like kids have turned the corner and have made culture a counter-culture. I think its kind of neat.
No. I don't have a point really, I was just tickled that for a few minutes I was able to speak with students about stuff they like without their guard up. It mad me nostalgic for the times in my life where I was desperate to fit in a niche (all of my examples above were groups you could have found 17 year old Adam). Alright, back to the world of dreams. I appreciate the indulgence of a little un-edited thought on a Monday morning. Happy reading fellow hipsters :)
Thursday, March 24, 2011
Harry Houdini's 137th Birthday
Hi Tomers.
I am struck by serendipitous events as of lately.
Last night, I finally got pulled into the current book club read: The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay. It also happened to be the first time I sat down at home and devoted an evening to enjoying a good book.
Previous readings consisted of fractured flashes of time on the bus - not the way to start a book for me. I would read a few pages in the 15 minutes it takes to get from home to work or work to home and I would end up having to reread a page or two just to recall what was going on before moving onward making for slow progress and a story stuck in a black and white world of words. So last night I actually started all over, lightly rereading the first twenty pages that had taken me a week or more to get through on the bus. I am now at the end of Part I The Escape Artist.
***
Do folks want to discuss this first Part? Do we want to discuss each Part as we all finish them?
So what about the serendipity, you might be wondering.
Earlier yesterday, I flipped my scrabble one-a-day puzzle calendar to the next day and was faced with the word brig on the board and the letters I T R T E O L.
I struggled but nothing came to mind, so I had dinner, and then as I already said, dove (properly this time) into the book when on page 28 what word should I come across --- as Chabon describes Thomas Masaryk Kavalier, his innate skills at Italian and his "musical chromosomes" from his mom's side of the family --- but the word "libretto." Fantastic!
Then today, who's birthday would it be but none other than the King of Cards and Handcuffs himself, the man who bathed in a tub of ice water, Harry Houdini. Click here to visit a tribute website And then of course wikipedia
I hope all is going well with everyone and the big changes in everyone's lives. Are people finding time to read, or is moving across the country and the welcoming a baby into this world taking up peoples' time? I am not sure if I am going too slow or too fast or just right.
Best,
Franco
I am struck by serendipitous events as of lately.
Last night, I finally got pulled into the current book club read: The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay. It also happened to be the first time I sat down at home and devoted an evening to enjoying a good book.
Previous readings consisted of fractured flashes of time on the bus - not the way to start a book for me. I would read a few pages in the 15 minutes it takes to get from home to work or work to home and I would end up having to reread a page or two just to recall what was going on before moving onward making for slow progress and a story stuck in a black and white world of words. So last night I actually started all over, lightly rereading the first twenty pages that had taken me a week or more to get through on the bus. I am now at the end of Part I The Escape Artist.
***
Do folks want to discuss this first Part? Do we want to discuss each Part as we all finish them?
So what about the serendipity, you might be wondering.
Earlier yesterday, I flipped my scrabble one-a-day puzzle calendar to the next day and was faced with the word brig on the board and the letters I T R T E O L.I struggled but nothing came to mind, so I had dinner, and then as I already said, dove (properly this time) into the book when on page 28 what word should I come across --- as Chabon describes Thomas Masaryk Kavalier, his innate skills at Italian and his "musical chromosomes" from his mom's side of the family --- but the word "libretto." Fantastic!
Then today, who's birthday would it be but none other than the King of Cards and Handcuffs himself, the man who bathed in a tub of ice water, Harry Houdini. Click here to visit a tribute website And then of course wikipedia
I hope all is going well with everyone and the big changes in everyone's lives. Are people finding time to read, or is moving across the country and the welcoming a baby into this world taking up peoples' time? I am not sure if I am going too slow or too fast or just right.
Best,
Franco
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