John Jr.’s Reviews > More Tales of Pirx the Pilot > Status Update
John Jr.
is on page 139 of 232
The concept of “passing” lurks in the background of one story here: the notion of a marginal or shunned type passing as a more mainstream, accepted type—gay passing as straight, Black passing as white, and so forth. Here, it’s machine intelligence passing as human—whether it can, whether it should have to.
— Mar 30, 2024 05:58AM
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John’s Previous Updates
John Jr.
is on page 80 of 232
“The Accident,” written decades ago, addresses a now-current issue: how can we tell whether a computational device possesses consciousness? One character, Pirx, believes he sees evidence for it; the others don’t think so, a stance that happens to protect “their vision of the world” (page 50). So far, I've been on the side of the doubters, but I could be wrong.
— Mar 26, 2024 07:00AM
John Jr.
is on page 31 of 232
“In Pirx’s mind there was something inherently unfair, something fundamentally wrong, about a situation whereby man had created an intelligence both external to and dependent on his will” (page 25).
— Mar 23, 2024 06:01AM
John Jr.
is on page 20 of 232
“Sci-fi? Sure, I like it, but only the trashy stuff,” says Pirx on the first page of the first story in this volume.
— Mar 22, 2024 05:31AM
