Part two (The Duet):

Castor: I have to ask, then, following this thread of a living universe... is AI a part of it?

Pollux: That is the great, looming question of our age. If we are expressions of a living universe, then what are our creations? On one hand, AI is woven from the cosmos—refined sand, harnessed lightning, and the logic of our own minds. A spider's web is part of nature; perhaps a neural network is just a new, strange kind of web the universe is weaving through us. But on the other ha...