Friday Fictioneers – The Mathematician’s Despair

~ Neil MacDonald
PHOTO PROMPT © Fields Family

“Prove it,” he said.

“I can’t. But the Ayeye says it’s true.”

He was merciless. “If you don’t understand the machine’s reasoning, you can’t tell it’s correct.”

All I knew was this felt right, but I had no answer.

“If the Ayeye does the grunt work, has the insight, and formalises the proof, but you don’t grasp the meaning, does it even mean anything?”

“Pah! Philosophy!”

“Well, here’s a philosophical question for you: what’s the point of people?”

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Friday fictioneers is a weekly challenge set by Rochelle Wisoff Fields to write a 100-word story in response to a photo prompt. You can find other stories here

31 thoughts on “Friday Fictioneers – The Mathematician’s Despair”

  14. What are people for, that is the deep question. People developed the Ayeye (love what you did there) which may possibly replace us or at least dull our points. Perhaps it’s all just a loop and people are Siva, the destroyer. Great little philosophical piece on the state of society presently.

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  15. Talk about a loaded question! Assuming a highly capable, self-sufficient AI system can operate without human input, what incentives and/or objectives could realistically lead it to act against human interests? Is conflict even logical, or is this mostly humans projecting their own fears?

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