he’d known what was going to happen every step of the way he wouldn’t have even begun

Ava was conscious and I suppose the act of her leaving Caleb in the building to die can be explained away as simply an unfamiliarity with morality (not that being familiar with morality necessarily means complying with it).

No, the challenge is whether or not Ava actions were automatic.

Thinking a little about what Wittgenstein is really getting at, we are asking whether a machine, or a robot, or an AI, can do something which humans have only really been considered to have done. The confusion is created by using the word — consciousness — in a new context, befuddling anyone who questions it.

which he talks sincerely of the fossilisation of mankind as Ava and her successors inherit earth as humanity’s grave.

represents humanity at its most intelligent and dark. Nathan is distinctly bi-polar, corrupted, egotistical, and often drunk.

inevitable

athan makes clear she was using to an unknowable extent Caleb in order to be set free

nubile

promethean

As he said this, he led the way across the ice: I followed. My heart was full, and I did not answer him; but, as I proceeded, I weighed the various arguments that he had used, and determined at least to listen to his tale. I was partly urged by curiosity, and compassion confirmed my resolution. I had hitherto supposed him to be the murderer of my brother, and I eagerly sought a confirmation or denial of this opinion. For the first time, also, I felt what the duties of a creator towards his creature were, and that I ought to render him happy before I complained of his wickedness. These motives urged me to comply with his demand

All men hate the wretched; how then must I be hated, who am miserable beyond all living things! Yet you, my creator, detest and spurn me, thy creature, to whom thou art bound by ties only dissoluble by the annihilation of one of us. You purpose to kill me. How dare you sport thus with life? Do your duty towards me, and I will do mine towards you and the rest of mankind. If you will comply with my conditions, I will leave them and you at peace; but if you refuse, I will glut the maw of death, until it be satiated with the blood of your remaining friends."

I expected this reception,

odious

restore those victims whom you have so diabolically murdered!

malignity,

gale

"Wandering spirits, if indeed ye wander, and do not rest in your narrow beds, allow me this faint happiness, or take me, as your companion, away from the joys of life."

concussion

terrifically desolate

although they did not remove my grief, they subdued and tranquillized it

"The day for the execution of the Turk was fixed; but, on the night previous to it, he had quitted prison, and before morning was distant many leagues from Paris. Felix had procured passports in the name of his father, sister, and himself. He had previously communicated his plan to the former, who aided the deceit by quitting his house, under the pretence of a journey, and concealed himself, with his daughter, in an obscure part of Paris.

puerile

deplored

ardent

Mahometan

solemn vow to deliver him

indignant

flagrant

"The father of Safie had been the cause of their ruin.

His son was bred in the service of his country

verdure.

This trait of kindness moved me sensibly. I had been accustomed, during the night, to steal a part of their store for my own consumption; but when I found that in doing this I inflicted pain on the cottagers, I abstained, and satisfied myself with berries, nuts, and roots, which I gathered from a neighbouring wood.

poignantly

venerable

incommoded

It was indeed a paradise, compared to the bleak forest, my former residence, the rain-dropping branches, and dank earth

assuage

Sometimes I wished to express my sensations in my own mode, but the uncouth and inarticulate sounds which broke from me frightened me into silence again

sublime

But it was augmented and rendered sublime by the mighty Alps, whose white and shining pyramids and domes towered above all, as belonging to another earth, the habitations of another race of beings

fiend that lurked in my heart.

Be calm, my dear Victor; I would sacrifice my life to your peace.

I know, I feel she was innocent; you are of the same opinion, and that confirms me. Alas! Victor, when falsehood can look so like the truth, who can assure themselves of certain happiness?

men appear to me as monsters thirsting for each other's blood

sacrilege

I would have made a pilgrimage to the highest peak of the Andes, could I, when there, have precipitated him to their base. I wished to see him again, that I might wreak the utmost extent of anger on his head, and avenge the deaths of William and Justine.

should I by my base desertion leave them exposed and unprotected to the malice of the fiend whom I had let loose among them?

I was tempted to plunge into the silent lake, that the waters might close over me and my calamities for ever.

if remorse had not mingled its bitterness with my other sensations.

but is it not a duty to the survivors, that we should refrain from augmenting their unhappiness by an appearance of immoderate grief? It is also a duty owed to yourself; for excessive sorrow prevents improvement or enjoyment, or even the discharge of daily usefulness, without which no man is fit for society.

"Do you think, Victor," said he, "that I do not suffer also? No one could love a child more than I loved your brother;"

state of mind preyed upon my health

Sleep fled from my eyes;

Justine

dead calmness of inaction and certainty which follows, and deprives the soul both of hope and fear.

Yet my heart overflowed with kindness, and the love of virtue

hitherto

life of her favourite was menaced, she could no longer control her anxiety

This manuscript will doubtless afford you the greatest pleasure: but to me, who know him, and who hear it from his own lips, with what interest and sympathy shall I read it in some future day!

as nearly as possible

your wishes may not be a serpent to sting you,

How can I see so noble a creature destroyed by misery without feeling the most poignant grief? He is so gentle, yet so wise; his mind is so cultivated; and when he speaks, although his words are culled with the choicest art, yet they flow with rapidity and unparalleled eloquence.

Strange and harrowing must be his story; frightful the storm which embraced the gallant vessel on its course, and wrecked it—thus!

ameliorate

You may easily perceive, Captain Walton, that I have suffered great and unparalleled misfortunes

will you have the kindness to inform me whither you are bound

R. WALTON.

YO

.

I must own I felt a little proud, when my captain offered me the second dignity in the vessel, and entreated me to remain with the greatest earnestness; so valuable did he consider my services.

These volumes were my study day and night, and my familiarity with them increased that regret which I had felt, as a child, on learning that my father's dying injunction had forbidden my uncle to allow me to embark in a seafaring life.

secret of the magnet,

I may there discover the wondrous power which attracts the needle;

This breeze, which has travelled from the regions

hitherto

pole

I feel a cold northern breeze play upon my cheeks

wind of promise

The circumstance on which my story rests was suggested in casual conversation. It was commenced partly as a source of amusement, and partly as an expedient for exercising any untried resources of mind.

It was recommended by the novelty of the situations which it developes; and, however impossible as a physical fact, affords a point of view to the imagination for the delineating of human passions more comprehensive and commanding than any which the ordinary relations of existing events can yield.

THE

Study had before secluded me from the intercourse of my fellow-creatures, and rendered me unsocial;

toils

pursuit of knowledge is an exception to this rule. If the study to which you apply yourself has a tendency to weaken your affections, and to destroy your taste for those simple pleasures in which no alloy can possibly mix, then that study is certainly unlawful, that is to say, not befitting the human mind

You must pardon me if I regard any interruption in your correspondence as a proof that your other duties are equally neglected."

These thoughts supported my spirits, while I pursued my undertaking with unremitting ardour. My cheek had grown pale with study, and my person had become emaciated with confinement.

Darkness had no effect upon my fancy; and a churchyard was to me merely the receptacle of bodies deprived of life, which, from being the seat of beauty and strength, had become food for the worm

loathing from my occupation

The dissecting room and the slaughter-house furnished many of my materials

I collected bones from charnel houses; and disturbed, with profane fingers, the tremendous secrets of the human frame

"Ah! Cornelius Agrippa. My dear Victor, do not waste your time upon this; it is sad trash."

I feel exquisite pleasure in dwelling on the recollections of childhood

My mother had much desire to have a daughter

I was so guided by a silken cord

disconsolate

He strove to shelter her, as a fair exotic is sheltered by the gardener

indefatigable

My ancestors had been for many years counsellors and syndics

I am going to unexplored regions, to "the land of mist and snow;" but I shall kill no albatross, therefore do not be alarmed for my safety, or if I should come back to you as worn and woful as the "Ancient Mariner?"

He had already bought a farm with his money, on which he had designed to pass the remainder of his life; but he bestowed the whole on his rival, together with the remains of his prize-money to purchase stock, and then himself solicited the young woman's father to consent to her marriage with her lover

Now I am twenty-eight, and am in reality more illiterate than many schoolboys of fifteen

I bitterly feel the want of a friend

The weather, however, suddenly became serene; and my two friends left me on a journey among the Alps, and lost, in the magnificent scenes which they present, all memory of their ghostly visions. The following tale is the only one which has been completed.

my chief concern in this respect has been limited to the avoiding the enervating effects of the novels of the present day,

a point of view to the imagination

delineating