Maria Popova

"A century and half after the Victorian visionary Samuel Butler prophesied the rise of a new 'mechanical kingdom' to which we will become subservient, we are living with artificial intelligences making daily decisions for us, from the routes we take to the music we hear. 

"And yet the very fact that the age of near-sentient algorithms has left us all the more famished for meaning may be our best hope for saving what is most human and alive in us. 

"Couple God, Human, Animal, Machine with Nick Cave on music, feeling, and transcendence in the age of AI, then consider some thoughts on consciousness and the universe, lensed through cognitive science and poetry."

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