In the last two posts we have explored the consequences of outsourcing discovery and intuition to generative AI. While acknowledging that AI has a potentially positive role to play, the technology needs to be integrated carefully into our lives. We continue our look at the interaction between human and AI with the focus turning to nuance.
In the below diagram the flow of experience is represented
The above is a dipiction of how we experience life, moment to moment, since nothing is staying still (McGilchrsit, 2021, Bergson, 2007). Paying attention to the flow allows us to appreciate nuance, the betweeness between moments (McGilchrist, 2021). To illustrate, we use the example of a leaf falling from a tree.
The leaf starts at point A, attached to the tree, falls off the tree, and ends up at point B. Point N, is unique path the leaf takes from point A to point B. There are many aspects to N, the way the light of the sun catches the leaf as it descends, the way the wind blows it as it falls, the way a shadow falls across its descent. In otherwords, in the betweeness of the moments represented at point A and point B, there are many aspects. No one single person may notice all the aspects of point N, different aspects may attract attention at different times and from differing angles. Point N is full of meaning, potentially presnting differtent aspects to different people. Points A and B, by contrast are merely the starting point and finsihing point.
Each leaf falling off the tree will be unique, no point N will be the same. If we pay attention we would notice the uniqueness of each fall, and perhaps different aspects would present themselves; subtle changes in light, direction, sound.
Generative AI can cover points A and B, but cannot present the nuances and aspects which occurred in the betweeness of A and B. In other words, it can only present the propostional elements. The nuance, the betweeness remains unattend.
Propositional knowledge, knowledge of facts, is a vital part of human existence. It is how we record concrete events-time, place, results of experiments. However, we need to bear in mind these are all abstractions from the flow of experience. This is illustrated below
Point A to E is where observations are made from experience, they are slices in time. However, what is not recorded, is the nuance contained in the betweenness as A transitions to B to C and so on. Many philosophers including James (1909), Bergson (2007), Whitehead (2010) have commented at length on both the power of the scientific method which abstracts propositions from the flow of experience, while vehemently arguing that it must not become the only or superior form of knowledge. If scientific propositions become the superior form of knowledge, attention to the nuance between points in the flow will be devalued at best and at worst, lost completely. All we would know is where a leaf came from and where it ended up.
The above points can be applied to Generative AI, it should not become the primary source of information, otherwise our ability to notice aspects in the flow of experience will be lost. This loss will result in diminished imagination, our ability to see beyond the facts of any matter.
Reading
James, W. (1909). A Pluralistic Universe. Longmans, Green, and Co.
Bergson, H. (2007). Introduction to Metaphysics. Translated by T. E. Hulme. Hackett Publishing Company.
Whitehead, A.N., 2010. Process and reality. Simon and Schuster.
