What I understood about….something
Starting this semester I thought I knew where we had been and therefore had some inkling to where we were going. This wasn’t the issue, I know now more of where we have been and have experienced a few possibilities of where we might go. What ha s changed the most for me is my perceptions of where I am. What is home? How do I quantify that? Where do I fit into the universe, metaphorically, literally and chronologically? What will I become? What will we become? Daniel Quinn’s Ishmael has had the greatest impact on all these. It changed, clarified and skewed my perceptions of history, reality and the future.
Before Ishmael.
I am a man(read: human). Though an artist and therefore harboring esoteric tendencies and mentalities, I am just a man(human…deal with it). As a man I am the end all be all of life in the universe as we know it. The big bang occurred; particles did things, cosmic stuff, primordial ooze and eventually man. With intellect, thumbs and the ability to harness the elements we became the dominant species on the planet, and as we know I the universe and therefore reality.
After Ishmael.
Ishmael, a telepathic chimp, asks a man for our “creation myth.” He was setting the building blocks for his new order. His perceptions. What makes the big bang and evolution any different than God, creation and the holy ghost? Or the Great spirit? Or Zeus or whoever, molding us from the clay? All of these were stated as facts in books at somepoint. These were their perceptions of reality not a “myth.” Ishmael explained his myth. The big bang begot everything which begot planets and stars which begot primordial ooze, oceans and continents forming on the cooling earth. The end all be all of evolution from amino acids all the way to the final product. The jellyfish. Praising itself for being so god damn awesome. If the jellyfish is the dominant form of life, which its not, cause they suck, where does it go from here? Humanity has looked at the future of man periodically. First we were monkeys and now we’re men, where do we go now?
Black Swans.
Millenia ago the nomadic life style, the 1st wave ended. We began to farm. But why? (and I don’t see many jellyfish farming and inventing a written language.) Some black swan event changed us. What will our next one be? What will change us? The idea of artificial intelligence is intriguing. It has all the marker of a black swan. It’s just beyond our reach. The foundations are there, but its not fully capable. AI would forever change our reality for good and bad. There is not “almost” artificial, or “almost” intelegence. There is or isn’t, it cannot be eased into, meaning its an event, a day marker, a sharp turn. Stanley Kubrick and Arthur C. Clark envisioned 2001: A Space Odyssey ’s HAL, who like humanity, and jellyfish questioned the future, past and reality of itself. Confusion became anger and violence. The writers of Battlestar Galatica(both original and the remake) invisioned a civilization, at war with artificial intelegencfe. They created an AI at the principle of their civilization and now faught with it. This was the 24th century Frankenstein. But instead of Shelly’s creature screaming, “I am not an animal,” the cylones in a cold proclamation claimed, “grant us a measure of acceptance.”
Fundamentally as an artist and non-jellyfish, what has changed the most is my perception of reality and where I fit in the universe. Taleb and Iliam (whi si not a science fiction writer, bard, oracle or prophet have changed my proclamations into questions. I’m now wondering where is home? Why and how do I truly fill my niche? I wonder if I am simply occupying a greater space’s purpose? Am I using my energy or simply retaining it until I’m recycled/replaced? Am I the man, the monkey or the jellyfish? This class has introduced me to many different ideas on how to view the future and reality, and made me ask, which of these is best?