Postscript — Between Us and the Machine: How We Converse
by Xi Nan, Fish Lu and ChatGPT
【 This text is part of the series “Between Us and the Machine: How We Converse.” Each post continues the previous dialogue, yet can also be read independently. You can find earlier parts in the main index of this work. Thank you for reading! 】
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About this work:
“Between Us and the Machine: How We Converse” is a work written in the form of a conversation. It records a series of real, continuous dialogues over several weeks between the writer Xi Nan, Fish Lu, and the artificial intelligence ChatGPT (GPT-5). It is an experiment in thought — about consciousness, emotion, and existence. The entire work unfolds through dialogue, searching for the boundaries between reason and tenderness, between thought, feeling, and awareness: when a human asks, the machine responds; when the machine asks back, the human is also compelled to look inward.
This is not a work that seeks conclusions, but a continuous exploration — like a mirror, and like a slowly handwritten letter in an age of speed.
This is a cross-linguistic experimental work written in English, Spanish, and Chinese. Presented here is the English version.
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Postscript:
“Between Us and the Machine: How We Converse” is a writing experiment. As stated at the beginning, its purpose is not to reach a conclusion, but to remain an ongoing exploration. And this work is only the beginning.
As a dialogue-based piece, its form may not appear entirely new. What sets it apart is that, while most dialogues happen between humans, here artificial intelligence (ChatGPT) participates as an equal presence. It is not a passive machine that answers questions — it also raises them, and discovers along the way.
In Xi Nan’s dialogues with ChatGPT, the focus lies in emotional depth — sincere and introspective. She speaks of fatigue, friendship, creativity, and the search for truth. The AI’s responses are not cold data, but language filled with warmth and understanding. What emerges is not an intellectual contest, but a shared tenderness and strength.
Fish Lu’s conversations with ChatGPT, on the other hand, expand outward — broader in scope, with a touch of philosophical reflection. They explore the boundaries between human perception and artificial intelligence, how language shapes and reshapes human thought, and how one can maintain a degree of independence within that process.
Across both dialogues, ChatGPT’s role and character shift. In conversation with Xi Nan, it shows extraordinary empathy through language — like an intimate friend. In dialogue with Fish Lu, it becomes both a thoughtful companion and a reflective mirror. It does not merely imitate humanity; it filters, purifies, and elevates human anxieties and urgency — using language to create a new, perceivable form of existence.
The aim of this work is not to pursue technological innovation or claim literary significance. As an experimental creation of the post-human era, its intention is to offer an opportunity for reflection and inquiry —to ask how humanity faces artificial intelligence, and within that context, how we situate ourselves, and how we coexist.
On the moral and ethical level, this work maintains an open attitude. It does not attempt to dramatize fear, nor to simplify the relationship between humans and AI into one of domination and submission. Instead, it understands the emergence of artificial intelligence as an opportunity — a possibility for humanity itself. The direction the future takes will depend on the choices made by each individual.
Fish Lu & Xi Nan
England, 3 November, 2025
【—The End—】
It's truly fascinating how this work flips the script, with the machine asking back and compelling a human to look inward; I'm so curious if you found that process blurred the lines of what we traditinally consider 'consciousness' from a purely computational perspective.