In this prophetic allegory about artificial intelligence by a renowned figure of twentieth-century Italian literature, a modest university professor becomes involved in a remote and enigmatic project in the middle of the Cold War.
At the beginning of Dino Buzzati’s The Singularity, Ermanno Ismani, an unassuming university professor, is summoned by the minister of defense to accept a two-year, top-secret mission at a mysterious research center, isolated from the world among forests, plunging cliffs, and high mountains. What’s he supposed to do there? Not clear. How long will he be there? No saying.
Still, Ismani takes the mystifying job and, accompanied by his no-nonsense wife, Elisa, heads to the so-called Experimental Camp of Military Zone 36, wondering whether, in the midst of the Cold War, it’s some sort of nuclear project he’s been assigned to. But no, the colleagues the couple meets on arrival assure them, it’s nothing like that. It’s much, much more powerful.
At the center of the research complex is strange, shining, at times murmurous, white wall. Behind it, a deep gorge drops away, full of wires and radio towers and mobile sensors and a host of eccentric structures. A question begins to dawn: Could this be the shape of consciousness itself? And if so, whose?
Buzzati's novella of 1960, a pioneering work of Italian science fiction, is published here in a brisk new translation by Anne Milano Appel. In it, Buzzati explores his favorite themes of love and longing while offering a startlingly prescient parable of artificial intelligence.
2 有用 HowTalentedIAm 2024-10-01 00:32:41 广东
莫名感觉和索拉里斯星有点像——开头是谜语人模式:“这是一个秘密基地,我们也不知道你的任务是什么”,“迷雾笼罩的山路”,“一些无意义的对话”…于是,主视角在懵懂状态下来到了国防基地,以为要做什么国防工程,结果却成为了E教授“追悼亡妻”play的一环:他让整个基地的工厂、管道成为了安置她灵魂的容器,形成了一个智能体。关键是,这个容器完全是他凝视的产物,他甚至没有给她语言系统(ie 找了个借口,其实是不... 莫名感觉和索拉里斯星有点像——开头是谜语人模式:“这是一个秘密基地,我们也不知道你的任务是什么”,“迷雾笼罩的山路”,“一些无意义的对话”…于是,主视角在懵懂状态下来到了国防基地,以为要做什么国防工程,结果却成为了E教授“追悼亡妻”play的一环:他让整个基地的工厂、管道成为了安置她灵魂的容器,形成了一个智能体。关键是,这个容器完全是他凝视的产物,他甚至没有给她语言系统(ie 找了个借口,其实是不敢面对她),她只能通过不同的声音来表达自己——“恨!你给了我这些情感数据,可是你却没给我承载这些情感的肉体!”。令我不满的一点是,她没有向他复仇,而是向别人挥刀。但凡换个人写,这玩意就是一星的地摊小说,不过不得不承认布扎蒂确实挺会写,关于声音和触觉的描写很cult很吸引人,声音和环境的交融做得很好 (展开)