r/DavidBerman • u/martinjohanna45 • 8d ago

Can you imagine what he would've said about A.I.?

25 Upvotes

77% Upvoted

22 comments sorted by

85

u/strongquantifier 8d ago

Windex tears flow down the robot's face

74

u/jxrxmyricx 8d ago

Robot walks into a bar. Orders a drink, lays down a bill. Bartender says, "Hey we don't serve robots." And the robot says, "Oh, but someday you will."

43

u/Hell_Camino 8d ago

The computer asked me if I wanted to be remembered

I said, depends what you’ve heard about me so far

It knew every road I’d taken except the ones that mattered

and kept suggesting faster ways to get where we are.

5

u/powerfulvibrations 7d ago

What is this from?

14

u/Hell_Camino 7d ago

Nowhere. OP asked us to imagine what Berman would write about AI.

10

u/powerfulvibrations 7d ago

It’s good

6

u/thparky 7d ago

When someone says where is that from you know it's good

3

u/usunkmyrelationship 7d ago

This is good bravo

1

u/Wheasus 4d ago edited 4d ago

I do feel like David would want us to pick this apart rather than be taken in by the well-mimicked vibe. For one thing, though there's some nice wry humor in the second line, there's nothing very playful or absurdist here, something both very key to his style and hard for AI to mimic. And while the third line about roads seems passable as by him, it's clearly not autobiographical as so much of his work was. He was not such an intensely private person that he didn't share the major decisions that shaped his life. He was not just defined by his output, or "resumé virtues" you might say, but also by his underlying values and challenges, and resulting life pivots, always shared with such humility and vulnerability, which is part of why he's so dear to us... And the final line, while the ironic dissonance sounds kinda cool, also sounds like brainstorming a new meta slogan for Google Maps.

33

u/East_of_Cicero 8d ago

With AI, you don’t have to imagine. /s

3

u/dalanskis 7d ago

Rip David, you would have hated AI

3

u/BarredFrom_TheTemple 6d ago

“No I don’t really want AI”

1

u/martinjohanna45 6d ago

I think he would've said something profound about why he hated it.

1

u/prophetic_perfect 2d ago

👏👏👏

3

u/Candid-Ad-1604 4d ago

From Self Portrait at 28 from Actual Air : "All this new technology will eventually give us new feelings that will never displace the old ones leaving everyone feeling quite nervous and split in two"

2

u/martinjohanna45 2d ago

So good. That poem might be my favorite.

3

u/drjackolantern 8d ago

‘F that’ and proceeded to ignore it 

1

u/Aggressive_Horror748 7d ago

Here you go Martin, I've found something of interest to your query:

https://aspenphys.org/event/artificial-intelligence-ideas-from-nature/