Dani Anguiano, The Guardian ; AI lovers grieve loss of ChatGPT’s old model: ‘Like saying goodbye to someone I know’
"The update was met with frustration, shock and even grief by those who have developed deep connections to the AI, relying on it for friendship, romance or therapy."
"Only a few years ago, the idea of “virtual immortality” was futuristic, a techno-dream beyond the reach of ordinary people. Now, interactive avatars can be created relatively easily and cheaply, and demand looks set to grow...
“Human beings have been trying to relate to the dead ever since there were humans,” said Michael Cholbi, a professor of philosophy at the University of Edinburgh and the author of Grief: A Philosophical Guide. “We have created monuments and memorials, preserved locks of hair, reread letters. Now the question is: does AI have anything to add?”"
Introduction by Charlotte Higgins, The Guardian; ‘We recognise it in this very primal way’: Stephen Fry, Brie Larson, Chris Ofili and more on why we can’t get enough of Greek mythology
"Greek myth is not a stable thing. There is no such thing as a canonical, “original” version of a Greek myth. The stories that remain to us – the material of classical plays and poetry, and of visual culture from pottery to pediments – are already elaborations and accretions. In the ancient Greek and Roman world, stories were adapted and remade to serve the needs of the moment. The Greek tragedians often took the germ of an idea from the Homeric epics, and built an entire plot from it. Aeschylus’s Agamemnon, for instance, is in dialogue with Homer’s Odyssey: both are stories of a warrior’s return from war, but with entirely different outcomes. Euripides’s subversive play Helen proposes that the entire Trojan war was fought not in the cause of a real woman, but of an illusory, fake version sent by the gods, while the “real” Helen of Troy sat out the siege in Egypt.
Seen in this light, as novelist Pat Barker points out below, the modern appetite for working with (and maybe sometimes against) Greek myth is a part of a long continuum, rather than an innovation...
Stephen Fry on Ithaka by CP Cavafy (1911), a poem inspired by The Odyssey
Author of Mythos, Heroes and Troy, a trilogy of books retelling the myths of ancient Greece
The Odyssey is the beginning of human modernity. Suddenly, the greatest qualities a warrior could have were cunning, intelligence and curiosity, but also a sense of home – Odysseus is constantly striving to get back to his wife and son. There was something new in that. This idea of “nostos” – of returning home to the hearth after your wanderings – has been very powerful in the Greek imagination ever since.
Early last century, there was a wonderful Greek poet living in Alexandria named Constantine Cavafy. I found out about him by reading EM Forster, who met Cavafy in Alexandria and recommended him to WH Auden and others. One of Cavafy’s greatest poems is about Ithaca, the island which Odysseus spends 10 years trying to get back to. The poem is about this journey, this yearning to find the place that we think of as home, but Cavafy tells us that it’s not worth anything. You must strive for it, he says, but you’ll find it isn’t the place itself that’s the destination, it’s the striving, it’s what you learn on the way. It’s the gorgeous things you find and the people you meet and the experiences you have. So you must aim for Ithaca and simultaneously know it’s not worth getting to, because it will have nothing to give you. That’s how the poem ends, in Edmund Keeley’s terrific translation: “Ithaka gave you the marvellous journey./ Without her you wouldn’t have set out./ She has nothing left to give you now.”
I think it’s a very brilliant and moving poem, even in translation (I’m sure if you were fluent in modern Greek it would be even more astonishing). It’s an example of what the Greek myths can give us in terms of retellings. All the JRR Tolkien books are nostos stories, stories of returns home – The Hobbit is subtitled There and Back Again. It is the most mythic, primal, elemental story that we have. As told to Killian Fox"
Miriam Jordan, The New York Times; Grieving Ohio Father Tells Trump and Vance to Stop Talking About His Son
"Since then, Mr. Vance has been highlighting the influx of Haitians to Springfield as a detrimental consequence of the Biden administration’s border policies. The immigrants are in the country legally with authorization to work, and they have moved to the Springfield area to fill jobs in manufacturing and other industries.
This week, Mr. Vance doubled down, repeating scurrilous claims that people “who shouldn’t be in this country” were abducting and eating their neighbors’ pets in Springfield. Mr. Trump’s campaign amplified the baseless rumors, even after authorities debunked them...
On Tuesday night, Mr. Clark, a teacher, cited four politicians whom he described as “morally bankrupt” for using Aiden to advance their interests — Mr. Trump; Mr. Vance; Bernie Moreno, the Ohio Republican nominee for the Senate; and Representative Chip Roy, a Republican of Texas.
“They have spoken my son’s name and used his death for political gain,” he said from the podium.
“They can vomit all the hate they want about illegal immigrants, the border crisis and even untrue claims that fluffy cats are being ravaged and eaten by community members,” Mr. Clark said.
“They are not allowed, nor have they ever been allowed to mention Aiden Clark from Springfield, Ohio,” he continued.
“I will listen to them one more time to hear their apologies.”...
Mr. Clark said that Aiden studied different cultures and accepted everyone. As his parent, he was committed to honoring his son’s memory in that spirit, he said."
, The New York Times; Ethical Resistance Is the Answer to Grief and Rage
"Historically, geographically and morally, the A.N.C. of 1988 is a universe away from the Hamas of 2023, so remote that its behavior may seem irrelevant to the horror that Hamas unleashed last weekend in southern Israel. But South Africa offers a counter-history, a glimpse into how ethical resistance works and how it can succeed. It offers not an instruction manual, but a place — in this season of agony and rage — to look for hope."
12/21/21 email from Cleveland Clinic:
A Plea from Cleveland Clinic
"This past month has been sobering for many of us in healthcare. Nearly two years after the COVID-19 pandemic began, we’re seeing some of the highest volumes of patients with the disease in hospitals throughout the Midwest.
"Here at Cleveland Clinic, we’re caring for more than 800 patients with COVID-19 at our Ohio hospitals. Of these patients, more than 200 are in the intensive care unit. The majority of these patients are unvaccinated."Cincinnati zoo has deactivated its social accounts after it asked the public to stop making memes about Harambe the gorilla. The animal was shot dead this year after a three-year-old child climbed into his enclosure. Since then, Harambe has turned into a source of humorous content online. Jokes about his memory have spread on all corners of the internet – including the mentions of Cincinnati’s zoo official social media accounts."
"I cannot walk into a room with pictures of Humayun. For all these years, I haven’t been able to clean the closet where his things are — I had to ask my daughter-in-law to do it. Walking onto the convention stage, with a huge picture of my son behind me, I could hardly control myself. What mother could? Donald Trump has children whom he loves. Does he really need to wonder why I did not speak? Donald Trump said that maybe I wasn’t allowed to say anything. That is not true. My husband asked me if I wanted to speak, but I told him I could not. My religion teaches me that all human beings are equal in God’s eyes. Husband and wife are part of each other; you should love and respect each other so you can take care of the family."
