AI, Creativity, Love, and Wisdom

The notion of AI replacing creativity (or somehow merging with us to form some kind of transhuman hybrid creature) is contrary to everything I believe in. I have written Original Thinking, Original Politics, and Original Love, and intentionally use the word “original” not to indicate novelty, but an ever-present origin, an eternal spring or Source from which all creativity arises. I believe we all have the capability to go directly to Source—and if we ask with an open heart how to serve the greater good, what comes through is not information, but wisdom.

All the knowledge in the world does not add up to wisdom. It is the awareness of how, when, and why to employ such knowledge that is wise. Wisdom has nothing to do with inventions or trends. It exists outside of time, outside of the accumulation of knowledge. Wisdom is timeless and whole, as is love. Love is an original vibration, a foundational force in the cosmos.

The tacit assumption underlying AI development is that humankind has been steadily progressing, accumulating better and more accurate knowledge. This is, in my view, a misguided assumption. It is also a powerful assumption, widely believed and rarely questioned. Think about it. Newspapers, magazines, and other media report on “new studies” as if the only thing that matters it that the study is new, implying that older studies are now obsolete. Rarely are the design, methodology, and controls of the study reported on, and perhaps most importantly, who paid to produce the study. The public accepts the new information as the gospel, because the underlying belief is that we are continually learning new things and becoming wiser. But are we really? Not exactly. We are merely absorbing more and more information. Instead of looking for the perennial wisdom that underlies the flow of information, we turn over the entire mountain of information to AI and somehow expect it to separate the wheat from the chaff.

Can AI really identify what is most valuable, what Gregory Bateson once called “the pattern that connects?” Yes and no. AI has the capability to absorb enormous amounts of information and “learn” from the regularities in the data, improving its performance over time. But it still spits out many erroneous conclusions and misleading or made up information. Social media is filled with fake AI stories that are often heartwarming, but false. It is almost as if AI has found our weak spot and is actively exploiting it. I have rarely used AI myself, but I have heard that you have to ask AI to be truthful. We were already awash with information overload before AI. Now we have come to a place where we can no longer agree on a common set of facts. I find this all deeply troubling.

The Breakdown of Mental-Rational Mind

The twentieth century Swiss philosopher, Jean Gebser, foresaw all of this happening. Gebser formulated a theory about structures of consciousness, naming them the archaic, magical, mythical, mental, and integral structures. Gebser referred to these states of consciousness as structures, not stages, because they overlap and interpenetrate, although a new, emergent state tends to suppress the expression of an older state. When a new structure emerges, it begins “efficiently,” said Gebser, but eventually deteriorates into a “deficient” state. Writing in the mid-twentieth century, Gebser suggested that we had mostly entered the deficient mode of the mental state, which he called “the rational.” He wrote: “The condition of today’s world cannot be transformed by technocratic rationality, since both technocracy and rationality are apparently nearing their apex.”

Gebser was not only correct; everything has further deteriorated since his time. Rational thought has become increasingly fragmented and inadequate to the task of comprehending current events. In the 1980s, the physicist and philosopher David Bohm remarked that “Fragmented thinking causes a fragmented society.” That is precisely what has occurred today. Our thinking has become increasingly fragmented, with social media and AI only exacerbating the problem.

The erosion of a shared societal reality and the proliferation of misinformation are enormously dangerous. As the United States approaches its 250th anniversary, I am increasingly alarmed by the constant steam of lies coming out of Washington, DC. Yet in a representational republic, our elected officials are ultimately a reflection of the people. We must change ourselves before we can hope to change the system and our politicians. Maybe then the Reflecting Pool will clear up.

It is not just politicians like Trump that take advantage of this climate of misinformation. China and Russia are perhaps the largest purveyors of disinformation. With so much false information floating around the world, amplified by AI, social media, and political operatives, it has become increasingly difficult to know what is real anymore. And if we don’t know, how can we expect AI to know?

I recently was awakened to the deceptive capacities of AI when my computer was hacked and AI software (Claude) downloaded. It turned out this was part of a sophisticated AI criminal operation in which the software was used to impersonate me, sending out a fake “Invitation” intended to get people to divulge their Google passwords. This kind of AI criminal enterprise is likely to only get worse in coming months and years.

The 400 billion plus dollars that Google, Amazon, and Meta have spent this year alone on AI are what is currently propping up the entire American economy. But AI cannot save humankind. It can, however, hasten our destruction by generating an avalanche of false information. Recently, hundreds of leading AI researchers, including Open AI CEO Sam Altman, Google DeepMind CEO Demis Hassabis, Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei, and Bill Gates, signed on to the below statement of risk:

Mitigating the risks of extinction through AI should be a global priority alongside other societal-scale risks, such as pandemics and nuclear war.

One of the things that bothers me most about AI is when people willingly turn over their creative self to AI. It breaks my heart to see this happening. I am a writer, and I would never dream of asking AI to write for me. The exercise of writing, even when I experience a temporary block before being able to articulate what I want to say, is cathartic. I never feel alone when I am reaching for the right words. The ancestors, the elements, birds, trees, and animals all act as messengers when they are invited to do so.

Solutions

The way out of our current dilemma is to foster greater coherence (greater clarity and understanding) in society writ large. David Bohm strongly advocated for this necessity. In physics, coherence refers to light or sound waves sharing the same frequency, maintaining a constant phase relationship that is stable and predictable. Although Bohm was a physicist, he used the term more generally to advocate for recognizing life as a unified whole. I often think of coherence in terms of the sun, which has an infinite amount of rays, but it is only one sun.

Coherence comes about when we welcome unity in diversity. What is unity in diversity? The Great Seal of the United States employs a useful phrase E Pluribus Unum that translates to “Out of the Many, One.” There are many ways to climb the mountain, but at the top we all share the same view. If we can gracefully allow for the integrity of difference, we become more accepting and more loving.

When I think of coherence, I think of love. To be loving is ultimately about being fully present, kind, and compassionate. Love and wisdom share one amazing quality; they are both timeless and whole. Love is what connects us to Source, the totality of All There Is. We may never fully know what love is, but it is possible to connect with this original vibration that has always been here, and continually surrounds, enfolds, nourishes, and supports us. Love opens the heart as wide as possible to embrace the Great Mystery of life. And that is really beautiful. Love and blessings to all,

Glenn

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