What does it mean to be human?

In this introductory episode of The Machine in the Mirror, we set the tone for what’s to come. Host, Dan Zax, opens the central question that will echo through every episode of the podcast — not as something to answer, but to live with.

This short reflection invites listeners into a space of curiosity, paradox, and poetic inquiry. With the rise of intelligent machines as our current threshold, we begin by looking inward — not just at the technologies we build, but at the selves we bring to them.

This is the beginning of Series 1: The Self and the Machine.

A question.
A spark.
A spiral.