I don't know about my secret superpower, but I'd love to be able to teleport or fly
Hey, same! I think reading minds would be pretty amazing too, although only if I could turn it off when I wanted to I guess my brother always tells me my super power is taking everything too seriously so I guess that counts haha
I wouldn't want to read minds, but maybe be able to tell when people are lying
ooh, that would be good too. Although kinda stressful So how did you get interested in this whole chit chat dealio?
BYU CS department sent a message out asking for volunteers.  How about you?
I saw one of the flyers in the Talmage, and then someone came into one of my CS classes to talk about it
Which Cs class?
Just 142:) my first experience with programming really, but I enjoyed it a lot.
good.  Keep with it, it's great
are you a CS major/minor?
yup Junior
Ah nice. I'm an animation premajor and I'm probably going to do the minor
what's the difference? I thought animation was just an emphasis
Wait the difference between what? Oh there's an animation emphasis for CS majors, but there's a whole animation major too
I did not know that
CS majors with the animation emphasis usually work on the game, but the animation majors mostly work on the film and help more with the art aspect of the game
Do you speak another language?
And yeah BYU's animation program is really tiny but it's one of the best ones out there! So it's crazy competitive haha, I'm a little nervous about getting in Yeah, German
Is German your first language?
Nah, I wish I was that fluent! I took it for six years in high school and middle school and I've visited Germany and Switzerland, so I'm reasonably fluent
I've heard the tales of the competition
do you speak any other languages?
that's sounds like fun Spanish
Nice! I actually ended up in German because the Spanish class I wanted to take was full, so my Spanish is pretty basic, but it's a cool language so I don't know tons about AI, but I get the feel that maybe the BYU AI is going to talk a lot about super powers because I feel like every conversation prompt is about that
I wish there were emojis, because that was funny
Same! Like I get that it's meant to be a spoken language kind of a deal, but it feels really weird to talk to someone through a messaging platform without using emojis
if the AI is going to be at all text based, it needs to learn emojis too
Yeah, they're such a huge part of how we communicate now ... But my understanding of the goal was that the AI would be sort of like an amazon Alexa that can talk out loud to people
Favorite emoji? oh, I see
oooh probably the upside down smiley face one It just speaks to my soul But I use the crying laughing one the most for sure you?
Wink and cry-laughing My ex used the upside down smiley face so much, it's kind of lost favor with me
Ah sorry to hear that. I do think the whole concept of emojis is pretty cool though. I hear people saying things like "they're ruining the english language!!" but I disagree
it's deffinitely hurting our vocabulary
I guess that could be true, but I like that it gives you a way to add some emotion to a text-based message without having to stress too much about it
i agree Do you like to read books?
Yes! I haven't had a ton of time to read with finals recently, but now that I'm done I started this really interesting one called Hillbilly Elegy
fiction or non-fiction?
Non-fiction. It's about cyclical rural poverty in America and it's written by a guy who was the first in his family to get out of that life and go to college I like non-fiction too though Have you read anything interesting lately?
I read a book last week by C. S. Lewis called The Great Divorce.  I didn't much like it
Oh really? That's actually one of my favorites haha. Why didn't you like it?
It's a good idea, but I'm not a fan of his writing style, I think.
Yeah, I guess he's not for everyone. Did you ever read his Narnia books?
yea, when I was a kid.  I enjoyed them then but I don't think I would now.
are you just more interested in different genres now, or . . . ?
no, I love fantasy.  My favorite books are by Brandon Sanderson.  I honestly think it's just his writing style that doesn't reach me like it does other people
Ooh Brandon Sanderson is awesome! And yeah, I guess he's a little more matter-of-fact-y for a fantasy writer and that can be off-putting what are you favorite Brandon Sanderson books?
Mistborn Then Elantris
Okay, I haven't read either of those, but I really want to read Elantris especially. I really like Steelheart and the Rithmatist, and even his Alcatraz books
I haven't read those.
although I feel like since he's working on so many things at once we never get sequels so I'm afraid to get attached to things he writes before they're 100% finished
I highly recommend mistborn
I'll have to add it to my list!
The original Mistborn trilogy is finished so go nuts
Oh thank goodness
But he wrote another series on that same planet that takes place ~300 years after the first series ends, that one is missing one book
OH NO But that's really fun. I love when there are series that connect to each other
It'll be out in a year or two
Okay well that's perfect because I'm waiting for a mission call right now, so I won't be too sad waiting for it if I get into them now