Your character is your fate, to paraphrase, was first uttered by Heraclitus two and a half thousand years ago. Individuality, personality, potential: these are the things that dictate the tenor and content of our lives. As profound as this sentiment is under any circumstances, it is particularly salient in the present time. Humanity faces an introspective and prospective challenge in the form of artificial intelligence. This challenge, in brief, is the need for purpose. Not absent from any period of history, the new technological revolution expedites this imperative.
ἦθος
From a practical perspective, many people feel uncertain about their career prospects or personal economic situation as AI revolutionizes the workplace. How do I, personally, confront this challenge? That is the question. There is no doubt that AI has changed what is required from human beings. Where the fingers and hands of the industrial labourers were once replaced with steam powered machines, the cognitive powers of analysis and reasoning are replaced by algorithms and code. Where the raw computational function of the human brain was the best (if only) option for many employers, a machine will now suffice. Where do we go from here?
ἀνθρώπῳ
The first port of call is creativity. Inducing emotion through the manipulation of images, words, or sound is not only something people do, but gives expression to their souls. That most human quality, hitherto, is no longer our exclusive preserve either. There is little doubt that generative AI can produce equally emotive facsimiles of man-made art; what separates original from facsimile? It is perhaps also worthy of mention that what is often marketed as ‘creative’ is nothing of the sort. We are already, perhaps, well acquainted with algorithmicity. New research seldom pushes boundaries (hence it is of note when it does), but is rather the logical progression from the preceding iteration.
Perhaps this is true also of music or literature, though both of these are more blatantly corrupted by mercantilism. In essence, the hegemonic influence seeps into the sacred yet anthropoid expressive instinct. What is published is not what speaks to the soul, but what suits the cold progressive mechanism of the über commercial system. Even in the absence of hyper-efficient market economics, the powers-that-be ultimately arbitrate what is made, and stifle aberrant creative expression. Creativity manifests only in so far as it is within the bounds of acceptable ‘progress’, defined by the cultural hegemons.
δαίμον
So, fatalistic views aside, what shall we do? I recall another quote by another thinker: chaque homme porte la forme entiere de l’humaine condition. Internally, the psyche aggregates the sum of human evolution, which digests what it ingests from its surrounds. You are who you are, if ‘is’ equals one’s environment, minus what is lost through the fallibility of one’s perceptive organs. But from a practical perspective, the suggestion here is that humanity is in fact a humbler experience, more than belied by latent or eminent existential fear. We were never truly the sole conduits of artistic endeavour, just as our true value as human beings was not ever our mechanical or computational powers.
So, what are we, all things considered? If you can bear it, we are humanity, individually as a whole. If your character is your fate, then your fate is that of the species as a whole. As others have said, each person is a node in a network, so to speak. You are, to some degree, a social creature, and an artistic and a cognitive one. You have mechanical, or physical, capabilities, but none of these define you, whatever τέχνη to which you belong. You are an aggregator, not more than the sum of your parts, but defined by the novel combination of characteristics that makes you you.
𝄌
Heraclitus said “a [person’s] character is [their] fate”. My ugly grammatical surgery to remove gendered language notwithstanding – he has a point. Existentialism and fatalism will not remedy your concern. If the challenge is purpose, the solution is holisticness. Draw on your experiences, lean into them. As has been known for millennia, you are that of which you are made. One final practicality. Artificial intelligence works by referring to as much unique information as it can. Its appetite is insatiable. Sate its appetite, be creative, be you.
