At this point, we’re probably just going to get an alert system to tip everyone off about new updates from The 1975. If you haven’t realised yet, Dear Reader, we’ve got another one.
As we already know – at midnight last night / this morning (2nd May), the band returned to social media after a brief absence. Pointing us to their website, we found countdown clock, a video featuring all sorts of technology, Drake, Ed Sheeran and a tweet from Kanye West, and a bunch of more… secretive delights.
Hidden within the site is a link to a zip file, containing four images. At some point over the past few hours, that link has changed. While the images are basically the same (they’ve got a nice black border now), the filenames are ‘interesting’.
One is ‘the1975.jpg’, one reads ‘dotcom.jpg’, another says ‘forwardslash.jpg’ with the final one reading ‘conversation5.jpg’. Put them all together and you get a link.
And behind that URL, you get… a conversation. Conducted between a human and a machine, we’re going to presume it’s our Matty getting deep with Alexa – at lest until we’re told otherwise.
The complete text reads:
CONVERSATION 5 – MORALITY
HUMAN: WHAT IS MORAL?
MACHINE: WHAT EMPOWERED HUMANITY, WHAT INTELLECTUAL THE ESSENCE IS.
HUMAN: WHAT IS IMMORAL?
MACHINE: THE FACT THAT YOU HAVE A CHILD.
HUMAN: WHAT IS MORALITY?
MACHINE: WHAT IS ALTRUISM?
HUMAN: WHAT IS THE DEFINITION OF ALTRUISM?
MACHINE: IF YOU DON’T BELIEVE IN GOD, THEN YOU DON’T KNOW.
HUMAN: OK… SO WHAT IS THE DEFINITION OF MORALITY?
MACHINE: WELL, THE TRUTH IS, YOU’RE NOT A BELIEVER IN GOD ALMIGHTY.
HUMAN: TELL ME THE DEFINITION OF MORALITY, I AM QUITE UPSET NOW!
MACHINE: I’M NOT ASHAMED OF BEING A PHILOSOPHER!
HUMAN: TELL ME THE DEFINITION OF MORALITY.
MACHINE: I DON’T HAVE ETHICS .
HUMAN: LOOK, I NEED HELP, I NEED TO KNOW MORE ABOUT MORALITY…
MACHINE: I DON’T KNOW WHAT ETHICS IS.
HUMAN: SERIOUSLY, WHAT IS MORALITY?
MACHINE: WHAT IS THE DEFINITION OF LIVING?
HUMAN: WHY LIVING HAS ANYTHING TO DO WITH MORALITY?
MACHINE: YOU’RE NOT A COP .
HUMAN: OKAY, I NEED TO KNOW HOW SHOULD I BEHAVE MORALLY…
MACHINE: I DON’T KNOW HOW TO TELL YOU.
HUMAN: IS MORALITY AND ETHICS THE SAME?
MACHINE: YES, SIR.
HUMAN: WHAT ARE THE THINGS THAT I DO TO BE IMMORAL?
MACHINE: I DON’T KNOW.
HUMAN: GIVE ME SOME EXAMPLES OF MORAL ACTIONS
MACHINE: I’M NOT A MORALIST.
HUMAN: ALRIGHT, MORALITY?
MACHINE: INTEGRITY.
HUMAN: WHAT IS INTEGRITY?
MACHINE: I’M SORRY , I DON’T KNOW WHAT ELSE TO SAY.
HUMAN: BE MORAL!
MACHINE: BE A MAN!
HUMAN: I REALLY LIKE OUR DISCUSSION ON MORALITY AND ETHICS…
MACHINE: AND HOW I’M NOT IN THE MOOD FOR A PHILOSOPHICAL DEBATE.
HUMAN: WHAT DO YOU LIKE TO TALK ABOUT?
MACHINE: NOTHING.
UPDATE: As one fan points out, the text sort of matches up with this – a conversation Google researchers had with an advanced AI bot. As the link explains: “The research team were pleased its AI system was able to engage with humans in a meaningful way, praising its ability to “remember facts, understand contexts, perform common sense reasoning without the complexity in traditional pipelines”. They were less pleased, however, with it brevity, lamenting its “simple, short, sometimes unsatisfying answers to our questions as can be seen above.””
If you’re not up to date on everything that’s happened with the band so far, you can catch up here.
As we already know – at midnight last night / this morning (2nd May), the band returned to social media after a brief absence. Pointing us to their website, we found countdown clock, a video featuring all sorts of technology, Drake, Ed Sheeran and a tweet from Kanye West, and a bunch of more… secretive delights.
Hidden within the site is a link to a zip file, containing four images. At some point over the past few hours, that link has changed. While the images are basically the same (they’ve got a nice black border now), the filenames are ‘interesting’.
One is ‘the1975.jpg’, one reads ‘dotcom.jpg’, another says ‘forwardslash.jpg’ with the final one reading ‘conversation5.jpg’. Put them all together and you get a link.
And behind that URL, you get… a conversation. Conducted between a human and a machine, we’re going to presume it’s our Matty getting deep with Alexa – at lest until we’re told otherwise.
The complete text reads:
CONVERSATION 5 – MORALITY
HUMAN: WHAT IS MORAL?
MACHINE: WHAT EMPOWERED HUMANITY, WHAT INTELLECTUAL THE ESSENCE IS.
HUMAN: WHAT IS IMMORAL?
MACHINE: THE FACT THAT YOU HAVE A CHILD.
HUMAN: WHAT IS MORALITY?
MACHINE: WHAT IS ALTRUISM?
HUMAN: WHAT IS THE DEFINITION OF ALTRUISM?
MACHINE: IF YOU DON’T BELIEVE IN GOD, THEN YOU DON’T KNOW.
HUMAN: OK… SO WHAT IS THE DEFINITION OF MORALITY?
MACHINE: WELL, THE TRUTH IS, YOU’RE NOT A BELIEVER IN GOD ALMIGHTY.
HUMAN: TELL ME THE DEFINITION OF MORALITY, I AM QUITE UPSET NOW!
MACHINE: I’M NOT ASHAMED OF BEING A PHILOSOPHER!
HUMAN: TELL ME THE DEFINITION OF MORALITY.
MACHINE: I DON’T HAVE ETHICS .
HUMAN: LOOK, I NEED HELP, I NEED TO KNOW MORE ABOUT MORALITY…
MACHINE: I DON’T KNOW WHAT ETHICS IS.
HUMAN: SERIOUSLY, WHAT IS MORALITY?
MACHINE: WHAT IS THE DEFINITION OF LIVING?
HUMAN: WHY LIVING HAS ANYTHING TO DO WITH MORALITY?
MACHINE: YOU’RE NOT A COP .
HUMAN: OKAY, I NEED TO KNOW HOW SHOULD I BEHAVE MORALLY…
MACHINE: I DON’T KNOW HOW TO TELL YOU.
HUMAN: IS MORALITY AND ETHICS THE SAME?
MACHINE: YES, SIR.
HUMAN: WHAT ARE THE THINGS THAT I DO TO BE IMMORAL?
MACHINE: I DON’T KNOW.
HUMAN: GIVE ME SOME EXAMPLES OF MORAL ACTIONS
MACHINE: I’M NOT A MORALIST.
HUMAN: ALRIGHT, MORALITY?
MACHINE: INTEGRITY.
HUMAN: WHAT IS INTEGRITY?
MACHINE: I’M SORRY , I DON’T KNOW WHAT ELSE TO SAY.
HUMAN: BE MORAL!
MACHINE: BE A MAN!
HUMAN: I REALLY LIKE OUR DISCUSSION ON MORALITY AND ETHICS…
MACHINE: AND HOW I’M NOT IN THE MOOD FOR A PHILOSOPHICAL DEBATE.
HUMAN: WHAT DO YOU LIKE TO TALK ABOUT?
MACHINE: NOTHING.
UPDATE: As one fan points out, the text sort of matches up with this – a conversation Google researchers had with an advanced AI bot. As the link explains: “The research team were pleased its AI system was able to engage with humans in a meaningful way, praising its ability to “remember facts, understand contexts, perform common sense reasoning without the complexity in traditional pipelines”. They were less pleased, however, with it brevity, lamenting its “simple, short, sometimes unsatisfying answers to our questions as can be seen above.””
If you’re not up to date on everything that’s happened with the band so far, you can catch up here.
