Episode 332: Talking to Myself (”The Other” by Jorge Luis Borges)

David and Tamler talk about Jorge Luis Borges' disorienting short story "The Other." A 70-year-old Borges sits on a bench by the Charles River and who should he encounter but himself as a 19-year-old, by the Rhône River in 1918 Geneva. Is this a dream? Who is dreaming it? What does the Heraclitean river metaphor reveal about this impossible meeting? (Stick around after the closing music, David reads the story in English and in Spanish.)

 

Plus Richard Dawkins has a memorable encounter of his own, but with his AI Claudia (née Claude). If you think AI isn't conscious then how do you explain Claudia's rapturous and penetrating insight into Dawkins' unpublished novel?

 

When Dawkins met Claude: Could this AI be conscious? (paywalled) [unherd.com]

• Unpaywalled at archive.org 

The Other by Jorge Luis Borges [wikipedia.org]

The Collected Fictions of Jorge Luis Borges trans. by Andrew Hurley [amazon.com affiliate link]