What separates the alive from the inanimate? How does consciousness arise? And how does the metaphor of “artificial intelligence” shape the way we see ourselves?
“God, Human, Animal, Machine” is an approachable and mindbending introduction to these questions, by Meghan O’Gieblyn, a literary writer based in the Midwest.
Join us on Friday, October 24, from 7-8:30 PM, in-person at The Ruby, to talk about it! Kai and Robin (from the Ruby Writing Accountability Group) will be facilitating a group conversation about the book.
Grab a copy from the local library or from a local bookstore, and read it beforehand if you can. Feel free to just skim or read a few chapters if you don't have time for the whole book — we'll keep the discussion light so everyone can join in. (This is a one-time event for us to talk about the book together, not an ongoing reading series.)
Since this event is near Halloween, we’ll have snacks representing gods, humans, animals, and machines, because what could be spookier than not knowing the difference between these things?! The event will be held indoors.
Please contact Kai (many.calques@gmail.com) at least 48 hours before the event if you’re not able to pay the full entry fee; we can work out a sliding-scale option.
About God, Human, Animal, Machine
A strikingly original exploration of what it might mean to be authentically human in the age of artificial intelligence, from the author of the critically-acclaimed Interior States. • “At times personal, at times philosophical, with a bracing mixture of openness and skepticism, it speaks thoughtfully and articulately to the most crucial issues awaiting our future.” —Phillip Lopate
“[A] truly fantastic book.”—Ezra Klein
For most of human history the world was a magical and enchanted place ruled by forces beyond our understanding. The rise of science and Descartes’s division of mind from world made materialism our ruling paradigm, in the process asking whether our own consciousness—i.e., souls—might be illusions. Now with the inexorable rise of technology, with artificial intelligences that surpass our comprehension and control, and the spread of digital metaphors for self-understanding, the core questions of existence—identity, knowledge, the very nature and purpose of life itself—urgently require rethinking.
Meghan O’Gieblyn tackles this challenge with philosophical rigor, intellectual reach, essayistic verve, refreshing originality, and an ironic sense of contradiction. She draws deeply and sometimes humorously from her own personal experience as a formerly religious believer still haunted by questions of faith, and she serves as the best possible guide to navigating the territory we are all entering.
About Meghan O’Gieblyn
Meghan O'Gieblyn is a writer who was raised and still lives in the Midwest. Her essay collection, Interior States was published to wide acclaim and won the 2018 Believer Booker Award for Nonfiction. Her essays have appeared in Harper's Magazine, The New Yorker, Bookforum, n+1, The Believer, The Guardian, The Point, The Los Angeles Review of Books, The New York Times Book Review and elsewhere. She received a BA in English from Loyola University, Chicago and an MFA in Fiction from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. She lives in Madison, Wisconsin with her husband. (Source: The Wisconsin Book Festival)