Probably the biggest mystery for us is how life ever started. How can it be that a complexity of seemingly dead atoms and molecules ultimately leads to something that we call life? How do molecules in a cell know what to do? How do cells in a body know what to do? How does it get from litte to a lot to life?
New technologies like augmented reality, artificial intelligence and brain computer interface will make the current digital reality of social media and fake news totally pervasive. Gene editing technologies will allow us to create a super human subspecies. In what reality will they live?
First, I wanted to name this story "The Soul of Art". Then, I thought about it. That would mean that art and soul can somehow be separated, eg. that you could take the soul out of art. But no, you can't. Without soul, it just isn't art. Art is soul!
Maybe the AI algorithms, such as ChatGPT, that are being developed today have much more in common with the workings of our own brains than many people would have thought to be possible. With the same flaws, such as hallucinations.
We act as if we do understand the world. Because it takes away a lot of existential stress in our lives. We create mind models. And we think, we convince ourselves, that we understand the world, that we know everything. But, really, we know nothing.
Focus on the positive and the pleasant makes us overly optimistic and overly positive about ourselves and our life. And that gives us the strength to carry on, to do crazy things, and sometimes even succeed with those crazy things. That is a beautiful evolutionary survival mechanism.
I am still trying to find my artistic voice. And I think I have made a step in the process last week. It all has to do with expressing fictional and factual realities into one artwork eg. in bright and cheerful colors versus grey scales from black to white.
Social reality, not truth seeking animals, the ability to tell and believe stories, are three different perspectives on what I call mind models.
We are often tempted to think, say or do things that feel good rather than things that are good ... for us, for others, for humanity, for life on Earth. Yes, we are largely guided by our emotions, and less by our ratio.
In the post-truth era, if we would more often honestly express that we don't know for sure, or even that we know it is not necessarily true, using the subjunctive, then we would have much more fruitful discussion, around the world.
