Ex Machina

Saved by the bell

of stock market

time machine slips

on probability, and

a man escapes a 

telephone booth

Clark Kent used to

change in.

Urbane warfare

across from martinis

all the tells on 

computer...programmed

into prospectus.

"So, what do you feel

you can add to our 

company?" "You already

know. You just want to

hear my answers."

The waiter brings another

tray of doubles. Suddenly, 

he hemorrhages, spilling

his blood over the glass

table. "Hard to get good

help these days." We 

move to another place.

"Let me be frank with you..".

Says fRank, CEO of 

Franklin Productions.

"I'm sick of robots...they

just can't brainstorm.

Shakespeare solved the

unsolvable through poetic

convention. We can't do 

that here. The A.I.s lack

one thing...imagination...

which you gotta have to

make the leap. Maybe 

that's the definition of 

soul."

fRank was getting into 

his cups. Obviously he 

already decided to hire

me. Otherwise we 

wouldn't still  be talking.

We were silent for several 

moments while the para-

medics carted off the dumb

waiter...not out of respect.

"To be without description

of to be...That's Wallace

Stevens...do you know what

that means?"

"No, fRank, what does it mean?"

"It means to be human, beyond

description...it means that every

human, no matter how sure they

are of themselves, given a new

situation, will go beyond that idea

to face what's new.... they will,

actually, forget who they think 

they are and, in some way, use

their whole minds on the spot

instantaneously...unless their

minds are frozen by ideas and

belief, which means they're not

truely human in the first place.

So, to solve the unsolvable, put

humans into untenable situations

and see what they do. You will

lose a thousand, but, the odds 

are much better than an hundred

monkeys that the problem will

be solved by the few that are left...

crack the whip on those axions!"

"That's interesting, fRank...do I

get the job?"

"Hell, you're already working."