David Brin on Artificial Intelligence

11/08/23 • 68 min

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Re-Creative: A podcast about inspiration and creativity

Mark and Joe are joined by Hugo and Nebula Award winning science fiction author David Brin for a wide-ranging and fascinating discussion about the poem, his writing and his work with NASA. They also discuss how to think about the creation of sapient beings that are not human.

David explains why he prefers the term sapience to sentience, and why he likes to call the general large language models (GLLM) such as ChatGPT as golems.

He's worried that our hand-wringing around the topic is the wrong approach, and has many suggestions for how to deal with this new ecosystem that we are creating.

A fascinating and engrossing conversation not to be missed!

Find out more about David Brin's work in the show notes page for this episode.

Re-Creative is a co-production of Donovan Street Press Inc. in association with Mark A. Rayner.

David explains why he prefers the term sapience to sentience, and why he likes to call the general large language models (GLLM) such as ChatGPT as golems.

He's worried that our hand-wringing around the topic is the wrong approach, and has many suggestions for how to deal with this new ecosystem that we are creating.

A fascinating and engrossing conversation not to be missed!

Find out more about David Brin's work in the show notes page for this episode.

Re-Creative is a co-production of Donovan Street Press Inc. in association with Mark A. Rayner.

Previous Episode

Karina Bates on Pottery and the Eye of Horus

1 Recommendations

Joe and Mark are joined by Karina Bates, a potter from Omemee, Ontario.

Karina takes the lads through a quick tour of what it’s like the throw pots and other ceramics on the wheel. Her work tends to be functional and purposeful.

“It’s a nice feeling to have people hold up a cup you’ve made and say they enjoy having their coffee in it,” says Karina.

On the bottom of every piece, Karina leaves her "maker's mark", which is the Eye of Horus. In ancient Egypt, Horus was represented as a falcon-headed man, and was the god of order. His right eye was the morning star, embodying power, and his left eye was the evening star, representing healing. Karina explains her personal connection to this maker's mark.

This is a thoroughly engaging conversation about the art of pottery, the purpose of guilds, and ancient Egyptian mythology.

Find out more about Karina's work in the show notes page for this episode.

Re-Creative is a co-production of Donovan Street Press Inc. in association with Mark A. Rayner.

Next Episode

Saul Rubinek

1 Recommendations

Mark and Joe are joined by the Canadian actor, director, producer and playwright, Saul Rubinek.

They have a wide-ranging and educational conversation that they launch with the question: "Who was your favorite playwright." Saul answers Edward de Vere, the 17th Earl of Oxford, whom he believes (along with many others) wrote all of Shakespeare's plays.

"Even some of the most renowned academics have trouble accepting the evidence," he says.

He's done a one-man version of Merchant of Venice, and in the process researched the question; he's a proponent of the idea.

Then the conversation moves into a discussion of an opportunity Saul had to play a Hasidic rabbi in a little village in 1941 Ukraine, called Shttl. (The Yiddish word for "village.") It was a project that deeply connected him to his own family's history.

Not to be missed!

For more info on this episode, please visit the show notes.

Re-Creative is a co-production of Donovan Street Press Inc. in association with Mark A. Rayner.

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