Project Vision 21

When Philo Farnsworth invented television at the turn of the last century, he did so with the goal of educating those who couldn't attend classes in person, not broadcasting soap operas. And when Mark Zuckerberg created Facebook, his purpose was to share stories and photos with family and friends, not to send hints to your ex or copy memes.

There are other similar examples (the Internet was created as a communications system in the event of a nuclear attack), but the big ones are needed to come to this conclusion (which is not mine, as a few paragraphs will make clear): the inventor of a technology is not always the best judge of the usefulness or uselessness of that technology.

That debate reached a new level of urgency because of a recent report released by four universities (Tennessee, Colorado, Michigan, and Florida International) on how the emergence of new technologies, from steam engines to artificial intelligence, has an unanticipated impact on people's lives and jobs.

More specifically, artificial intelligence systems such as ChatGPT (which can create entire essays in a matter of seconds from a question) or DALL-E (which generates images from a short description) appear to have a negative impact on human creativity and on the way we communicate.

“These new AI tools also have downsides. First, they could accelerate the loss of important human skills that will remain important in the coming years, especially writing skills,” said study co-author Dr. Lynne Parker of the University of Tennessee.

Parker's mention of the possible loss in the next few years of the ability to write immediately made me think of a similar debate, although focused on the negative aspects of writing, that Plato puts into the mouth of Socrates at the end of his dialogue Phaedrus (274d-275b).

For our purposes in this column, it suffices to say that Socrates narrates an Egyptian myth in which Theuth (the Egyptian god of the underworld) offers King Thamus one of his inventions, writing, which he describes as a kind of “ drug” that makes human beings wiser and wiser.

But Thamus rejects that offer, stating that writing is a "drug" will lead people to "neglect memory" and believe that, because they have read things without learning them, they became "omniscient", when in fact "they are totally ignorant" and “only appear to be wise”.

In fact, Thamus reproaches Theuth for having decided by himself (regardless of Theuth being a god) the benefits of his creation, because "the inventor of a technology (technique, art) is not always the best judge of the usefulness (benefit) or uselessness (harm) of that technology.”

Two and a half millennia after that myth and that debate, we clearly have not advanced an inch from the truth expressed by Plato, because now, perhaps more than ever, arrogant ignorance and apparent wisdom predominate. Did I mention that the “most important goal for artificial intelligence is understanding what it means to have a mind”? (Article by neuroscientist Michael S.A. Graziano in the WSJ).

I (Francisco) asked the now well-known AI ChatGPT one question: What is the future? This was the answer:

The future is an exciting and mysterious time that is filled with endless possibilities. As we look ahead, we can only imagine what new technologies, advancements, and discoveries will arise and shape our world.

One thing that is certain is that technology will continue to play a major role in our lives. In the near future, we can expect to see a proliferation of artificial intelligence, with machines and computers becoming increasingly intelligent and capable of performing tasks that were once thought to be the exclusive domain of humans. We may also see the development of new forms of energy, such as fusion or solar power, which could help to solve some of the world's most pressing environmental problems.

Another key trend that we can expect to see in the future is the increasing interconnectedness of people and systems. As more and more people come online and are connected to the internet, we will see a rise in global communication and collaboration. This will have significant implications for how we work, learn, and interact with one another, and it could help to break down barriers and foster greater understanding and cooperation among people from different cultures and backgrounds.

Of course, the future is not without its challenges. Climate change remains a major concern, and we will need to find ways to reduce our greenhouse gas emissions and protect the environment if we want to ensure a sustainable future for ourselves and future generations. Additionally, as technology continues to advance, there will likely be growing concerns about privacy, security, and the potential for misuse of powerful new technologies.

Overall, the future is an exciting and unpredictable time. While we can't know for sure what it will hold, one thing is certain: it will be shaped by the decisions and actions that we take today. By embracing innovation and working together, we can create a brighter future for all.

As we look to the future, it is clear that the world is rapidly changing and evolving. Advances in technology, science, and medicine are transforming the way we live and work and have the potential to vastly improve our quality of life. However, these changes also bring with them new challenges and potential dangers.

One of the biggest changes we are likely to see in the future is the increasing use of artificial intelligence and robotics. These technologies have the potential to revolutionize industries and make many tasks easier and more efficient. However, they also raise questions about the impact on jobs and the potential for machines to become more intelligent than humans.

Another area of significant change is likely to be in the field of medicine. Advances in gene editing, regenerative medicine, and personalized healthcare have the potential to cure diseases and extend human lifespan. However, these technologies also raise ethical concerns and could lead to unequal access to healthcare for different socio-economic groups.

In everything we do and what we create, whether we are aware of it or not, and regardless of whether it is something good or bad, something sublime or something detestable, in all our works we are indelibly there, with our faces there engravings and stampings, sometimes hidden and sometimes in plain sight.

In 1865, the famous French painter Paul Cézanne composed a work known as "Still Life with Bread and Eggs", now on display at the Cincinnati Museum of Art, in the United States. Recently, the curator of that museum, Serena Urry, noticed that in certain places of the Cézanne painting there were white spots appearing behind the black background of the work.

A study -using x-rays- made it possible to detect a self-portrait of Cézanne at that precise place of the painting. The self-portrait, although present in the painting, was only detected now, more than a century and a half later, a long period without any of the thousands and thousands of people who admired the work seeing the face of Cézanne. But the face was there.

This discovery serves as an example of what happens in our own lives: in everything we do we leave our presence, regardless of whether others see it and regardless of how long it takes others to discover it. But there is our presence: looking at those who do not see us because they only see the superficial without seeing what exists behind that superficiality.

In the case of the Cézanne painting, the museum curator decided that the white spots she saw had meaning and were not just a sign of decay in the work. But in real life, when we show that we are more than just superficial appearances, many times people simply dismiss those signs that there is more to it than they see.

Even worse, because we are so used to superficiality (reinforced by superficial social networks and the media), each one of us is losing the ability to see himself in his actions and in his works. If we don't see ourselves in what we do, then we don't take responsibility for what we do either.

We become not only superficial (that is, unable to deal with complex issues), but also irresponsible (that is, unable to see the connection between ourselves and the results of our actions). In other words, we have succumbed to the infantilization proposed by this society. But how do we get out of that situation?

We get out of that situation by doing what the art curator Urry did at the museum in Cincinnati: looking beyond the superficial image, understanding that reality has more than one level, and looking for the resources to access that level that, although perhaps is not visible to the naked eye, it becomes visible if we know how and with what to look at it.

When we look at others, let us see not the labels and masks they are wearing, but their faces, however hidden they may be.

Many years ago, I learned that the opposite of love is not hate, but indifference, because in hate there is still a (negative and destructive) relationship between the people involved, while in indifference there is no longer any relationship. For this reason, among the daily expressions there is that metaphor of “killing with indifference”.

And recently I learned that the opposite of a state of full and constant awareness (“mindfulness”, a term as devalued today as “love”) is not being distracted, because during distraction there is always the possibility of stop distracting ourselves and return to what we were thinking before, that is, to become aware of our thinking.

The opposite of full consciousness (self-consciousness that is recognized as such) is irresponsibility, that is, not accepting the consequences of our actions and words, nor assuming the responsibility that falls to us as people and as individuals towards ourselves and with each other. others, both in the present and in the future.

In short, the opposite of full consciousness are not those distractions into which we fall so frequently due to the multiple traps of the media and social networks, but that state of being and living that simply consists of believing that everyone the others are responsible for what happens to us and that we are victims (not creators) of life.

It is clear that the person who lives without taking charge of his own life will look for all possible ways to avoid assuming his own responsibility and will use all the defense mechanisms at his disposal to avoid listening, much less accepting invitations to put aside that immature position.

This subject, obviously, is as old as Plato's famous Allegory of the Cave (where those chained inside the cave refuse to leave it) or as the dialectic between master and slave that Aristotle already spoke of, in which, As he well said, the worst slave is not the one who knows he is a slave, but the one who believes he is the master, because then he will never try to free himself.

And so we are, living inside a techno-scientific cave of our own creation and believing ourselves to be masters, lords, and owners of our lives when in reality we have little or no control over our actions, thoughts and desires.

And this irresponsibility towards ourselves (and towards the planet) has reached such a level that we have begun to delegate decisions to artificial intelligence that were previously the sole and absolute responsibility of human beings, with all our shortcomings and virtues. Now, you can’t even play a professional soccer match with AI telling you if a goal is valid or not. 

Instead of being people, we have become a sounding board (per-sonare) with no awareness of what we are or what we can become. As Byung-Chul Han rightly says, now we exploit ourselves and we call that "self-improvement". Therefore, the new "Like" replaced the old "Amen". And to make matters worse, our irresponsibility is already intergenerational.