I've recently been looking at past jottings, private not published, and it seems to me that they immortalise a version of myself that existed x years ago.
" And maybe if your goal is to connect to humanity, you can share love in this way: through your words." This thought is at the crux of what AI is usurping. Language is one of the fundamental things that makes us human; it allows us to be in relationship with others. Language requires a creator that stands behind it; AI algorithms like ChatGPT do not produce language, but anti-language. There is merely a void, not a creator behind those words. If we are to continue to connect to humanity, we will need to make the deliberate choice to reject the use of these tools, as the abdication of our language will inevitably lead to the erosion of what makes us human.
Some fascinating ideas to unpick here Kate, as always! I think, as Terry says, it deserves a second reading to fully engage.
With regards your points on love and the connection with having children, during my Masters I wrote a paper around the use of the childbirth metaphor in Early Modern literature, particularly by male poets and the way women went on to draw on this and reclaim its use. But it was immediately what I thought of after reading your piece: for anyone who writes (or makes art) I think their connection to it strongly resembles that kind of vulnerable love and attachment.
So far, at most, I had reduced writing (the one we categorize under "for the sake of itself" umbrella) as a catharsis for the soul. However, deconstructing that idea towards living as many lives as your writing endeavors seems way more meaningful, having read this piece!
The only condition is - it should be less controlled by the struggles for the craft constraints such as narrative and predefined structure. As more and more content gets generated, the cognitive cost for the combination of variety, vividness and timelessness would tend to get higher.
At present, I fear to go down that rabbit hole :)
Out of my fear of AI-dominated content creation, I just penned my advocacy for a segregated human-generated web:
I write to share discoveries with my living readers today that I hope will add value to their life experience. even their souls. I do aspire to still be adding value to some readers' lives 200 years from now. And I'm sure there's some selfish desire for immortal influence in that. And I'm generally aware of all three of my motives.
This piece was both clarifying and deepening for me, and I very much appreciate your keen thinking about this indispensable topic.
The pitfalls of immortality are examined regularly in the arts and mostly, I think from a cautionary angle. The Picture of Dorian Gray by Wilde, Trouble with Lichen by John Wyndham, and even poor old Dracula who has an unenviable existence! The concept was used to hilarious effect in the TV series What We Do in the Shadows, but it is very very dark. The prospect of death is one of the things that makes life all the more precious, and I find that writing is indeed a recycling or recirculating of energy that comes from life experience. I have always believed that immortality is real in that those who have passed on cannot truly cease to exist until every last memory or record of them has disappeared, and whilst we write and record, we remember and we re-experience people and events. My readership is small but knowing that I am not merely writing into the void is hugely comforting from a human point of view. Connection with others is overwhelmingly the primary goal. Thank you for this, Kate. It was brilliant.
Many interesting strands to explore here, so I've saved the article so I can read it again late r. I agree with your comment about using AI.
Calvino's answer to the question of why he writes was that it helped him understand something.
Funnily enough I was thinking about legacy a few days ago, and wrote about it a year ago:
https://open.substack.com/pub/terryfreedman/p/the-writers-legacy?r=18suih&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web
I've recently been looking at past jottings, private not published, and it seems to me that they immortalise a version of myself that existed x years ago.
Thanks for such a deep post 😀
" And maybe if your goal is to connect to humanity, you can share love in this way: through your words." This thought is at the crux of what AI is usurping. Language is one of the fundamental things that makes us human; it allows us to be in relationship with others. Language requires a creator that stands behind it; AI algorithms like ChatGPT do not produce language, but anti-language. There is merely a void, not a creator behind those words. If we are to continue to connect to humanity, we will need to make the deliberate choice to reject the use of these tools, as the abdication of our language will inevitably lead to the erosion of what makes us human.
Some fascinating ideas to unpick here Kate, as always! I think, as Terry says, it deserves a second reading to fully engage.
With regards your points on love and the connection with having children, during my Masters I wrote a paper around the use of the childbirth metaphor in Early Modern literature, particularly by male poets and the way women went on to draw on this and reclaim its use. But it was immediately what I thought of after reading your piece: for anyone who writes (or makes art) I think their connection to it strongly resembles that kind of vulnerable love and attachment.
So far, at most, I had reduced writing (the one we categorize under "for the sake of itself" umbrella) as a catharsis for the soul. However, deconstructing that idea towards living as many lives as your writing endeavors seems way more meaningful, having read this piece!
The only condition is - it should be less controlled by the struggles for the craft constraints such as narrative and predefined structure. As more and more content gets generated, the cognitive cost for the combination of variety, vividness and timelessness would tend to get higher.
At present, I fear to go down that rabbit hole :)
Out of my fear of AI-dominated content creation, I just penned my advocacy for a segregated human-generated web:
https://niravbhatt.substack.com/p/why-we-need-web-50-before-web-40
However, pieces like this prove to me that human-written pieces far outweigh AI-prompts in their capacity to provoke thoughts.
A very insightful and well-written piece!
Excellent insights, Kathleen. I commented on the other post, wondering why no one had commented! Seems they all commented here! :)
Esp. loved the mention of the Delezuean Affect, something I want to dig into deeper.
This is a wonderful post full of some fascinating ideas. I need to read it again when fresh, but thank you.
"writing can expand time" -- this, both internally and externally.
Both lucid and illuminating!
I write to share discoveries with my living readers today that I hope will add value to their life experience. even their souls. I do aspire to still be adding value to some readers' lives 200 years from now. And I'm sure there's some selfish desire for immortal influence in that. And I'm generally aware of all three of my motives.
This piece was both clarifying and deepening for me, and I very much appreciate your keen thinking about this indispensable topic.
The pitfalls of immortality are examined regularly in the arts and mostly, I think from a cautionary angle. The Picture of Dorian Gray by Wilde, Trouble with Lichen by John Wyndham, and even poor old Dracula who has an unenviable existence! The concept was used to hilarious effect in the TV series What We Do in the Shadows, but it is very very dark. The prospect of death is one of the things that makes life all the more precious, and I find that writing is indeed a recycling or recirculating of energy that comes from life experience. I have always believed that immortality is real in that those who have passed on cannot truly cease to exist until every last memory or record of them has disappeared, and whilst we write and record, we remember and we re-experience people and events. My readership is small but knowing that I am not merely writing into the void is hugely comforting from a human point of view. Connection with others is overwhelmingly the primary goal. Thank you for this, Kate. It was brilliant.