Transcendence
I wonder if we could create the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel today.
We have the paints, and we certainly have the craftspeople. All of what was known to Michelangelo is known to us, as far as technique is concerned. We could create the physical artifact of paint on wood. But it would not be the Sistine Chapel.
There is an element of human transcendence that permeates the Sistine Chapel. The facility itself does not produce food or shelter for anyone. It is not particularly architecturally interesting. Its purpose is to call attention to a notion that something divine exists beyond human comprehension, and that the divinity is worthy of our praise. The gravity of what he painted pushed Michelangelo to create the work that he did, and we continue to find something special in that work that is missing elsewhere.
A century after Michelangelo finished, Isaac Newton sought to understand the divine in how the universe itself was constructed. He went looking for the underlying laws that govern the motions of planets, and his work is still studied today despite being proven incorrect by general relativity. The work, scientific in nature, sought something transcendent in the world, something bigger than humanity, something glorious.
You can see examples of transcendence throughout the world: the temples at Angkor Wat and Angkor Thom, the Taj Mahal, the Blue Mosque. Something pushed people to seek the favor of the divine through great works, and their works still speak to us long after the individual humans have moved on. They draw our minds and our hearts to something greater than ourselves.
When I wonder about the Sistine Chapel, I wonder if the angst so prevalent in our society, in our feelings about technology, in our struggles with the political landscape - do they all come from a dearth of something transcendent to hope for? The notion that there is something more beyond the day to day? Do we fear artificial intelligence not because it takes jobs away, but because we fear this is all there is and all there ever will be?
I do not fear what AI brings in the future, because I do not fear that AI will replace human transcendence. That push to do something new and different and unheard of, simply because we show reverence to something bigger than ourselves. Perhaps I will one day be proven wrong. But history tends to find ways to showcase that transcendence even when we thought it was lost forever.
0.0% AI in this post. It may not be very good, but it is mine.