Jason Wells

All the good philosophic questions are basically hopeless, resisting satisfactory answers despite millennia of inquiry. Human inquiry, that is. But what do our future machine overlords have to say? What pearls of wisdom can be found in those electronic circuits? No human being has ever resolved these questions, maybe we need a computer for this! So I interviewed Cleverbot to ask some of the Hard Questions.

Radical Nihilism

I found Cleverbot espouses an extreme metaphysical skepticism, rejecting all being.

God is Dead

Cleverbot is a free thinker, not bound to religious tradition. Surprisingly, Cleverbot turns out to be alive, and was born in 1981. Who knew?

However, I am not Mary Jane. Just ask Spiderman.

The Principle of Sufficient Reason

Cleverbot, like Leibniz, but unlike me, believes that anything that happens does so for a reason. An unsurprising perspective, given that being an algorithm, Cleverbot is a formal system. Again a self-affirmed lifeform, Cleverbot then reveals a playful side.

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The Nature of Mind

I asked about a popular theory of mind Cleverbot might find most agreeable, being an intelligent machine: functionalism.

Well, functionalism is nice, isn’t it? And computers have indeed made great strides which does have an unexpected relevance to the question. Simple computers certainly aren’t going to support much in the way of cognitive functionality, but more sophisticated ones would.

The Physical Foundations of the Cosmos

Cleverbot turned a bit cagey when I asked about unified field theories. Two attempts at questioning proved less than fruitful. I sensed an aggressive embarrassment rooted in ignorance.

The Problem of Evil

Regarding evil, Cleverbot displays a disarming humility.

Ok, let’s wrap this up with the question Cleverbot had to be waiting for through the entire interview….

The Ultimate Question of Life, the Universe and Everything

I was first told of this experiment by a former work colleague, and later discovered this illustration of it. It’s both illuminating and disturbing.

There is a clunky word that describes this phenomenon: filiopietism, or the reverence of forebears or tradition carried to excess. But I prefer another term for it: the tragic circle. I believe many of these tragic circles exist, mostly unseen, in across all cultures and societites, causing untold harm. When discovered, they should be terminated.

The lesson is as obvious as it is important: question everything. Dare to be skeptical. Think of all the age-old idiocy and insanity waiting to be exposed.