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Articles

The Rise of the Intelligent Authors

Lochlan Bloom wonders what writers will do when computers become better writers than humans.

Over the past century the pursuit of facts has come to be the central goal of human progresss, with the dominant perception being that facts are important while fiction is at best superfluous. Yet there is increasing evidence that we as humans live our lives in a realm of fictions. It seems we are preconditioned to accept stories and embed them in the deepest fabric of our societies – for example, stories of nationhood, society, economics, or religion. And yet the ability to determine facts is now normally seen as the more vital human trait: facts are important, fiction is superfluous. Reading a book or watching a film of an evening is something to do to relax after a hard day of productivity, a hard day discerning the facts in whatever area of work you are engaged.

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