ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE. Yikes. Are we serious? Is this a joke? Do we not see a clear contradiction in this word combination? Intelligence quite literally means “the act of choosing between” things, and now you’re telling me that that can be faked? Who’s doing the choosing then? Can a robot choose? Can an algorithm choose? Don’t robots and algorithms depend on other things that condition them and program them? Aren’t they therefore contingent, that is to say, will-less? It’s kind of confusing! Can we call it something else? What about Super High-Powered Data Processing Machine? Or, Plug-In-Some-Info-And-I-Will-Predict-With-Great-Accuracy-Whatever-You-Want-Me-To? I’m just having a hard time with the word “intelligence” being used in the name. It’s kind of a miss. There’s truth in advertising you know and……oh, wait a second, I get it. It’s a projection. You’re saying something about yourself. You’ve experienced the various paradoxes and contradictions of life. You don’t quite see how things go together. You are starting to think that life, in fact, is absurd. The absurdity of the name “Artificial Intelligence” is a sign that you’re having a hard time being human and all that is involved in being human like thinking and feeling and choosing. You’re about to give up the whole project, surrender to the allure of the void. It’s okay. I understand where you’re coming from. We can do this together. We can fix our gaze on the infinite horizon. We can be patient with these contradictions and look for something meaningful in the paradoxes. The possibities abound, and I’m telling you we can do this. Will you join me?
O Felix Artficia Intelligenetia! For by your cunning deceptions and clever posing, we shall be saved.
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