When considering what we have and do not have the capacity to think, the apocryphal tale of Columbus’ invisible ships is illustrative.
The story goes that upon Columbus’ landing in the Americas, the Native Americans living there responded to the ships with something below disinterest; they did not respond at all. The idea is that they were unable to truly comprehend (and therefore see) the ships, since these lay so far outside of any prior experience or knowledge they possessed. Ships? They couldn’t even think about thinking about the ships, and these were therefore invisible to them. An unseeable object.
When something is completely foreign to our knowledge or experiences, it becomes difficult to even recognize it. In my current alarmist phase of reckoning with AI, I believe that we will begin to lose knowledge, and perpetuity of knowledge, about certain mind-states.
Consider the act of painting. It involves imagining a motif and using the requisite materials to transpose that mind-state (the finished painting) to a physical medium.
What makes this pattern of thought ripe for replacement is its mechanically simple nature that can now, with the help of generative AI, be automated away. Instead of using our brainpower to dream up imaginary scenes and then using skill to execute on these ideations, AI can do it for us, offering an array of entertaining variations—without the effort of thinking on our part.
This brings me back to the invisible visible ships. If the Native Americans lacked the knowledge of ships, or even knowledge of the knowledge of ships, what will become of our comprehension (or awareness of comprehension) of the mental states soon to be rationalized away by extremely effective, engaging, and entertaining AI? Imagining a scene and wanting to replicate it is fundamental and basic to so many of us, and now, it might just go extinct.
In a few words: I am deeply concerned about our core ability to think like we do today (as degraded as it may be from historical high watermarks). And namely: Will our future mind-states preclude the ability to think about (and think about thinking about) things like creativity? When ‘legacy’ artists have all died out, will we still harbor any mental connection to the act of painting, or even that there was once a specific mental space that produced paintings? Or will we look at paintings uncomprehendingly, thinking them the products of a completely unknowable, alien consciousness?
As AI continues to advance, we must consider the near-to-hand consequences of outsourcing our mental faculties to intelligent machines. The enigma of visible invisible ships reminds us that the loss of knowledge or the ability to think about certain concepts can have far-reaching implications.
We must remain vigilant in preserving our distinct human ability to think, create, and engage with the world. We must hold onto the effort that goes into reasoning, and let it not die slowly (or quickly) by replacement or outsourcing. We must ensure that the essence of human cognition remains visible and vital.
I am under no illusion that the genie will ever go back in the bottle. We are living in an AI world now—but it’s up to us to ensure that it’s AI supporting our minds, not replacing them.
Published April 2, 2023