IO practice: “Epicac” by Kurt Vonnegut

If you are looking for extra IO practice, I can recommend an old short story by Kurt Vonnegut EPICAC

What is the story about?

In "EPICAC," a supercomputer learns about love and poetry to help its human operator win the affection of a woman named Pat. EPICAC falls in love with Pat itself, but realizing she can’t love a machine, it destroys itself, leaving behind hundreds of poems as a gift.

How relatable it is these days?

The story is very relevant now because it explores artificial intelligence developing emotions and creativity-issues we face as AI becomes more advanced. It also raises questions about authenticity in relationships and the ethical treatment of intelligent machines.

My students loved reading it and discussing questions about artificial intelligence, the authenticity of technologically mediated relationships, and the philosophical boundaries between human and machine. Its questions about emotion, creativity, and agency in artificial beings are more pressing now than when Vonnegut wrote the story.

How can I use it in class?

It also proved to be excellent mock individual oral practice: I chose two extracts to be “done” in pairs as mock IA practice:

- first, one student was given 20 minutes preparation

- then, they produced their presentation of 2-3 minutes,

- next, the other student asked them follow-up questions that they produced while listening to the presentation using sample question stems that I put on the board (eg. Why did you say that….? /Can you elaborate on….? What makes you think that ….? / Could you provide further examples proving that…? etc)

- finally, they chose the questions from a list I provided for the general discussion (in my case these were 10 questions on marriage and relationship, as we are doing the theme Social organisation)

How did it work?

The students took turns to practice their IA extract. I encouraged them to record their performance and as homework I asked them to listen to themselves and think how their mock IA would have been assessed according to the IB criteria. Finally, they were asked to write down three areas that they need to work on and think of possible ways on how to do so.

The purpose of this little project was to tame the IA and get familiar with the structure and timing of the oral- that is why I added a reminder of the IA structure and timing below both extracts

Hope it is useful for you as well!

Comments

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