#singular

A modern civilization is only possible when it is accepted that singular beings exist and express themselves freely. ↗

— Tahar Ben Jelloun

#beings #civilization #exist #express #freely

Turing presented his new offering in the form of a thought experiment, based on a popular Victorian parlor game. A man and a woman hide, and a judge is asked to determine which is which by relying only on the texts of notes passed back and forth. Turing replaced the woman with a computer. Can the judge tell which is the man? If not, is the computer conscious? Intelligent? Does it deserve equal rights? It's impossible for us to know what role the torture Turing was enduring at the time played in his formulation of the test. But it is undeniable that one of the key figures in the defeat of fascism was destroyed, by our side, after the war, because he was gay. No wonder his imagination pondered the rights of strange creatures. ↗

— Jaron Lanier

#artificial-intelligence #computers #gay #homosexuality #singularity

In all my years of performing, no audience member has ever actually assaulted me. I consider this to be the singular triumph of my performing career. ↗

— Rupert Holmes

#assaulted #audience #audience member #career #consider

Poetry should surprise by a fine excess and not by singularity, it should strike the reader as a wording of his own highest thoughts, and appear almost a remembrance. ↗

— John Keats

#appear #excess #fine #highest #his

A file on a hard disk does indeed contain information of the kind that objectively exists. The fact that the bits are discernible instead of being scrambled into mush - the way heat scrambles things - is what makes them bits. But if the bits can potentially mean something to someone, they can only do so if they are experienced. When that happens, a commonality of culture is enacted between the storer and the retriever of the bits. Experience is the only process that can de-alienate information. Information of the kind that purportedly wants to be free is nothing but a shadow of our own minds, and wants nothing on its own. It will not suffer if it doesn't get what it wants. But if you want to make the transition from the old religion, where you hope God will give you an afterlife, to the new religion, where you hope to become immortal by getting uploaded into a computer, then you have to believe information is real and alive. So for you, it will be important to redesign human institutions like art, the economy, and the law to reinforce the perception that information is alive. You demand that the rest of us live in your new conception of a state religion. You need us to deify information to reinforce your faith. ↗

— Jaron Lanier

#information #internet #singularity #technology #art

This singularity of meaning--I was my face, I was ugliness--though sometimes unbearable, also offered a possible point of escape. It became the launching pad from which to lift off, the one immediately recognizable place to point to when asked what was wrong with my life. Everything led to it, everything receded from it--my face as personal vanishing point. ↗

— Lucy Grealy

#life #pain #singularity #ugliness #ugly

Losing faith in your own singularity is the start of wisdom, I suppose; also the first announcement of death. ↗

— Peter Conrad

#announcement #death #faith #first #i

The reviewer is a singularly detested enemy because he is, unlike the hapless artist, invulnerable. ↗

— Carroll O'Connor

#because #detested #enemy #reviewer #singularly

Remember: Y'all is singular. All y'all is plural. All y'all's is plural possessive. ↗

— Kinky Friedman

#possessive #remember #singular

The most important thing is story-telling. It's as singular and old-fashioned as that. ↗

— David Soul

#important thing #most #old-fashioned #singular #story-telling