philosophy

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Review: What Makes Us Human? – Iain S Thomas, GPT-3, Jasmine Wang

Iain S. Thomas, GPT-3, Jasmine Wang

Sounds True

Boulder, Colorado USA

ISBN:9781649630179

Description:

A groundbreaking endeavor to explore human spirituality through the evolving technology of artificial intelligence

Why are we here? What does it mean to love? How do we overcome suffering? Is happiness truly possible?

For thousands of years, we have turned to the same beloved texts to explore these universal questions—from the Bible and the Tao Te Ching, to the poetry of Rumi and Sappho, to the words of modern-day mystics.

What if you could take all of the wisdom contained in these collective pages and, using the world’s most advanced artificial intelligence, receive the answers?

To create What Makes Us Human?, internationally bestselling poet Iain S. Thomas and globally recognized prodigious researcher and innovator Jasmine Wang prompted the world’s most advanced AI, GPT-3, with a wealth of humanity’s most cherished works. Then they asked GPT-3 our most pressing questions about life.

Contained in this book are the conversations and exchanges that followed.

A bold and daring experiment, What Makes Us Human? is a contemporary exploration of spirituality that will inspire you, move you, and give you a new understanding of what makes us humans, humans.

My View:

A really interesting experiment that is a joy to read. Mediative. Mindful. Touching

Iain S Thomas interprets, “informs” /edits the final results you see on the page. A beautiful read.

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Post Script: The Silver Moon Reflections on Life, Death and Writing – Bryce Courtenay

This book is simply delightful, inspiring and a joy to read.

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The Silver Moon Reflections on Life, Death and Writing

Bryce Courtenay

Viking

Penguin Books

ISBN: 9780670078264

 

 

Description:

Each of us has a place to return to in our minds, a place of clarity and peace, a place to think, to create, to dream. For Bryce Courtenay this place was a waterhole in Africa where he used to escape to as a boy, in search of solitude. One evening, while lingering there, he witnessed the tallest of the great beasts drinking from the waterhole in the moonlight, and was spellbound. Ever since, he drew inspiration from this moment.

 

The Silver Moon gathers together some of the most personal and sustaining life-lessons from Australia’s favourite storyteller. In short stories and insights, many written in his final months, Bryce reflects on living and dying, and how through determination, respect for others and taking pleasure in small moments of joy, he lived life to the fullest.

 

From practical advice on how to write a bestseller to general inspiration on how to realise your dreams, The Silver Moon celebrates Bryce Courtenay’s lifelong passion for storytelling, language and the creative process, and brings us closer to the man behind the bestsellers.

 

 

My View:

 

I have read a few of Bryce Courtenay’s novels over the years – he has written many, in fact 21 books over 23 year which is a pretty amazing record and for me my favourites have been The Power Of One and April Fool’s Day – books that I feel Courtenay had really invested himself in the narrative, but that was until now. After reading The Silver Moon I have fallen in love with this author all over again.

 

I love his gentle words, his poetic writing, and his inspiring reflections. I wish I had had the opportunity to meet this author before his death in 2012. I wish I’d had the opportunity to hear him speak- his words speak to the soul and we can all learn a lot from this simple unassuming book. Bryce Courtenay is in his own words “…a character driven novelist and I’m fascinated by the human persona and the travails and troubles and angst and adventures that we human beings manage to create for ourselves…I’m driven to tell stories. Stories absolutely fascinate me, and while writing is a hard process, I can’t conceive of not doing it. It is a compulsive and impulsive thing.” (p. 90, The Mercury, Dec 1997).