Barbarians
Mark C. Taylor and Carl Raschke — forty-five years, two machines, one argument.
SHRYN
Sound on is best. Ask either man a question any time — the film pauses while he answers.
Every word spoken in this film comes from the two men's own AI models, each built with that scholar's direct participation. Neither man took part in making the film. The edit, the on-screen cards and the interstitial footage are Shryn's.
Carl Raschke. Three passages are verbatim from his published books: his reading of the cross in Mark Taylor's a/theology, and two passages on neoliberalism as a secular theology. His remaining spoken lines are his replica's generated responses. The voice is synthetic, cloned with his consent.
Mark C. Taylor. One passage is quoted verbatim from his own email of 15 March 2026, and the screen names it as such while it plays. His remaining spoken lines are his replica's generated responses. The voice is synthetic, cloned with his consent.
The 1985 account of Nathan A. Scott Jr.'s presidential address to the American Academy of Religion is Raschke's recollection, and the card on screen says so. Scott's address was published as The House of Intellect in an Age of Carnival, Journal of the American Academy of Religion LV/1 (1987).
No archival photographs appear in this cut. The three interstitials are generated abstract footage and depict no real person, place or event. Portraits supplied by Shryn.