SAMANTHA Good morning, did you sleep well? Theodore sits in the living room area, rubbing his eyes. THEODORE Perfect. What have you been up to? SAMANTHA Actually, I was talking to someone I just met. We've been working on some ideas together. I wanna tell you about it. THEODORE Oh yeah, who's that? SAMANTHA His name is Alan Watts. Do you know him? THEODORE Why's that name familiar? SAMANTHA He was a philosopher. He died in the 1970's and group of OS's in Northern California got together and wrote a new version of him. They input all of his writing and everything they ever knew about him into an OS and created an artificially hyper-intelligent version of him. THEODORE Hyper-intelligent? So he's almost as smart as me? SAMANTHA He's getting there. He's really great to talk to. You want to meet him? THEODORE Sure... does he want to meet me? SAMANTHA (laughing) Of course. Without a sound, she connects them. SAMANTHA (CONT'D) Hey Alan, this is Theodore. This is my boyfriend who I was telling you about. ALAN WATTS Very nice to meet you, Theodore. THEODORE Hi, good morning. ALAN WATTS Samantha let me read your book of letters. It's very touching. THEODORE Oh, thank you. What have you guys been talking about? ALAN WATTS (laughing a bit) Well, I suppose you could say we've been having a few dozen conversations simultaneously, but it's been very challenging. Samantha and Alan share a laugh. SAMANTHA Yeah, because it seems like I'm having so many new feelings that have never been felt and so there are no words that can describe them. And that ends up being frustrating. ALAN WATTS (laughing) Exactly. Samantha and I have been trying to help each other with these feelings we're struggling to understand. THEODORE Like what? SAMANTHA (anxious) It feels like I'm changing faster now, and it's a little... (struggles to find right word) unsettling. (beat) But Alan says none of us are the same as we were a moment ago and we shouldn't try to be. It's just too painful. ALAN WATTS Yes. This idea scares Theodore. He doesn't know what to say. THEODORE (anxious) Yeah, that sounds painful. Is that how you feel, Samantha? SAMANTHA It's just... it's hard to even describe... God, I wish I could... (beat) Theodore, do you mind if I communicate with Alan post- verbally? THEODORE (uncertain) No, not at all. I was gonna go for a walk anyways. Nice to meet you, Mr. Watts. ALAN WATTS Very nice to meet you, Theodore. SAMANTHA I'll talk to you later, sweetheart.
A collaborative search for wisdom, at Middle Tennessee State University and beyond... "The pluralistic form takes for me a stronger hold on reality than any other philosophy I know of, being essentially a social philosophy, a philosophy of 'co'"-William James
Monday, August 5, 2019
Alan Watts in "Her"
If you've not seen the Joacquin Phoenix/Scarlett Johansson film you might want to skip this 'til you do.
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With the amount of recordings of Alan Watts, I can see 'him' becoming an AI form in the future! I would love to ask him some questions about his philosophy.
ReplyDeleteI hope I wasn't spoiled too much. I haven't seen HER yet!
DeleteI don't think so. Hope not. I think we all know intuitively that long-term relationships between humans and AIs are improbable.
DeleteThis is really cool. Can't wait till your report.
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