Popes and AIs
Dec. 31st, 2020 09:26 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
alobearA few days ago, we watched The Two Popes, which was about Benedict XVI stepping down in favour of Pope Francis in 2013. It was basically an extended conversation between two old men in the surroundings of the Vatican City - but those two old men were played by Anthony Hopkins and Jonathan Pryce, which meant it was really compelling. Definitely recommended - I have no idea how accurate it was, but it was very interesting and extremely well acted.
And, just now, I finished You've Got Murder by Donna Andrews, which is about a library system AI getting worried about her programmer going missing, and recruiting a couple of other members of staff at the company to help her investigate the disappearance. My biggest problem with the book was that the type was very small and the sections from the POV of Turing, the AI, were pages and pages of italics, which were very wearing to read, and also had a lot of issues with their tenses. But, that aside, the characters were fun and engaging, and there was a lot of interesting stuff about sentience and personhood, so I enjoyed it overall.
And, just now, I finished You've Got Murder by Donna Andrews, which is about a library system AI getting worried about her programmer going missing, and recruiting a couple of other members of staff at the company to help her investigate the disappearance. My biggest problem with the book was that the type was very small and the sections from the POV of Turing, the AI, were pages and pages of italics, which were very wearing to read, and also had a lot of issues with their tenses. But, that aside, the characters were fun and engaging, and there was a lot of interesting stuff about sentience and personhood, so I enjoyed it overall.
