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Reading Notes Week 5 Part B: Bierce

Ambrose Bierce (1842-1914?)
·      Born in Ohio
·      Came to California after Civil War
·      Had many different attributes to literature

Moxon Master
·      Nature of life and intelligence
·      An isolated system
·      Moxon is developing a sentient conscious machine, one that can think and possesses intelligence.
·      Moxon is developing a machine which he believes will be capable of thinking, acting and possessing consciousness- a robot or automaton which will be able to perform actions independent of its creator.
·      The idea of a humanoid robot 
·      Quote: “you know well enough that when I say “machine” I do not mean a man, but something that man has made and controls.” 
o   The story reminds me of Frankenstein. A creation made by a mad scientist, whose interest was to explore artificial life and it ends up exploring the madness of science. 
o   Quote: “…definition of ‘life’ the activity of a machine is included – there is nothing in the definition that is not applicable to it. According to this sharpest of observers and deepest of thinkers, if a man during his period of activity is alive, so is a machine when in operation.”


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  1. GraceCarcotMarch 8, 2019 at 10:13 AM

    Hello again Samuel, You did a good job on this reading note. I think you brought up a good idea and something I did not think of while I read this story but you are right this story does remind me of Frankenstein as well. That is a good barrel to draw off two similar but different things being made from their creator.

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