Are you interested by AI? Do you get pleasure from science fiction? Do you will have an opinion about how AI will affect the human species? Are you passionate about it or fearful about it? Or do you assume you already know the reply?
Dave Jilk (my first enterprise accomplice and certainly one of my closest pals) just lately revealed EPOCH: A Poetic Psy-Phi Saga.
When Dave described the thought for the guide he was engaged on throughout a protracted hike 4 years in the past up and round Inexperienced Mountain in Boulder, I used to be fascinated with what he had determined to tackle. AI wasn’t entrance of thoughts in the identical manner as at this time, however Dave had been doing analysis in that area for round a decade. After we talked about AI, our discussions often revolved round facets of AGI. I used to be primarily in listening and questioning mode since Dave’s information and ideas rapidly went past my understanding of – properly – all of it.
Dave may have taken his deep understanding of AI, know-how on the whole, philosophy, and psychology in a number of instructions with an in depth writing challenge. However one more guide explaining AI or philosophizing (or rhapsodizing) about it could be … boring. And whereas I’m having fun with studying a number of AI-inspired sci-fi, AI is now a routine trope that’s being woven into extra complicated sci-fi.
So, Dave determined to jot down a poem—a really lengthy poem—an epic poem about AITHER, the primary absolutely human-level synthetic common intelligence. It’s a memoir by AITHER, totally from AITHER’s perspective. As the primary human-level AGI, AITHER muses extensively about id and function, future selves, the significance of magnificence, the character and ethics of technological progress, cultural affect and hegemony, humanity’s tragic flaws, and existential threat.
There’s additionally a soundtrack as a result of each guide wants a soundtrack. For those who like album-length soundtracks, Dave subsetted a soundtrack for the wireheading scene.
However EPOCH is just not merely an epic poem concerning the first human-level intelligence AGI. It’s stuffed with allusions to books, poems, songs, educational papers, work, and movies. In Dave’s phrases:
“These aren’t merely passing linguistic echoes; generally they join with the purpose made or the subject addressed. As a complete they’re additionally an vital thematic ingredient of the guide, and are known as “osculations.”
EPOCH: A Poetic Psy-Phi Saga took Dave 4 years to create. I learn the primary half about two years in the past and the finished draft about 9 months in the past. I keep in mind vividly telling Amy, “Studying this guide is loads of work, however it’s completely value it.”
If you need extra of the backstory, have a look at the EPOCH web site.
However know that I strongly advocate you purchase a replica of EPOCH: A Poetic Psy-Phi Saga proper now in case you are desirous about AI, sci-fi, philosophy, psychology, technological progress, humanity’s tragic flaws, or a unbelievable work-product from 4 years of effort.
