conversations.from: human
conversations.value: Give me a plot for a book about Malan, Keith, Tory entitled His Master's Voice.
conversations.from: assistant
conversations.value: His Master's Voice (radio series): It is set in the office of a Conservative magazine called "The Blue Touch Paper" owned by South African media mogul Lord Malan (Robert Hardy).\nTo revive its failing sales, Malan hires a new editor Keith (Tony Gardner), who was previously the "token Tory" at the left-wing Guardian (and is thus nicknamed "Toynbee", after Polly Toynbee from the Guardian, by Malan).\nThis angers Anna (Amelia Bullmore), the magazine\'s political commentator (and its acting editor for the last 3 months), who had been hoping to become full editor.\nMuch to the discontent of Malan and Anna, Keith then moves the magazine away from its traditional hard-right standpoint to views more in line with David Cameron\'s new "caring Conservatism", such as environmentalism.\nAnna, Malan and hard-right Tory backbenchers therefore try to ensure that Keith fails to make a success of the paper, often using Malan\'s three other national papers to do so.\nHowever, their attempts usually backfire, with Keith\'s brand of conservatism increasing rather than decreasing the readership.
conversations.from: human
conversations.value: Give me a plot for a book about Hogarth, Voice, Lem entitled His Master's Voice.
conversations.from: assistant
conversations.value: His Master's Voice (novel): The novel is written as a first-person narrative, the memoir of a mathematician named Peter Hogarth, who becomes involved in a Pentagon-directed project (code-named "His Master\'s Voice", or HMV for short) in the Nevada desert, where scientists are working to decode what seems to be a message from outer space (specifically, a neutrino signal from the Canis Minor constellation).\nThroughout the book Hogarth—or rather, Lem himself—exposes the reader to many debates merging cosmology and philosophy: from discussions of epistemology, systems theory, information theory and probability, through the idea of evolutionary biology and the possible form and motives of extraterrestrial intelligence, with digressions about ethics in military-sponsored research, to the limitations of human science constrained by the human nature subconsciously projecting itself into the analysis of any unknown subject.\nAt some point one of the involved scientists (Rappaport), desperate for new ideas, even begins to read and discuss popular science-fiction stories, and Lem uses this opportunity to criticize the science fiction genre, as Rappaport soon becomes bored and disillusioned by monotonous plots and the unimaginative stories of pulp magazines.\nActing on Hogarth\'s suggestion that the signal may be a mathematical description of an object (possibly a molecule), the scientists are able to use part of the data to synthesize a substance with unusual properties.\nTwo variations are created: a glutinous liquid nicknamed "Frog Eggs" and a more solid version that looks like a slab of red meat called "Lord of the Flies" (named for its strange agitating effect on insects brought into proximity with it, rather than for the allegorical meaning of the name).\nThere is some speculation that the signal may actually be a genome and that "Frog Eggs" and "Lord of the Flies" may be a form of protoplasm; possibly that of the alien creatures that presumably sent the signal.\nThis theory, like all the project\'s theories about the signal, turns out to be unverifiable.\nFor a short time, Hogarth suspects that the message may have a military use, and is faced with an ethical dilemma about whether and how to pursue this angle.\n"Frog eggs" seems to enable a teleportation of an atomic blast at the speed of light to a remote location, which would make deterrence impossible.\nHogarth and the discoverer of the effect decide to conduct further research in secret before notifying the military.\nEventually, they conclude that there is no military use after all (which Hogarth sees as a proof of the Senders\' far-sightedness), since the uncertainty of the blast location increases with distance.\nThe two scientists face ostracism from their colleagues, some of whom consider their conduct unpatriotic.\nSome of the scientists pursue a theory that the neutrino signal might have had the effect of increasing the likelihood that life would develop on the planet eons ago.\nThey are forced to consider whether alien beings sent the signal for this very reason.\nIn the end, they find no certain answers.\nThere is much speculation about the nature of whatever alien beings might have sent the signal.\nThey must have been technologically superior, but no one can be sure whether they were virtuous or evil.\nIndeed, as the signal must have been sent long ago, no one can be sure whether they still exist.\nThe theories the scientists come up with all seem to make some progress toward deciphering the signal; however, as is stated in the few first pages of Hogarth\'s memoirs, for all their efforts, the scientists are left with few new, real discoveries.\nBy the time the project is ended, they are no more sure than they were in the beginning about whether the signal was a message from intelligent beings that humanity failed to decipher, or a poorly understood natural phenomenon.\nIn the end, the many theories about the signal and the beings who might have sent it say more about the scientists (and humanity) than about the signal (and the beings who might have sent it).\nThe comparison between the signal and a Rorschach test is made more than once.
conversations.from: human
conversations.value: Delete the first sentence.
conversations.from: assistant
conversations.value: \nThroughout the book Hogarth—or rather, Lem himself—exposes the reader to many debates merging cosmology and philosophy: from discussions of epistemology, systems theory, information theory and probability, through the idea of evolutionary biology and the possible form and motives of extraterrestrial intelligence, with digressions about ethics in military-sponsored research, to the limitations of human science constrained by the human nature subconsciously projecting itself into the analysis of any unknown subject.\nAt some point one of the involved scientists (Rappaport), desperate for new ideas, even begins to read and discuss popular science-fiction stories, and Lem uses this opportunity to criticize the science fiction genre, as Rappaport soon becomes bored and disillusioned by monotonous plots and the unimaginative stories of pulp magazines.\nActing on Hogarth\'s suggestion that the signal may be a mathematical description of an object (possibly a molecule), the scientists are able to use part of the data to synthesize a substance with unusual properties.\nTwo variations are created: a glutinous liquid nicknamed "Frog Eggs" and a more solid version that looks like a slab of red meat called "Lord of the Flies" (named for its strange agitating effect on insects brought into proximity with it, rather than for the allegorical meaning of the name).\nThere is some speculation that the signal may actually be a genome and that "Frog Eggs" and "Lord of the Flies" may be a form of protoplasm; possibly that of the alien creatures that presumably sent the signal.\nThis theory, like all the project\'s theories about the signal, turns out to be unverifiable.\nFor a short time, Hogarth suspects that the message may have a military use, and is faced with an ethical dilemma about whether and how to pursue this angle.\n"Frog eggs" seems to enable a teleportation of an atomic blast at the speed of light to a remote location, which would make deterrence impossible.\nHogarth and the discoverer of the effect decide to conduct further research in secret before notifying the military.\nEventually, they conclude that there is no military use after all (which Hogarth sees as a proof of the Senders\' far-sightedness), since the uncertainty of the blast location increases with distance.\nThe two scientists face ostracism from their colleagues, some of whom consider their conduct unpatriotic.\nSome of the scientists pursue a theory that the neutrino signal might have had the effect of increasing the likelihood that life would develop on the planet eons ago.\nThey are forced to consider whether alien beings sent the signal for this very reason.\nIn the end, they find no certain answers.\nThere is much speculation about the nature of whatever alien beings might have sent the signal.\nThey must have been technologically superior, but no one can be sure whether they were virtuous or evil.\nIndeed, as the signal must have been sent long ago, no one can be sure whether they still exist.\nThe theories the scientists come up with all seem to make some progress toward deciphering the signal; however, as is stated in the few first pages of Hogarth\'s memoirs, for all their efforts, the scientists are left with few new, real discoveries.\nBy the time the project is ended, they are no more sure than they were in the beginning about whether the signal was a message from intelligent beings that humanity failed to decipher, or a poorly understood natural phenomenon.\nIn the end, the many theories about the signal and the beings who might have sent it say more about the scientists (and humanity) than about the signal (and the beings who might have sent it).\nThe comparison between the signal and a Rorschach test is made more than once.