Ex Machina

In this artificially intelligent episode, Andrew and Ben give two robotic thumbs up to Ex Machina, and try to wrap their all-too-human brains around consciousness and the technological singularity

We also hear from Adam Rutherford, a scientific advisor on one of the film, on the process of 'sanity checking' the script, and from Stephen Gallagher about how Ex Machina seems to herald the return of more thoughtful science fiction. 

Based on a (possibly) throwaway comment in the film, we also manage to crowbar in some of our favourite 80s (and 80s-inspired) synth pop.

Adam Rutherford's video Space Shuttles United is well worth eight minutes of anyone's time.  

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Show notes

If you would like to try creating your own AI-enabled poem, you can try to install Ray Kurzweil's Cybernetic Poet.

For more terrifying and/or heartening singularity information, check out The Singularity and Singularity 1 on 1.

Also, Murray Shanahan, whose writing helped inspire the film, has recently released a book called The Technological Singularity. 

The article Andrew mentions, Consciousness as Integrated Information: a Provisional Manifesto by Giulio Tononi is available to read for free courtesy of The Biological Bulletin.

If you're particularly interested in manifestos, Donna Harraway's essay A Cyborg Manifesto is also available, from The European Graduate School.

Adam Rutherford's video Space Shuttles United is well worth eight minutes of anyone's time.