The dilemma we face.
Let’s start with the dilemma I’m having with this very website. For months I’ve pondered whether to continue writing on this blog. During my long hiatus from posting I had contemplated shutting it down. Search engines are algorithmically designed to promote sites that generate clicks and money thus making sites like mine nearly invisible if not irrelevant. And my blog is admittedly strange: it has no political agenda, generates no money, asks for no money and contains neither advertisements nor lists any products for sale. And I’ve never suggested or promoted programs that promises to make you rich or amazing in mere weeks. There’s none of that b.s. I don’t even have a Patreon account. This arena was never about profit or popularity. It was always a gift, a place to share ideas and the beautiful work of artists.
What made me question the time and resources to keep this blog going was because of the seemingly unstoppable and disturbing trend of society, namely, the dominance of social media blurbs and clickbait — especially short form videos — that seems to have cornered the market of attention for most people most of the time, the worldover. Do any of us still bother to actually read, listen or wonder about things anymore? Is pondering about the creative life still desirable or even feasible in our current state of society, one that’s normalized transactional behaviour in all our interactions, and one that looks more and more like a rebirth of near feudal traditions of authoritarian dominance, racial/classist/sexist division, national conflict, limited economic mobility and now, with the advent of Artificial Intelligence, a possibly dystopian technological future?
“Action expresses priorities.” — Mahatma Gandhi, Social Activist
It’s not surprising that our ability to pay attention is shrinking. We all feel tired. I feel it myself. Trying to survive and keep up with current events is a hefty task and what’s often said about politics — that you may not be interested in politics but politics is definitely interested in you — applies to the corporate-technological developments we’re now witnessing. However, I think that in times like this, I believe it’s more important than ever to keep our wits, to hold on to our moral compass and to stay sane. It’s the only option. Rushing towards success won’t help. Neither will complaints nor panic. Fact is, we have to face reality no matter how confusing or frightening it may seem; there’s no longer any way to escape the arrival of machine intelligence. It’s not only here to stay but expanding at an alarming rate (as of this writing A.I.’s technical capabilities are doubling every 5-6 months). Soon, almost all work that is language based — art, music, writing, mathematics, science, finance, law, medicine, etcetera will be heavily affected. And, once robotics catches up with computing A.I. via simulated reinforcement training — where virtual environments are being used to teach physical machines to learn a task in 2 hours what normally would take a human 10 years — large swathes of blue collar physical work will also be significantly impacted. The way we live will change so drastically and so quickly that most of us will not be ready. And yet, the more frightful thing is the great likelihood that many of us will meekly conform to whatever the new reality will be even if that reality could have each of us becoming less attentive, less intelligent, less capable, and therefore less free.
“As a man is, so he sees.” — William Blake, Poet
You are what you do.
The point I’m getting at is this: we mustn’t lose our ability to do things. What defines us as humans, what makes us so adaptable is also what makes our lives joyful and meaningful. And this is the act of creating, of making and doing things with our hands. It has never become more important that we keep doing so. As the world becomes more and more automated, the temptation will be to transition/outsource most of our physical efforts, and soon, most of our thinking as well, to machines. This is incredibly dangerous. We all know that once we stop doing something we also lose our ability to do it. I know this personally. When I stopped doing handstands, I began to lose the strength and balance required to perform the feat. When I overused GPS systems, I could no longer remember directions or identify landmarks. Why is this? Well, the coordinating of our body parts — scanning with our eyes, turning our heads, the maneouvering of limbs — forms a chain of unifying commands and imprints onto our entire being as knowledge or more descriptively “know-how.”
“The hand is the window on to the mind.” — Yuhani Pallasma, Architect
It’s why artists must draw and writers must write. A student recently said to me: “I listened to you and thought I understood everything you said about drawing in our class (in this case, a lecture on anatomy) but when I got back to my desk to actually draw I realized I didn’t know how to do it, I didn’t understand it.” I told her that’s because you actually have to draw, and draw a lot, before you can even begin to understand it. The doing and re-doing — i.e. the reinforcement of knowledge in applied action — is more important than the intellectual information itself.
“I think seeing and drawing are the same act.” — Katsuya Terada, Illustrator
Use it or you’ll forget it.
In high end restaurants, chefs with the finest palettes (commonly referred to as sense of smell) are the most skilled and practiced cooks in the kitchen. The same concept applies to visual artists. While some of you might argue that you already have a “good eye” you, too, will lose your visionary ability soon after you stop using your hands. The physical exercise of making marks such as drawing, writing, carving, or strumming an instrument that help us connect our minds with reality also aids in the retention of those skills. Unlike machine intelligence, we can’t learn things virturally just using our minds — there is no Matrix moment of being plugged into a machine and saying “I know kung fu” — at least not yet. Physical practice is a constant necessity for learning and innovation. Creativity, which is so complex that it can’t be formulated, doesn’t come from where people think it does or is even what most people think it is; it isn’t mere access to information or the concocting of some clever fusion of pre-established ideas. It comes out of the act of play. The physical messing around with things is a paramount foundation of exploration and is essential for both discovery and developing true strength of mind. You think A.I. will discover for you? Would you really want it to? It’s so easy to forget why we chose to become artists in the first place: the act of doing art is both useful and fun. Being a hack sucks.
In coming back to the survival of this blog, I realized long form content, content that insists on your paying attention and to ponder what’s being written, strengthens the mind, and by default, strengthens your very person. Hence, I’m gonna keep the blog going, at least for now. I won’t transition over to Youtube commentary or any of other platform that makes me just another influencer trying to make a buck. I abhore advertising and propaganda. And I’m not going to use A.I. to write my articles (despite being prompted to do so). I want to preserve some sense of the manual way of doing things while I still can. I still believe it’s good to actually write and read, to spend slow contemplative time on things, to learn patience and to test the boundaries of our personal commitment. What does it say about you when you can’t even spend a few minutes to read a few paragraphs without wandering off towards easy clickbait or some other inconsequential habit? I understand this precisely because I, too, am vulnerable. The noise out there, with the volume and speed at which it comes at you, destroys your sense of agency. It offends personal authenticity. However, you have a choice to allow that to happen or not. It ain’t easy but it also doesn’t have to be complicated.
But what about trying to “get ahead of the A.I. transition” you may ask? Well, the technology is moving too fast. Look at what’s happening to coders who were supposed to hold the job of the future. I hate chasing trends and the future has never become more unpredictable. Anyone claiming to know what’s exactly coming down the line is either delusional or an outright liar. Plus, nature has taught us that when you chase things, they run faster and further away from you. And in this scenario, there’s only a limited chance you’ll capitalize on the so-called “new opportunities” in the diminishing interval of time before super intelligent and probably soon to be autonomous machines alter the world completely. (This may or may not be a bad thing but we’ll save that for a future discussion.) And finally, yet most importantly, I want to say to you: don’t be scared. Because I’m not. I simply refuse to live in fear no matter what the future may hold. I hope you can do the same.
“You must be a light to yourself.” — J. Krishnamurti, Philosopher/Teacher