Tag Archives: Virginia Woolf

How A.I. Might Adversely Affect Genius

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Now that we’re seeing the advances of the digital world, particularly that of A.I. move increasingly into not just our personal lives, but likewise into the artistic and scientific worlds, it seems fair to ask how artificial intelligence might actually affect those unique paths of discovery which great artists and scientists such as Einstein, Picasso, Virginia Woolf, or Niels Bohr employed to create their visionary art and science. That is, would A.I., if it had existed during the time in which they were alive, have somehow stifled or impeded their brilliant creations and/or discoveries in any way?

If Picasso had fed information into an artificial intelligence system in order to create his startling, multi-dimensional paintings and drawings, he might have produced art that was even more visionary and radical than what it became, but at the same time, his creations wouldn’t have come as fully from inside him. That is, the emotive, mental, and tactile parts of his persona, all working together, wouldn’t have been able to explore the potentially malleable fabric of space in which his art existed in the very same, open-ended way.

Likewise, if Einstein had used the technology of artificial intelligence to explore space and time in the manner in which he did in both his Special and General Theories of Relativity, the latter leading toward his iconic theory of gravitation, he might have been able to do so more expeditiously. Yet the beauty of the trial and error process of the scientific method, which he used as creatively as any other scientist has ever done so, might have been significantly swallowed by the more predictable, rigid nature of artificial intelligence.

In similar fashion, if Virginia Woolf had used artificial intelligence to create story lines for her brilliant stream of consciousness novels, with A.I. providing her with ways to most effectively weave the personas and storylines of her different characters into one another, this might have potentially allowed her to make those things more intriguing. Yet, at the same time, she wouldn’t have been able to use to the same degree her incredible vision of how separate lives intermingle with one another, one derived from her own intense struggles with her sanity, to meld her own unique psyche with the words she put on the page.

Also, Niels Bohr almost certainly could have used A.I. to determine how specifically electrons orbit the atomic nucleus in a way that prevents an atom from collapsing in upon itself, perhaps even more effectively than he actually did. Yet the extreme satisfaction he must have experienced when he fully realized that his lifelong struggles with the vagaries of his rational mind had led directly toward his revolutionary scientific discovery would have almost certainly been denied him in the bargain.

When iconic artists, writers and scientists such as these probed a certain part of their world using their own thought processes and/or emotive reactions to pursue their investigations, they were using paths of discovery which took place entirely within their own inner lives. On the other hand, if they had used the tools provided them by artificial intelligence, they might well have been creating paths of discovery which existed significantly outside their own psyches. That is, within the digital pathways which would have existed within whatever A.I. tools they would have been using. So, it would seem that within our current Internet age a choice has to be made between the easiest way to produce valid external results or the maintenance of the richest inner life possible.

A.I. and Spirituality

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To date, artificial intelligence seems to have found its way into just about every corner of our society, from science to art to literature to politics. Yet, all the recent discussions of how A.I. might actually possess consciousness notwithstanding, there doesn’t seem to have been many attempts to relate A.I. and the virtual world to the activities having to do with some larger spiritual dimension, such as might be found in such things as yoga practices, various forms of meditation, or even mindfulness programs and activities. That is, could it be possible that the virtual paths inherent in A.I. could lead one toward some larger, spiritually based consciousness if used properly?

If one looks at how great artists, scientists, or thinkers such as Einstein, Picasso, Krishnamurti or Beethoven pursued the type of art or thought which in fact did lead toward a larger consciousness, what seems strikingly apparent is that they did so by weaving important aspects of their personal lives into their search. That is, their important creations, investigations, and discoveries invariably emanated from thoughts and emotions which were quite obviously highly unique to each of them. And in many cases, it was even those thoughts and feelings which troubled them most which led directly toward great art, science, or thought.

For example, there is certainly a direct link between the troublesome states of mind which plagued Virginia Woolf during one of her depressive illnesses, during which she would often lose control of the pattern of her thoughts, and the brilliant stream of consciousness writing which would appear in her novels. That is, as painful as it was for her at times, the first often led inexorably toward the second. In similar fashion, the terrible burden which Beethoven experienced as he realized that he was growing deaf led to his heroic defiance of fate which can be heard so clearly in his iconic Fifth Symphony. Once again, his eventual triumphant state which can be heard in that brilliant piece of music most likely couldn’t exist without the dark night of the soul which Bethoven first went through.

When viewed through a larger lens, these are in fact important spiritual developments in the lives of these two great artists. That is to say, the personal difficulties and suffering they endured led directly toward the sort of larger consciousness which was part of their brilliant creations. Virginia Woolf’s stream of consciousness writing pointed inevitably toward a limitless awareness that exists beyond words, thoughts, and past knowledge; while the music of Beethoven, particularly that which can be heard in his latter string quartets, points toward a sublime acceptance of all which life may have to offer, a state of being which then points inevitably toward something larger.

In other words, when searching for a larger consciousness, through one’s art, scientific investigations, or through other means, it is impossible to separate what might be difficult aspects of one’s personal life from one’s larger spiritual development, that is if one wants to use that term. Therefore, this is something that artificial intelligence will never be able to accomplish; taking into account how one’s personal development, as difficult as it may be at times, can never be separated from the search for a potential spiritual core to life, arrived at through a larger, more expansive consciousness. Let us hope we all can soon realize this.