16 February

Sharing just part of my conversation with AI about ORAC, the 1970s fictional intelligent supercomputer. By the way you may notice AI now asks you more questions? That’s deliberate, to reduce the possibility of ‘hallucinations’ i.e AI projecting things when it has a gap in its knowledge. “In the late 1970s, Orac was portrayed as: • A portable supercomputer • Capable of predicting outcomes • Able to penetrate other systems • Annoyingly self-aware and superior • Small enough to carry in a box At the time, that was wildly speculative. Now: • You carry a slab of glass on your desk or in your pocket more powerful than Orac. • It connects to a planetary network. • It can access vast archives instantly. • It can converse in natural language. What’s striking is that the form factor is actually less dramatic than the cultural shift. Orac was rare, elite, secret — a monopoly of power. Modern AI is diffuse. Distributed. Embedded in everyday life.”