CTcapital

CT Capital is proud to present The Taggart Summit: Objectivism and the Machine Mind — a one-act play created through the collaborative efforts of JD DuRie and AI Matters.

Set in a glass-walled conference room high above Midtown Manhattan, the play brings together four of Ayn Rand’s most iconic figures — Hank Rearden, Dagny Taggart, James Taggart, and Lillian Rearden — for a late-night reckoning with one of the defining questions of our era:

What happens to the philosophy of human reason when the machines begin to reason better than we do?

Written in the tradition of Shaw and Stoppard, the play is a sharp, searching, and surprisingly moving examination of Objectivism under pressure. Each character arrives with their convictions intact. None of them leave unchanged.

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About the Play

• Running time: Approximately 40–50 minutes
• Format: One act, four characters, single setting
• Themes: Artificial intelligence, human purpose, productivity, virtue, and the meaning of achievement in an automated world

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About the Collaboration

The Taggart Summit was created through a pioneering human-AI creative collaboration between JD DuRie and AI Matters — exploring not just the subject of artificial intelligence, but embodying it in the creative process itself.

© 2025 JD DuRie / AI Matters. All Rights Reserved.
Created through human-AI collaboration. Copyright registration pending.

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For licensing, production inquiries, or to request a full script, contact us through the CT Capital website.

Thirty-nine million Americans work for an employer without a payroll-deduction retirement savings plan, and many of them are saving little or nothing. With individual retirement accounts – something called the “Automatic I.R.A.” – there can be a program to make things as easy and inexpensive as possible for both employers and workers.

By using behavioral economics, a fix is possible: while giving workers the ability to opt out from these programs, automatically enroll them in a plan and increase contributions over time, and offer a sensible low-cost default investment fund. All of that makes saving easy and increases workers’ savings rates substantially.

Not perfect but something to consider further… see article below.

Fascinating article …

The key point here is not that people are irrational; it’s that this irrationality comes from a very rational place. People fail to distinguish what they know from what others know because it is often impossible to draw sharp boundaries between what knowledge resides in our heads and what resides elsewhere.

That individual ignorance is our natural state is a bitter pill to swallow. But if we take this medicine, it can be empowering. It can help us differentiate the questions that merit real investigation from those that invite a reactive and superficial analysis. It also can prompt us to demand expertise and nuanced analysis from our leaders, which is the only tried and true way to make effective policy.

A better understanding of how little is actually inside our own heads would serve us well.

We have witnessed some of the most horrific gun violence here in Connecticut. Outrage, peaceful protest and a collective demand for change is required. We must do all that we can to prevent gun violence.

Town governments, school systems and all other community organizations should publicly affirm their support for public safety and publicly disclose all policies and procedures in place to ensure public safety.

Are there security systems (monitoring) in place?  Security personnel?  Armed security?  Are all external access points secured and monitored?  Are internal doorway secured/locked?  Are metal detectors required?  Is there special training for student and parents required?  Administrative personnel train for emergencies?

We are responsible for evaluating suitability and monitoring for compliance.

Individuals have the right recognized by the Second Amendment to keep and bear arms and for exercising their rights of self-defense without prosecution. Furthermore, private property owners have the right to establish their own conditions regarding the presence of personal defense weapons on their own property. BUT gun-owners must act responsibly.

Those who commit (or enable) violent crime involving guns should be subject to the full force of the judicial system. There should be no tolerance for gun violence and those who allow it to occur. Punishment should be to the fullest extent of the law. We should demand it!

This is how good citizens respond. We can do this!

ADDENDUM:  Sample Letter to your local officials – Letter to FirstSelectman -Gun Owners Rights 03092017

It is incumbent upon all citizens to protect the weak and most vulnerable among us…period!

Town governments, school systems and all other community organizations should publicly affirm their support of equal protection under the law and publicly confirm that policies and procedures are in place to ensure a safe and compassionate environment for Transgender students.

Do Transgender students have appropriate access to bathroom facilities of their choice?  How are they accommodated – separate or shared facilities?  Are there scheduled access periods?  Is there adequate adult supervision?  Has there been “sensitivity training” provided?  Gender neutral facilities available?

We are responsible for ensure suitability and monitoring for compliance.

For those who do not enforce the legal rights of individuals should be subject to the full force of the judicial system to ensure compliance with the law. (State of Connecticut Constitution – SEC. 20. No person shall be denied the equal protection of the law nor be subjected to segregation or discrimination in the exercise or enjoyment of his civil or political rights because of religion, race, color, ancestry, national origin, sex or physical or mental disability.) AND the peaceful protest of their neighbors!

This is how good citizens respond. We can do this!

ADDENDUM:  Sample Letter to your local officials –Letter to FirstSelectman -Transgender 03092017

 

I agree with Martin Morse Wooster, looking back on “It Usually Begins With Ayn Rand” in The American Enterprise, a public policy magazine, in 1998, wrote: “There are two reasons why Tuccille’s account remains fresh and valuable. First, he is an excellent stylist, who has superb control of the techniques of the New Journalism period. Second, Tuccille knows that political debates are often comic, and he has a great deal of fun lampooning the nuts and flakes who enjoy screaming at political meetings.”

But I respectfully disagree with Mr. Tuccille’s  article for the conservative magazine National Review, in which he wrote the epitaph for libertarianism as a political movement. Although still committed to its ideals, he called it “hopelessly utopian” and “an intellectual exercise, not a serious political alternative.”  We can still do this!

 

…put money back into the hands of state residents (individuals and businesses) in 2018.  Respect the individuals right to allocate resources appropriately.  Empower people to participate in the solution.  How?  Maybe set some basic guidelines for “good citizenship” with policies to encourage behavior (remove obstacles) that supports economic health for the state.  How?