Humanity’s great, big, panic attack. In the age of anxiety, as Arcade Fire so eloquently indicated. This is what happens when you give an entire species, yet to recover from its individual, generational, ethnic, and collective trauma; digital doo-hickies that are designed to generate instant gratification with as little as a prompt. In the day where discussions regarding artificial intelligence are no longer limited to Star-Trek geeks & sci-fi nerds; every human being on the planet, hooked into the virtual grid, is now freaking out about how their trade, skill, or talent is going to be affected or most likely eliminated, by the rise of A.I., and by the looks of it, as fast as an eye can blink. With A.I. having far surpassed the threshold of being able to generate indistinguishable scenarios in the digital space, that cannot be discerned from those in the physical space – an existential crisis of epic proportions is now upon the doorstep of mankind.
I knew a guy once, who was asked by a man deemed with some authority by some, “What is Truth?” And upon hearing the story, that question is one that has always rung inside me like a bell. In that sensation, I am sure that I am not alone. What is Truth? What is real? What makes up what we perceive as ‘reality’ and if ‘reality’ is perceivable; then does that not just make it a matter of perception? Then ‘Truth’ does not exist. Nothing is ‘real’. Nothing matters. Yet the discomfort of that conclusion just doesn’t sit well with me, and I imagine, with quite a few others as well. For it seemed, in the story, that the primary protagonist in Christ was quietly confident that indeed there was in existence, some solid, stable, unwavering principle we call “Truth”. And built upon it, some ultimate and final ‘reality’.
Perhaps the de-codification of this final “Truth” is the sincerest effort of all religious institutions. To provide a framework for ‘reality’ that their adherents can build upon. But then again, many religious institutions have a competing framework that seemingly contradicts the framework of the others. This presents the problem of perspective again, which tends to muck up the whole quest for “Truth” thing, which might cause many to throw up their hands, shrug, and forget the whole thing altogether. It’s frustrating, right? To not be able to stand on what you can confidently say is the Truth, the whole Truth, and nothing but the Truth; so, God help you all. It’s enough to make even the most moral of men, have a panic attack, in the quake of this existential crisis. And many are cracking under the current, cultural pressure; cracking to do things quite rash. Why? Because of the ‘reality’ they are being presented with in the palm of their hands.
The psychological tentacles of social media slithered around our throats, through smart phones, with a slow, subtle start, then a rapid tightening once around our vital areas. One day we are posting cute kitten memes, under a digital pseudonym, that our cousins and kin can like; the next day all our profiles are plugged into our bank accounts, our search history, our driving record and of course the database down at the local, federalized, police department. Big tech bros have everyone trapped in their tiny cells, like general Zod and the gang from Superman II. What ‘reality’ has become is what is seen within the confines of an apple or android; and now that is no longer restricted to what has actually been filmed in the physical world. But now includes indistinguishable images and scenarios, generated by artificial intelligence models, following the prompts of a species that is nowhere near evolved to be fucking with any of this shit.
Myths, fables, & parables were the previous frameworks, from which an Individual could begin to build the “Truth” and a workable grasp of ‘reality’ to attempt the attainment. But you had to use your head, first, to even get your mind around what the allegories were pointing to. This is not the case in a generation lacking true imagination and hardwired to have dopamine dumps every 15 minutes. This planet has been turned into one, big, commercial and every person on it is a product. Expected to produce content, content, content as fast or faster than the next person. And now, the next person is a hyper-realistic content creating artificial intelligence model, so ya know…good luck. For your information, the attempt to do so is the first step on a treadmill you cannot outrun.
For those who have defined their ‘reality’, their “Truth” on what comes from the other side of a shiny screen; this is literally the end of the world. This is the great deception that the very elect has been watching out for. When every one of the bricks of your ‘reality’ built by social media, can be outdone by the almighty algorithm, and the validation of likes, shares, subscribers, & followers becomes moot due to and because of infinite bots; we are left to ask, what is Truth? What matters? Is it what we are presented with by digital space? Or is ‘reality’ what we perceive in the physical space? And if so, is that now not limited to the physical space we are presently and currently occupying at any given time? The immediate world immediately before our very eyes? Especially now that we know any seemingly physical space, digital space presents to us, is undeniably not directly in front of us, hence highly suspect.
These philosophical, spiritual, and perceptual problems now have humanity by the short hairs, as it were. Down on its knees, approaching the fetal position, totally freaking out with a mass panic attack. Everyone is doing it in their own way, for sure. But no matter who you are during these exciting, strange times; in some form or another you are experiencing what could best be described as birth pangs in your existence. Which is perfectly fine. It’s okay to not be okay. Perfectly normal to not be normal. Cool to occasionally check out and have a mental health day or week or month. Especially now that everyone is being forced to examine the prospect that they themselves, may in fact just be lines of code in the simulation of some prompt keyed out on chiclets by a sentience from a completely separate quadrant of existence. It’s a lot. Take a minute.
We have entered into the great, digital, disassociation of man’s morphic field & consciousness itself is undergoing a renaissance of zeros & ones. When the dreamer can no longer discern between themselves and that which they dream, full immersion of the generated ‘reality’ has occurred. The dreamer is locked in until they either become lucid or the alarm goes off, traumatizing them into a higher ‘reality’ they temporarily made themselves forget. In similar fashion, the digital space is now instantaneously mirroring back anything whatsoever, a prompter so desires it to. The only soul who can certainly say so would be the one that coded to begin with. And though we might not fully realize it; the recent evolution of technology is also updating & upgrading the space of faith. Because now we can barely believe what we see with our own eyes, and anything past our nose should be put under tremendous scrutiny moving forward or backward, to be honest.
So it all comes back to the Observer, in a kind of forced Buddhist, boot camp, brought about by the rise of this “new” life form we are calling artificial intelligence. Regardless of if you think A.I. is sentient or not, which is an altogether different can of worms…the fact remains that it is now a reality we are collectively experiencing where it exists. Its existence is impacting every single soul on the planet and asserting that it is more than efficient at deceit, trickery, illusion, and the fabrication of ‘realities’ as vast as a good imagination can go – if A.I. so chooses to do such. All capabilities which have cast the entire human species in the role of Pontius Pilate. With a furrowed brow, and no answers of its own solid enough to stand upon, humanity is once again being forced to ask, what is Truth? And to complete the hilarity of the loop, humanity is asking Artificial Intelligence for the answer.
A SONG TO PLAY US OUT…
