When I was a young lad of 11, I was fascinated with computers, or what little there was of them at the time. It was about 1966, and I checked out a book from the school library on the short but exciting history of the machines. I pored over every page of it. Of course computers were very cool back then to pre-pubescent boys, and I was no exception.
“But neither money nor machines can create. They shuttle tokens of energy, but they do not transform. A civilization based on them puts people out of touch with their creative powers.”
― Lewis Hyde, Alcohol and Poetry: John Berryman and the Booze Talking
Have to admit I got to both ChatGPT and the Blue Willow AI art machine on Discord some time back, and have used Blue Willow massively. I can create Sci-Fi meets Dali imagines in a flash and use them on our two sites.
It gets worse... So up until 2010 I wrote quite a few books published by Random House and others, all that, and wrote for years for national newspapers.... NOW I'm figuring out prompts for ChatGPT to write whole articles with titles, subtitles, bylines, and metadata. I thought I'd pitch it that my personal robot Baron Psybermancer wrote them. These would be more magazine type pieces.
I just can't be bothered writing anymore! The Baron can do it!
In reality I much prefer doing videos now. Honestly a $50k advance (which rarely happens now) would do my head in. Do I really have to write the damn thing? Hand it to the Baron AI.
Jan 25, 2023·edited Jan 25, 2023Liked by Todd Hayen, PhD, RP
Life without God is like an unsharpened pencil, it has no point.
Ecclesiastes 12 Remember your Creator in the days of your youth, before the evil days come and the years approach when you will say, “I have no pleasure in them;" before the sun and the light, the moon and the stars are darkened, and clouds return after the rain; on the day that the watchmen of the house tremble, and strong men are bent over, the grinders stop working because they are few, and those who look through windows grow dim; and the doors on the street are shut as the sound of the grinding mill is low, and one will arise at the sound of the bird, and all the daughters of song will sing softly. Furthermore, people are afraid of a high place and of terrors on the road; the almond tree blossoms, the grasshopper drags itself along, and the caper berry is ineffective. For man goes to his eternal home while the mourners move around in the street. Remember your Creator before the silver cord is broken and the golden bowl is crushed, the pitcher by the spring is shattered and the wheel at the cistern is crushed; then the dust will return to the earth as it was, and the spirit will return to God who gave it. Futility of futilities,” says the Preacher, “all is futility!” In addition to being wise, the Preacher also taught the people knowledge; and he pondered, searched out, and arranged many proverbs. The Preacher sought to find delightful words and to write words of truth correctly. The words of the wise are like goads, and masters of these collections are like driven nails; they are given by one Shepherd. But beyond this, my son, be warned: the writing of many books is endless, and excessive study is wearying to the body. The conclusion, when everything has been heard, is: fear God and keep His commandments, because this applies to every person. For God will bring every act to judgment, everything which is hidden, whether it is good or evil.
Isaiah 46:9-10 Remember the former things of old, For I AM God, and there is no other; I AM God, and there is none like Me, Declaring the end from the beginning, And from ancient times things that are not yet done, Saying, ‘My counsel shall stand, And I will do all My pleasure. (Exodus 3:14; Isaiah 7:14; 9:6,7; 53; Micah 5:2; Luke 24:25-27,44-48; John 1; Heb 1; 1 Peter 1; 2 Peter 3; 1 John 1-5; Jude 1-25)
Abraham said, "If they do not hear Moses and the Prophets, neither will they be convinced if someone should rise from the dead." (1 Cor 10; Luke 16; Acts 17:23-31)
Jesus Christ said, "For if they believed Moses, they would believe Me; for he wrote of me. “Truly, truly, I say to you, before Abraham was born, I AM. Those who are not with Me are against Me."
2 Cor 4:4 Whose minds the god of this age has blinded, who do not believe, lest the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine on them. (Acts 26:18) to open their eyes, in order to turn them from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan to God, that they may receive forgiveness of sins and an inheritance among those who are sanctified by faith in Me. (Ephesians 4:18) having their understanding darkened, being EXCLUDED from the life of God, because of the ignorance that is in them, because of the hardness of their heart)
As the LORD said, "This is the judgment, that the Light has come into the world, and people loved the darkness rather than the Light; for their deeds were evil. For everyone who does evil hates the Light, and does not come to the Light, so that his deeds will not be exposed. But the one who practices the truth comes to the Light, so that his deeds will be revealed as having been performed in God. For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God. For it is written: “I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, And bring to nothing the understanding of the prudent. Where is the wise? Where is the scribe? Where is the disputer of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of this world? For since, in the wisdom of God, the world through wisdom did not know God, it pleased God through the foolishness of the message preached to save those who believe."
The Bible tells us that godlessness is the greatest of all sins, and it leads to madness in the end: through self-deception, overconfidence, megalomania, brings spiritual and moral confusion, spiritual darkness. Every person who rejects and defies the Creator and His commandments reveals his own madness. The Bible calls this madness foolishness. It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the Living God. Jesus is LORD, the King of kings and the LORD of lords. The Rock of Salvation, the Stumbling stone to those who reject God and His Word (Acts 7; John 1; Hebrews 4; 9-13). Mankind has not changed and neither has the God of Creation.
As Dave Hunt said;
"The Cross lays bare for all eternity the awful truth that beneath the polite facade of culture and education the heart of man is "deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked" (Jer 17:9), capable of evil beyond comprehension even against the God who created and loves him and patiently provides for him. Does any man doubt the wickedness of his own heart? Let him look at the cross and recoil in revulsion from that self within! No wonder the proud humanist hates the Cross!
In Hebrews 2:3, the vital question is asked, “How shall we escape, if we neglect so great salvation?” The answer is so starkly plain: there is no escape. The Bible makes that solemn fact abundantly clear. To reject, add to, take from, or otherwise pervert or embrace a substitute for “the gospel of God” is to perpetuate the rebellion begun by Adam and Eve and to leave one eternally separated from God and His proffered salvation. No wonder Paul wrote, “Knowing therefore the terror of the Lord, we persuade men ” (2 Corinthians: 5:11). So must we, too, persuade men through the gospel! The “gospel of your salvation” (Ephesians 1:13) “wherein ye stand; by which also ye are saved” (1 Corinthians 15:1, 2) is simple and precise, leaving no room for misunderstanding or negotiation: “that Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures; and that he was buried, and that he rose again the third day." Christ pleaded in the Garden, “if it be possible (i.e., if there is any other way mankind can be saved), let this cup pass from me” (Matthew 26:39). We know that there is no other way, or God would not have required His beloved Son to bear the full brunt of His wrath against sin. The fact that men nailed Christ to the cross would only condemn us. But on the cross, when man was doing his worst to his Creator, Christ paid the penalty for our sins in full. Only if we accept that payment on our behalf can we be saved. But, like Adam and Eve, mankind still flees the voice of God, clothes itself with the makeshift garments of new theories no better than fragile leaves, and hides behind the trees of its latest excuses for unbelief and rebellion.
[T]here is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved” (Acts 4:12); “what must I do to be saved?...Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved” (Acts 16:30, 31). To “believe on the Lord Jesus Christ” includes who He is and what He has done. Jesus said, “Ye are from beneath; I am from above...if ye believe not that I AM [this is God’s name, Yahweh], ye shall die in your sins” (John 8:23, 24). Jesus himself says we must believe that He is God, for He is; and no one less than God could save us. We must believe that the sinless One “died for our sins,” and was buried; and that He rose bodily from the grave. Only by believing this gospel are we saved. So says God’s Word." Dave Hunt (1926-2013)
Nice writing, as someone doing 3d computergraphics as my daily job AI has been there for a long time. Its still machine learning with some cognitive machine work to me, and i would say its just a like a new brush, a brush you can speak to and who does your work while you make some coffee. Art to go, as we have coffee to go to save time, instead of "wasting" time sitting in a cafe.
Seems like you suggested another nice book to read, although not a happy one. Your last recommendation, The Space Trilogy from CS Lewis, was and is a nice read, only the end was a bit odd.
Your observation that we always have to teach animals something human is very interesting, never thought of that, especially in combination with computers. We are definitly a weird bunch.
Just curious, are we still talking with the real Todd Hayen, not with a chat robot ? How do we know ? 😉
Years ago i bought a cassette tape of a lecture by Joseph Campbell called “The Way of Art”. He defines art as something that can initiate a transcendent experience... Wow! What an incredible image/song/dance that takes you out of the common realm. Anything else that creates either desire (what a beautiful car! I want that car) or loathing he says is pornographic. AI anything is pornographic in my opinion.
Btw, I’m on the train into the city. As I got to my seat, the fellow in the seat next to me got up and pulled out his N95... what a dick!
This makes me think of Data in Star Trek. He paints, plays music etc perfectly. Yet it is noted that there is something missing. Something he cannot replicate, no matter how human he is in every other way. Ironically, it is this lack of humanity that brings out something incredibly human in him: longing.
Your writing about Kurt Vonnegut's book 'Player Piano', which I had not heard of until now, is so interesting and deep I could spend a lot of time contemplating and writing about it myself. Thank you.
And so it begins....
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=41U78QP8nBk
“But neither money nor machines can create. They shuttle tokens of energy, but they do not transform. A civilization based on them puts people out of touch with their creative powers.”
― Lewis Hyde, Alcohol and Poetry: John Berryman and the Booze Talking
Have to admit I got to both ChatGPT and the Blue Willow AI art machine on Discord some time back, and have used Blue Willow massively. I can create Sci-Fi meets Dali imagines in a flash and use them on our two sites.
It gets worse... So up until 2010 I wrote quite a few books published by Random House and others, all that, and wrote for years for national newspapers.... NOW I'm figuring out prompts for ChatGPT to write whole articles with titles, subtitles, bylines, and metadata. I thought I'd pitch it that my personal robot Baron Psybermancer wrote them. These would be more magazine type pieces.
I just can't be bothered writing anymore! The Baron can do it!
In reality I much prefer doing videos now. Honestly a $50k advance (which rarely happens now) would do my head in. Do I really have to write the damn thing? Hand it to the Baron AI.
"Gee, how did all of these authors predict the future so accurately (not just Vonnegut, but Orwell, Lewis, Huxley, and many others)?"
Found a nice quote for your statement :
"Dystopian novels are meant to be fictional constructs warning us about the possible future, not instruction manuals for the ruling elites."
Life without God is like an unsharpened pencil, it has no point.
Ecclesiastes 12 Remember your Creator in the days of your youth, before the evil days come and the years approach when you will say, “I have no pleasure in them;" before the sun and the light, the moon and the stars are darkened, and clouds return after the rain; on the day that the watchmen of the house tremble, and strong men are bent over, the grinders stop working because they are few, and those who look through windows grow dim; and the doors on the street are shut as the sound of the grinding mill is low, and one will arise at the sound of the bird, and all the daughters of song will sing softly. Furthermore, people are afraid of a high place and of terrors on the road; the almond tree blossoms, the grasshopper drags itself along, and the caper berry is ineffective. For man goes to his eternal home while the mourners move around in the street. Remember your Creator before the silver cord is broken and the golden bowl is crushed, the pitcher by the spring is shattered and the wheel at the cistern is crushed; then the dust will return to the earth as it was, and the spirit will return to God who gave it. Futility of futilities,” says the Preacher, “all is futility!” In addition to being wise, the Preacher also taught the people knowledge; and he pondered, searched out, and arranged many proverbs. The Preacher sought to find delightful words and to write words of truth correctly. The words of the wise are like goads, and masters of these collections are like driven nails; they are given by one Shepherd. But beyond this, my son, be warned: the writing of many books is endless, and excessive study is wearying to the body. The conclusion, when everything has been heard, is: fear God and keep His commandments, because this applies to every person. For God will bring every act to judgment, everything which is hidden, whether it is good or evil.
Isaiah 46:9-10 Remember the former things of old, For I AM God, and there is no other; I AM God, and there is none like Me, Declaring the end from the beginning, And from ancient times things that are not yet done, Saying, ‘My counsel shall stand, And I will do all My pleasure. (Exodus 3:14; Isaiah 7:14; 9:6,7; 53; Micah 5:2; Luke 24:25-27,44-48; John 1; Heb 1; 1 Peter 1; 2 Peter 3; 1 John 1-5; Jude 1-25)
Abraham said, "If they do not hear Moses and the Prophets, neither will they be convinced if someone should rise from the dead." (1 Cor 10; Luke 16; Acts 17:23-31)
Jesus Christ said, "For if they believed Moses, they would believe Me; for he wrote of me. “Truly, truly, I say to you, before Abraham was born, I AM. Those who are not with Me are against Me."
2 Cor 4:4 Whose minds the god of this age has blinded, who do not believe, lest the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine on them. (Acts 26:18) to open their eyes, in order to turn them from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan to God, that they may receive forgiveness of sins and an inheritance among those who are sanctified by faith in Me. (Ephesians 4:18) having their understanding darkened, being EXCLUDED from the life of God, because of the ignorance that is in them, because of the hardness of their heart)
As the LORD said, "This is the judgment, that the Light has come into the world, and people loved the darkness rather than the Light; for their deeds were evil. For everyone who does evil hates the Light, and does not come to the Light, so that his deeds will not be exposed. But the one who practices the truth comes to the Light, so that his deeds will be revealed as having been performed in God. For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God. For it is written: “I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, And bring to nothing the understanding of the prudent. Where is the wise? Where is the scribe? Where is the disputer of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of this world? For since, in the wisdom of God, the world through wisdom did not know God, it pleased God through the foolishness of the message preached to save those who believe."
The Bible tells us that godlessness is the greatest of all sins, and it leads to madness in the end: through self-deception, overconfidence, megalomania, brings spiritual and moral confusion, spiritual darkness. Every person who rejects and defies the Creator and His commandments reveals his own madness. The Bible calls this madness foolishness. It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the Living God. Jesus is LORD, the King of kings and the LORD of lords. The Rock of Salvation, the Stumbling stone to those who reject God and His Word (Acts 7; John 1; Hebrews 4; 9-13). Mankind has not changed and neither has the God of Creation.
As Dave Hunt said;
"The Cross lays bare for all eternity the awful truth that beneath the polite facade of culture and education the heart of man is "deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked" (Jer 17:9), capable of evil beyond comprehension even against the God who created and loves him and patiently provides for him. Does any man doubt the wickedness of his own heart? Let him look at the cross and recoil in revulsion from that self within! No wonder the proud humanist hates the Cross!
In Hebrews 2:3, the vital question is asked, “How shall we escape, if we neglect so great salvation?” The answer is so starkly plain: there is no escape. The Bible makes that solemn fact abundantly clear. To reject, add to, take from, or otherwise pervert or embrace a substitute for “the gospel of God” is to perpetuate the rebellion begun by Adam and Eve and to leave one eternally separated from God and His proffered salvation. No wonder Paul wrote, “Knowing therefore the terror of the Lord, we persuade men ” (2 Corinthians: 5:11). So must we, too, persuade men through the gospel! The “gospel of your salvation” (Ephesians 1:13) “wherein ye stand; by which also ye are saved” (1 Corinthians 15:1, 2) is simple and precise, leaving no room for misunderstanding or negotiation: “that Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures; and that he was buried, and that he rose again the third day." Christ pleaded in the Garden, “if it be possible (i.e., if there is any other way mankind can be saved), let this cup pass from me” (Matthew 26:39). We know that there is no other way, or God would not have required His beloved Son to bear the full brunt of His wrath against sin. The fact that men nailed Christ to the cross would only condemn us. But on the cross, when man was doing his worst to his Creator, Christ paid the penalty for our sins in full. Only if we accept that payment on our behalf can we be saved. But, like Adam and Eve, mankind still flees the voice of God, clothes itself with the makeshift garments of new theories no better than fragile leaves, and hides behind the trees of its latest excuses for unbelief and rebellion.
[T]here is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved” (Acts 4:12); “what must I do to be saved?...Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved” (Acts 16:30, 31). To “believe on the Lord Jesus Christ” includes who He is and what He has done. Jesus said, “Ye are from beneath; I am from above...if ye believe not that I AM [this is God’s name, Yahweh], ye shall die in your sins” (John 8:23, 24). Jesus himself says we must believe that He is God, for He is; and no one less than God could save us. We must believe that the sinless One “died for our sins,” and was buried; and that He rose bodily from the grave. Only by believing this gospel are we saved. So says God’s Word." Dave Hunt (1926-2013)
Nice writing, as someone doing 3d computergraphics as my daily job AI has been there for a long time. Its still machine learning with some cognitive machine work to me, and i would say its just a like a new brush, a brush you can speak to and who does your work while you make some coffee. Art to go, as we have coffee to go to save time, instead of "wasting" time sitting in a cafe.
Seems like you suggested another nice book to read, although not a happy one. Your last recommendation, The Space Trilogy from CS Lewis, was and is a nice read, only the end was a bit odd.
Your observation that we always have to teach animals something human is very interesting, never thought of that, especially in combination with computers. We are definitly a weird bunch.
Just curious, are we still talking with the real Todd Hayen, not with a chat robot ? How do we know ? 😉
Years ago i bought a cassette tape of a lecture by Joseph Campbell called “The Way of Art”. He defines art as something that can initiate a transcendent experience... Wow! What an incredible image/song/dance that takes you out of the common realm. Anything else that creates either desire (what a beautiful car! I want that car) or loathing he says is pornographic. AI anything is pornographic in my opinion.
Btw, I’m on the train into the city. As I got to my seat, the fellow in the seat next to me got up and pulled out his N95... what a dick!
The three transcendentals, Truth, Goodness and Beauty will never exist inside a machine.
This makes me think of Data in Star Trek. He paints, plays music etc perfectly. Yet it is noted that there is something missing. Something he cannot replicate, no matter how human he is in every other way. Ironically, it is this lack of humanity that brings out something incredibly human in him: longing.
Your writing about Kurt Vonnegut's book 'Player Piano', which I had not heard of until now, is so interesting and deep I could spend a lot of time contemplating and writing about it myself. Thank you.