working draft
Arcane Season 2 spoilers ahead!
So many of my classmates pull up ChatGPT casually in the middle of class. I won’t say that I haven’t used it. Don’t get me wrong, I think the technology has its merits. What I’m critiquing isn’t the development of the technology itself, but rather the social attitudes toward it and the systems of power that create and support it.
I came across an Instagram reel by user frankiedoodledandy that read:
was feeling tempted to use AI to do my homework for me
and then remembered that anti-intellectualism is a hallmark of fascism and this brain needs to be trained to recognize misinformation and share complex ideas and handle nuance and if i outsource all the hard stuff to ai i become that much easier to manipulate
suddenly i love homework
This made me start thinking more deeply about the implications of the normalized AI-hype attitude.
Viktor, a character from Arcane’s character arc serves as a wonderfully effective allegory for this phenomenon. Born with a disability and chronic illness, he struggles and fights to determine his own fate. By the end of the series, he merges with the Hexcore to become an astral being and attempts to eliminate all of humanity’s imperfections through the “Glorious Evolution”. In his future form, he beseeches Jayce to stop him, for “There is no prize to perfection, only an end to pursuit.” After achieving the perfection he so desperately desired, he is faced with emptiness and a lack of purpose. His refusal to accept his own, and humanity’s, imperfections ultimately leads to regret, anguish, and mass destruction.
AI hype is in direct opposition to the very ethos of humanity. It strives for perfection, automation, convenience, when life is messy, tedious, and unpredictable — and that is precisely what makes it worth living.
Movement is life. If we stagnate, if we cease to move forward, if we stop digesting and synthesizing our world organically, are we still alive?
in the pursuit of great, we failed to do good
In the last episode of Arcane Season 1, Viktor tells Jayce, “In the pursuit of great, we failed to do good.” They had been developing the revolutionary technology, Hextech, but its creation got caught up in a web of politics and violence, causing them to deviate from their original values and mission.
The technological advancements we see these days is great. But where is the good? How can we do good within our rigid systems that encourage profit over all else, that value production over being?
Chasing perfection, we create tools that strip us collectively of our humanity. Take, for example, the phenomenon of cognitive offloading — many now habitually seek ChatGPT as if it were a prophet, not a tool, offloading their thinking onto a choice averaging machine. The result of this? Dullness and an inferno of the same, where we become automatons automatically navigating through life, avoiding the hard, but necessary, task of critical analysis, instead choosing the easy route that leads to intellectual atrophy.
“It is the imperfections of life that are lovable,” says Joseph Campbell in The Power of Myth. A life of perfection is a life of no love, a life lacking in Divine Eros, or a feeling of interconnectedness with the world.
As Viktor regains his senses, he reflects on the unshakeable duality of humanity:
Humanity, our very essence, is inescapable. Our emotions, rage, compassion, hate. Two sides of the same coin, intractably bound. That which inspires us to our greatest good is also the cause of our greatest evil.
difference is what produces meaning
AI hype: desire for instant gratification, control, production. People don’t want to do research, to think critically, to make their own decisions and reach their own conclusions. Spoon-fed by algorithm and big data. Risks: bias, echo chambers, easy targets for propaganda and manipulation. AI encourages a lack of curiosity and a drive to explore the unknown.
With AI algorithms, everything is sourced from a data source dictated by those in power. Over-reliance creates a constrained perspective on the world, collectively. The more widespread usage is, the bigger this issue becomes.
Ultimately the introduction of the Other is what changes Viktor’s worldview. Irony: hivemind, collectivism is not what creates unity. Rather, it is our differences that make us whole. It is difference that produces meaning, that enables synergy and harmony. Self-centeredness must be broken by relinquishing the ego.
fascism??
Self-centered trend in society — fascism, nationalism, desire for control, predictability. When the trend of society swings far to the right, it generally indicates that people want a return to traditional values with stability and the comfort of blaming an out-group.
This desire for control leads to a lack of freedom. Freedom is letting things be, letting things go, letting fate takes us along the river’s journey.
Also in opposition to fundamentally human values.
AI - The New Aesthetics of Fascism
“Life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.”
AI and fascism, anti-intellectualism. Meant to do menial tasks, not replace critical thinking. Cognitive decline.
seeking perfection from others
For fear of revealing our own imperfections. Avoidance of suffering. The Other is a mirror into our own soul.
What is a perfect companion? Avoiding the hard task of cultivating real, human relationships. Losing the ability to be vulnerable, to open up, for fear of pain. But love is a risk! It is a leap of faith.
To love is also good, for love is hard. Love between one person and another: that is perhaps the hardest thing it is laid on us to do, the utmost, the ultimate trial and test, the work for which all other work is just preparation. — Letters to a Young Poet
This applies to all types of love, not just romantic.
what really matters?
People say that what we’re all seeking is a meaning for life. I don’t think that’s what we’re really seeking. I think that what we’re seeking is an experience of being alive, so that our life experiences on the purely physical plane will have resonances within our own innermost being and reality, so that we actually feel the rapture of being alive.
Stories, imperfection. Rapture, existence rather than production. Connection over isolation. Truly understanding another. Cannot do so without critical thinking, empathy — this is degenerating in society because of cognitive offloading and information overload. Echo chambers, algorithms, only hearing what you want to hear. Aesthetics of the right — anti-intellectualism. A society with no critical thinking is a society that is easier to control.
Socrates: man has no drive to do evil (The Courage to Be Disliked)
Barreling toward a future of monotony, dullness, and restless discontent. Surreal, hard to pin down, user experiences bring no joy anymore, switching between apps without really caring what’s on them.
initial thoughts
I want to expand on an essay I wrote,The Necessity of Creation - How AI Mutes the Human Voice.
I want to analyze and expand on ideas from:
- Viktor’s quotes from the final episode of Arcane and his entire character arc.
- Maybe the book God, Human, Animal, Machine? Jenny recommended it to me and it seems interesting.
- The Art of Thinking Clearly and Cognitive biases.