Lecture 3 in the 2018 IK course "Me, Myself and AI". Covers the bicameral theory of consciousness, character and plot development in narrative, character as destiny, automated story generation. Employs the TV show WestWorld as a source of talking points.

3. MEMORY
IMPROVIZATION
SELF
INTEREST

4. MEMORY
IMPROVIZATION
SELF
INTEREST
ELIZA
ELIZA
can barely
make it onto
the very first
level of the
pyramid
NO
NO

5. SELF
INTEREST
PARRY
Some
MEMORY
IMPROVIZATION
Some
PARRY,
in contrast,
has some claim
to every level,
albeit in a
minimal
guise.

6. I am
sensitive to
being called
stupid or
dumb.
So a slow
response to
any question
causes us
SHAME.

7. This is
MADNESS!
I agree,
as I’ve just
realized ..
… you are
Me Too!

8. But hasn’t
the bicameral
theory been
debunked?
… but not
as a model
of machine
cognition.
As a theory
of human
cognition,
perhaps …

11. Come
now, Mr.
Parry, release
your memories
and tell me a
story.

14. There was a merchant in Baghdad who sent his servant to
market to buy provisions and in a little while the
servant came back, white and trembling, and
said, Master, just now when I was in the
market place I was jostled by a woman
in the crowd and when I turned I saw it
was Death that jostled me. She looked
at me and made a threatening gesture. Now, lend me
your horse, and I will ride away from this city and
avoid my fate. I will go to Samarra and there Death will
not find me. The merchant lent him his horse, and the
servant mounted it, and he dug his spurs in its flanks
and as fast as the horse could gallop he went. Then the
merchant went down to the market place and he saw
Me standing in the crowd and he came to me and said,
Why did you make a threatening gesture to my servant
when you saw him this morning? “That was not a
threatening gesture,” I said, it was only a start of
surprise. I was astonished to see him in Baghdad, for
I have an appointment with him tonight in Samarra.

32. p < .001 for all dimensions