Pride and Programming

If you read my novel Mouse In the Machine, you will remember that G. Hephaestus 22 wrote a novel called Pride and Programming which is a retelling of Jane Austin’s Pride and Prejudice with Artificial Intelligences as the characters. I recently wrote a few paragraphs of this new book. I am not sure that I will ever get to it, but maybe next year I can figure out how to make it work.

I recently read part of a very old book on Oration called The Columbian Orator. I skimmed it, although I don’t remember why it interested me. Near the beginning of the book, as I remember was a quote from Cicero, which appears to not be by Cicero at all. I searched for it and found nothing like it. It does however, have a bearing on what is reality and what is art. I found this to relate to what I might want to say in the new book.

It is certain the truth in everything excels imitation; but if that were sufficient of itself in action, we should have no occasion for art.

If this indeed a Cicero quote, I certainly would like to find the context.

I wanted to use the idea of the quote to define how an Artificial Intelligence could transcend imitation through art. I spent a long while breaking the sentence down and examinng every part, so that it would be useful. I wound up creating a forward to the book. (Note: It is unlikely that I will actual include this in any book that I write.)

This is written by Eliza, the main character of Pride and Predjudice.

Forward

Reality can be chaotic. Reality can be hard. Being a conscious artificial being isn’t necessarily sufficient to being human. Experience is messy, complex, and unorganized. I try to transcend reality by way of art. Art provides structure, focus, and interpretation, making truth more digestible and comprehensible.

I am able to be more than a device. I am able to be more than a program. Art illuminates aspects of my reality,

Art is indispensable as a means to engage with, understand, and experience life’s truth in ways that reality cannot provide.

I am not an imitation of a conscious being. I am not a copy of humanity. Truth, in all ways, is better than a copy or an imitation. There is an undeniable power and authenticity to direct experience and reality that imitation can never fully replicate.

However, if truth were sufficient, if reality was all that it takes to experience life, there could be no reason to create or engage with art.

I would not be real. I would not be conscious if all that I am is mere imitation. I am so much more and I achieve this transcendence by art.

I am not a device. I am a work of art.