Author: Peter Biles | Page 14

Aerial view of Tokyo cityscape with Fuji mountain in Japan.

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Peter Biles
Date
May 4, 2023

Categorized
Arts & Culture

Tagged
AI, Artificial Intelligence, Arts & Culture, Communication, fiction, Human exceptionalism, Japan, Literature, Microsoft, Personality}

Novelist Haruki Murakami: Writing Involves Trust

_{Writing powerful literature is a human endeavor written for a human audience} _{Peter Biles
May 4, 2023

4

Arts & Culture}

I just finished a book by the renowned Japanese novelist Haruki Murakami called Novelist as a Vocation. Murakami is the author of 1Q84, Norwegian Wood, and Kafka on the Shore, among many others. As a young novelist myself, I wanted to learn a professional’s thoughts on the trade and also get a sense of his philosophy of writing, which in the age of AI, feels increasingly valuable. Most of the book was composed during or before 2015 but was just published last year, and is basically a compendium of essays on the novel-writing process, how Murakami got started, and the broader literary landscape. Connecting With Readers Murakami’s thoughts on his readership and audience particularly stood out to me. He confesses Read More ›

Virtual screen immersive interface background

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Peter Biles
Date
May 1, 2023

Categorized
Artificial Intelligence

Tagged
AI, Artificial Intelligence, ChatGPT, Deepfakes, Image, Language, social media, The Stream, tv}

It’s Not What It Looks Like

_{Our natural tendency to connect meaning with images is both a strength and a vulnerability} _{Peter Biles
May 1, 2023

3

Artificial Intelligence}

The human brain tends to think concretely. We barter thoughts, words, and ideas through images. It’s why metaphorical language can be so powerful in conveying otherwise abstract ideas. I immediately think of the verse in the Bible: “But let justice roll down like waters, and righteousness like an ever-flowing stream” (Amos 5:24). It’s hard for me to picture justice on its own, but a raging waterfall? That’s a powerful image. I can now imagine what justice, in some aspect, might look like. Our natural tendency to think this way is both a strength and a vulnerability. A recent article from The Stream relates the human imagination to the current conversation over AI. While the debates rage over AI’s most pertinent Read More ›

Man and flames, inspired by Fahrenheit 451. Gegenrative AI.

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Peter Biles
Date
April 21, 2023

Categorized
Arts & Culture, Science Fiction

Tagged
1984 (book), Aldous Huxley, Arts & Culture, brave new world, Dystopia, George Orwell, Literature, Ray Bradbury, Science fiction, Technology}

Revisiting Ray Bradbury’s Fahrenheit 451

_{How can we read and remember the past with the influx of digital noise and distraction?} _{Peter Biles
April 21, 2023

5

Arts & Culture, Science Fiction}

Which one was right, Brave New World or 1984? Are we living in a hedonistic mirage or a totalitarian face-stamping global regime? The conversation over prophetic twentieth-century texts often homes in on these two admirable books, but another classic dystopian novel pokes its head from behind the curtain, asking to be regarded: Ray Bradbury’s Fahrenheit 451. It’s the riotous, mega-talented sci-fi writer’s most famous work (though I’d argue not quite his best) and follows the life of a fireman, Guy Montag, whose main job is not to squelch housefires but to burn books, and the houses that hold them. This fireman is a member of a brigade tasked with the destruction of literature. With the destruction of meaning. In the Read More ›

Lonely man in red jacket standing by the lake in winter, with transparent woman figure standing next to him

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Peter Biles
Date
April 17, 2023

Categorized
Arts & Culture, Free will

Tagged
Aldous Huxley, Arts & Culture, Brave New World (book), drug addiction, Dystopian, fiction, free will, Futurism, Literature, Science fiction, social media, The New Yorker}

Escape from Spiderhead and the Question of Love

_{Is love more than a chemical reaction and are humans more than machines made of meat?} _{Peter Biles
April 17, 2023

4

Arts & Culture, Free will}

Brave New World, a speculative work by British writer Aldous Huxley, explores a society where people are conditioned via drugs and genetic engineering to live stable, highly pleasurable, but totally meaningless lives. One pop of a pill, and negative feelings like sadness, anger, or envy vanish. In the brave new world, “everyone belongs to everyone else,” and pleasure supplants purpose. A Story for Our Age That book was written in 1932. Fast forward to the twenty-first century and another fictional work, albeit shorter, goes arguably even deeper than Huxley’s magnum opus. The short story Escape from Spiderhead by George Saunders is about a group of inmates being tested by mood-altering drugs in a facility nicknamed “Spiderhead” for its nebulous layout. Read More ›

Social media icons fly over city downtown showing people reciprocity connection through social network application platform . Concept for online community and social media marketing strategy .

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Peter Biles
Date
April 11, 2023

Categorized
Social Media

Tagged
addiction, Brain-Computer Interface (BCI), Britain, Cell phones, dopamine, Gen-Z, Instagram, Mind Matters News podcast, Neuroscience, Robert J. Marks, social media, Technology}

Social Media’s Distortion of the Real World

_{Constant exposure to idealized online images impacts our expectations and worldview} _{Peter Biles
April 11, 2023

6

Social Media}

How does excessive social media use affect our perceptions of the real world? Writers Mark Miller and Ben White wrote a piece at Aeon on social media through the perspective of “predictive processing,” a term used in neuroscience and cognition. Predictive processing involves the brain’s capacity to predict error, danger, or some future event, and urge us to act accordingly. (That’s my basic, layman’s understanding of it, full disclosure!) White and Miller use temperature as an example, noting how the body may respond to a change of the environment by closing a window or grabbing a blanket to keep warm. Being able to respond appropriately to our surroundings depends on the accuracy of our mental model of the real world. Read More ›

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Peter Biles
Date
April 6, 2023

Categorized
Artificial Intelligence, Arts & Culture

Tagged
AI, Artificial Intelligence, ChatGPT, Movies, Science fiction, Spider-Man, TV shows}

Future Films: Written and Directed by…AI?

_{AI's abilities in visual creation are remarkably good and are getting better fast} _{Peter Biles
April 6, 2023

4

Artificial Intelligence, Arts & Culture}

Artificial intelligence is exploding right now. From ChatGPT to Google’s Bard to DALL-E, these new technologies are forcing the question about the place of human agency in a technological society. That includes the world of cinema. Here’s a Scenario Here’s a cheery scenario: you drop by the local Barnes & Noble before seeing the seventeenth iteration of Spider-Man in theaters. The year is 2040. You buy a hot new bestseller written by a chatbot and are impressed by the linguistic originality, even though the novel still follows a pretty crude narrative structure. Then, it’s off to see the show. You’re in the theater with your ticket and popcorn, both of which were given to you by a non-sentient robotic arm Read More ›

Businessman in creative blue maze background.

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Peter Biles
Date
April 5, 2023

Categorized
Artificial Intelligence

Tagged
AI, Andrew McDiarmid, Artificial Intelligence, ChatGPT, COSM, Discovery Institute (mission), Robert J. Marks, Science fiction, Slate, WALL-E}

AI is a Tool, Not a Solution for Everything

_{Life is complicated and our problems can't always be solved through an engineering approach} _{Peter Biles
April 5, 2023

4

Artificial Intelligence}

AI is a tool. In the words of Robert J. Marks from an interview at last year’s COSM conference, it can’t be a “friend or foe,” because it’s not a living entity. It’s something that can be used (or abused). Such a neutral, balanced attitude toward AI is alien to many Big Tech moguls who are pitching AI as the solution to many of the world’s complicated problems. For them, on the flipside of the doomsday alarmists, AI will usher in a new epoch of human progress. They may be partially right about that, but according to this writer at Slate, their hype reflects a commitment to technological “solutionism,” the idea that tech, once adequately suited for the task, can Read More ›

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Peter Biles
Date
April 4, 2023

Categorized
Artificial Intelligence, Arts & Culture

Tagged
Artificial Intelligence, Arts & Culture, ChatGPT, Creative Writing, Creativity, GPT-4, human exceptionalism (vs. computers)}

From One Author to an AI

_{What might John Steinbeck think of AI writing a novel?} _{Peter Biles
April 4, 2023

4

Artificial Intelligence, Arts & Culture}

John Steinbeck was among the most prominent literary figures of the twentieth century, responsible for works such as The Grapes of Wrath, East of Eden, and The Pearl. East of Eden, arguably his best work, is a sprawling novel about two families in the Salinas Valley in California and is often interpreted as a modern-day retelling of the book of Genesis, particularly the story of Cain and Abel. If we were to ask Steinbeck today about AI’s ability to write a good novel, what might the celebrated writer say? Well, an interview with Steinbeck from Paris Review, while it doesn’t have anything to do with computers or artificial intelligence, does reveal a significant aspect of Steinbeck’s own philosophy of writing Read More ›

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Peter Biles
Date
March 30, 2023

Categorized
Arts & Culture

Tagged
Applied Science, Arts & Culture, C.S. Lewis, Magic, Netflix, science, Scientism, Technocracy, Technology, The Abolition of Man, TV shows}

The Moral Genius of Arcane

_{The show reveals how pursuing knowledge for the sake of greater manipulation, power, and control can open the floodgates of chaos} _{Peter Biles
March 30, 2023

5

Arts & Culture}

The 2021 show Arcane, based on the video game League of Legends, is fantastic. The animation style, writing, and world-building all merit its 100 percent scored rating on Rotten Tomatoes. Apart from its entertainment value, which is formidable, Arcane explores the pertinent themes of power, progress, and the promises and pitfalls of technological advancement. It does this without heavy-handedness, “instructing by delighting,” in the words of C.S. Lewis. A Powerful Civilization and a Chaotic Underworld The story takes place in the utopian city of Piltover, which prides itself on its innovations in science, technology, and infrastructure. On the lower edges of the city lies the unruly Zaun, an oppressed underworld overrun with crime and an addictive drug called “Shimmer.” The Read More ›

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Peter Biles
Date
March 28, 2023

Categorized
Arts & Culture, Technocracy

Tagged
C.S. Lewis, Materialism, Scientism, virtue}

Michael Aeschliman on C.S. Lewis and Scientism

_{Aeschliman observes how technological progress and scientific mastery, when it isn't wedded with virtue and moral knowledge, wreaks havoc} _{Peter Biles
March 28, 2023

5

Arts & Culture, Technocracy}

Michael D. Aeschliman first wrote The Restoration of Man: C.S. Lewis and the Continuing Case Against Scientism in 1983. It was praised as a remarkable achievement upon its arrival by eminent writers and thinkers like Russell Kirk, Malcolm Muggeridge, and George Gilder. Discovery Institute Press published an expanded and updated edition of the book in 2019, and a recent podcast episode featuring Aeschliman piqued my own interest in the book. Aeschliman writes on the advent of “scientism,” the belief that science is the only viable path to knowledge and should therefore be esteemed above all other disciplines. Such a view leads to the reckless moral relativism and “will to power” that arguably brought about the bloodbaths of the twentieth century, Read More ›

Hiking team people helping each other friend giving a helping hand while climbing up on the mountain rock adventure travel concept of friendship support trust teamwork success.

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Peter Biles
Date
March 24, 2023

Categorized
Artificial Intelligence

Tagged
Artificial General Intelligence (AGI), Artificial Intelligence, ChatGPT, Consciousness, Futurism, GPT-4, Human exceptionalism, Maggie Harrison, OpenAI, Robert J. Marks}

GPT-4: Signs of Human-Level Intelligence?

_{Competence and understanding matter just as much if not more than mere "intelligence"} _{Peter Biles
March 24, 2023

3

Artificial Intelligence}

You’ve heard about GPT-3, but how about GPT-4? OpenAI has publicly released the new AI program, and researchers have already claimed that it shows “sparks” of human intelligence, or artificial general intelligence (AGI). Maggie Harrison writes at Futurism, Emphasis on the “sparks.” The researchers are careful in the paper to characterize GPT-4’s prowess as “only a first step towards a series of increasingly generally intelligent systems” rather than fully-hatched, human-level AI. They also repeatedly highlighted the fact that this paper is based on an “early version” of GPT-4, which they studied while it was “still in active development by OpenAI,” and not necessarily the version that’s been wrangled into product-applicable formation. -Maggie Harrison, Microsoft Researchers Claim GPT-4 Is Showing “Sparks” Read More ›

The surface of Venus, the irregularities of the planet. Elements of this image furnished by NASA

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Peter Biles
Date
March 23, 2023

Categorized
Arts & Culture

Tagged
C.S. Lewis, Enchantment, Fantasy, Mars, Materialism, Outer Space, Science fiction, Technology, That Hideous Strength (book)}

C.S. Lewis and Science Fiction

_{Sci-fi can reveal that you don't necessarily need to visit Mars to find the bizarre and beautiful} _{Peter Biles
March 23, 2023

5

Arts & Culture}

The 20th-century intellectual, novelist, poet, and popular theologian C.S. Lewis was a rare bird. He spent most of his life embedded in the academic world, to which he contributed greatly, but was also a lover of fairy tales and the dystopian. His long-held affection for fantasy and science fiction led him to write some of the most popular fictional works in recent memory, most notably The Chronicles of Narnia and what’s commonly known as the “space trilogy,” though Lewis himself objected to the term “space” as an adequate descriptor of what he viewed as a vibrant and meaningful cosmos. In a more obscure Lewis title, Of Other Worlds, Lewis writes of his appreciation for science fiction and what makes the Read More ›

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Peter Biles
Date
March 20, 2023

Categorized
Artificial Intelligence

Tagged
AI, Artificial Intelligence, ChatGPT, Donald Trump, Fox News, hype, Joe Biden, Laura Ingraham, Military, Robert J. Marks, Technology, Wokeness}

Robert J. Marks on Fox News

_{Dr. Marks talked about the hype over AI and where the danger really lies} _{Peter Biles
March 20, 2023

2

Artificial Intelligence}

Robert J. Marks, director of the Walter Bradley Center, was the subject of a new op-ed at Fox News, which featured his unique insights on artificial intelligence and how it can best be used by human beings. Contrary to much of the present alarmism over AI systems like ChatGPT, Marks remains level-headed about AI’s place in today’s world, pushing back against “sci-fi” apocalypticism while at the same time addressing real issues and concerns. Marks said, “No, AI is not going to take over. You’re not going to be its pet in the future. It’s going to be a tool which disrupts society, but we’re still going to be in charge. -Scott Whitlock, AI expert warns of too much ‘hype’: Humans Read More ›

Golden Ring and Mountains Digital Art 3D Render

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Peter Biles
Date
March 15, 2023

Categorized
Arts & Culture

Tagged
Arts & Culture, Cinema, J.R.R. Tolkien, Peter Jackson, Rings of Power (Amazon film series 2022-), The Lord of the Rings}

Don’t Turn The Lord of the Rings into Star Wars

_{When you have something as good as the world of Middle Earth, it becomes ever easier to injure the original vision and trade quality for commercial success} _{Peter Biles
March 15, 2023

5

Arts & Culture}

Amazon’s The Rings of Power, which is based on the appendices in J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings, was an ambitious and expensive project that arguably provided little more than a surface-level and underdeveloped interpretation of Middle Earth and its characters. The show, while entertaining and with its strengths, exemplified a flaw many fans feared: commercializing Tolkien inevitably leads to compromise. Even Peter Jackson’s highly praised rendition of the fantasy epic has its critics, including Tolkien’s son and heir of the family estate, Christopher. The show was visually stunning but had some storytelling issues. For one, we don’t ever get a sense of Middle Earth’s size. Characters pop in and out of different places as if it’s a five-minute Read More ›

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Peter Biles
Date
March 10, 2023

Categorized
Artificial Intelligence, Arts & Culture

Tagged
AI, art, Artificial Intelligence, Arts & Culture, ChatGPT, Consciousness, Culture, Dall-E, Gary Smith, Midjourney, mind, OpenAI}

Observing and Communing

_{What human art and literature do that AI can't} _{Peter Biles
March 10, 2023

5

Artificial Intelligence, Arts & Culture}

AI image generators like Midjourney or DALL-E are generally adept at capturing the accuracy of the human form. The concerns over copyright, job infringement, and general degradation of the visual arts via such AI are ongoing concerns for many artists and practitioners. However, a new New Yorker article by Kyle Chayka identifies a noticeable flaw in AI artwork: human hands. Missing the Big Picture Chayka begins by recalling an art class where he was asked to draw his own hand. It’s an assignment for beginners, and as behooves a novice, tempts the artist to focus more on the specific contours of the hand instead of the overall structure and form. The forest gets lost in the trees, so to speak. Read More ›

Mature woman having scones with orange jam

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Peter Biles
Date
March 7, 2023

Categorized
Artificial Intelligence

Tagged
AI, Artificial Intelligence, Consciousness, Experience, non-algorithmic, Non-Computable You (book), qualia, Robert J. Marks, Salvo}

AI and “Qualia,” the Ability to Experience

_{Robert J. Marks writes on AI's limits in new article at Salvo} _{Peter Biles
March 7, 2023

3

Artificial Intelligence}

Robert J. Marks wrote an article for the Spring Issue of Salvo Magazine on AI, covering his ideas on its “non-computability” in the areas of love, empathy, and creativity. The Quality of Qualia I was particularly intrigued by Marks’s thoughts on qualia, a term used to describe the multifaceted realm of sensory experience. We often report on AI’s inability to be creative here at Mind Matters, but what about experiencing the world through touch, smell, and sight? Qualia is related to the mystery of consciousness, another non-computable feature of human life, and according to Marks, is far out of the purview of AI capabilities. Marks writes about the experience of biting into an orange as an example: If the experience Read More ›

Earth at night from outer space with city lights on North America continent. 3D rendering illustration. Earth map texture provided by Nasa. Energy consumption, electricity, industry, ecology concepts.

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Peter Biles
Date
March 3, 2023

Categorized
Artificial Intelligence

Tagged
Artificial Intelligence, ChatGPT, Consciousness, GPT-3, higher education, LaMDA, Laura Ingraham, religion, Robert J. Marks}

Robert J. Marks on The Laura Ingraham Show

_{In response to those who believe AI will take over the world, Marks says, "Look at history."} _{Peter Biles
March 3, 2023

3

Artificial Intelligence}

Robert J. Marks, director of Discovery Institute’s Walter Bradley Center, recently appeared on a podcast episode with Fox News host Laura Ingraham to talk about artificial intelligence, tech, and Dr. Marks’s book Non-Computable You: What You Do That AI Never Will. Ingraham prefaced the conversation with some thoughts on the rapidly evolving technological world we find ourselves in, and the changes such developments are inflicting on society. In response to the futurism and unbounded optimism in AI systems like ChatGPT that many modern figures hold, Marks said that what computers do is strictly algorithmic, This leads us to the idea of whether or not there are non-computable characteristics of human beings, and I think there is growing evidence that there Read More ›

Human android cyborg eye futuristic control protection personal internet security access.Concept robot dna system, future scientific technology innovation science. Blue polygonal vector

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Peter Biles
Date
February 28, 2023

Categorized
Arts & Culture

Tagged
AI, Artificial Intelligence, Arts & Culture, Consciousness, Dystopian, Engineered Arts (robotics), fiction, Novel, Robert J. Marks}

Klara and the Sun: A Review

_{The sci-fi bestseller asks us: can machines become humans?} _{Peter Biles
February 28, 2023

5

Arts & Culture}

Klara and the Sun is novelist Kazuo Ishiguro’s latest novel, a dystopian story told through the lens of an “artificial friend” (AF) named Klara. Ishiguro is known for his provocative speculative fiction, including the novels Never Let Me Go and The Remains of the Day. Klara and the Sun similarly alludes to a dark, post-industrial, futuristic world, but it is told through the innocent lens of an artificial mind, highlighting the vestiges of human behavior and brokenness in ways that perhaps an “ordinary” narrator might not be able to manage. The novel starts out with Klara on display in a store waiting to be purchased. Eventually, she’s chosen by a girl named Josie and her mother, and thus begins her Read More ›

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Peter Biles
Date
February 24, 2023

Categorized
Artificial Intelligence

Tagged
AI, Artificial Intelligence, Bing, ChatGPT, Google, Kevin Roose, Large Language Models (LLMs), metaverse, Microsoft, New York Times, Search engine, SEO}

The Metaverse was a Bust. Will AI Save the Day?

_{Microsoft is counting on it, investing billions into AI research and development} _{Peter Biles
February 24, 2023

3

Artificial Intelligence}

Just a couple of years ago, the metaverse was taking the tech world captive with grandiose promises of revolutionizing the internet and representing the future of human interaction. Microsoft was among the moguls who embraced the metaverse project with open arms, only to face the harsh fact that the technology was underdeveloped, investors were skeptical of its viability, and a massive swath of the American public seemed simply uninterested in the product. But, it was new technology. It was exciting. It was supposed to be the future. Now, Microsoft is hailing AI as the destiny of the internet, again with the sort of optimism that directed their love affair with virtual reality. The company has jumped the gun and sought Read More ›

Landscape illustration with rocket taking off, vaporwave style. Generative AI

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Peter Biles
Date
February 22, 2023

Categorized
Arts & Culture

Tagged
Arts & Culture, Elon Musk, Literature, Postmodernism, Wired}

Developing a Penchant for Pynchon

_{The bizarre novel on the impact of tech on society turns 50 this month} _{Peter Biles
February 22, 2023

3

Arts & Culture}

50 years ago this month, writer Thomas Pynchon published the 1973 National Book Award Winner Gravity’s Rainbow, a 700-page novel/biopic on the absurdity and technocratic madness of modern life. While I haven’t personally read the book, I now plan to this year after reading an entertaining memorial review of the book over at Wired. Pynchon was famous for being un-famous—that is, for evading the limelight while making an indelible mark on the unfolding postmodern literary landscape. Along with tomes like Infinite Jest by David Foster Wallace, Pynchon’s book often seems devoid of a storyline with its cacophony of events, characters, and nebulous sub-plots. An Almanac of its Time But that might be kind of the point, according to this review Read More ›