IN EVOLVING INTO THE TWO-DIMENSIONAL SPECIES

6 years ago Hayao Miyazaki of Studio Ghibli was introduced to the idea of "building a machine that can draw pictures as humans do", to which Mr. Miyazaki paused and contemplated the idea for a moment and said, "I feel like we are nearing the end of times. We, humans, are losing faith in ourselves."

We are living at times when humans are more excited about 'artificial' intelligence than real intelligence. Questions are asked from machines rather than living human beings.

It is the cognitive process of getting answers from living flesh. They got theirs as a synthesis from their own mental process. I will also come up with my own synthesis out of all the answers I get. This is a derivative process in nature and a more intriguing way of acquiring knowledge, through genuine human interaction. Eye contact, real-time physical and emotional exchange. The Internet and AI have taken this all away.

We are becoming more of a machine than flesh and blood. And the machines are becoming more human.

Yes, the Internet can give you answers to almost everything now. But there is a difference between information and words of wisdom. As that famous saying goes ‘You cannot only read books without a guide.’ Sometimes it's the journey and not always the destination.

Since AI Art is based on finite data it has, I cannot stop to think that each one that comes out of it is a sort of 'kitsch' and 'pastiche' on a grand scale. I do not fear losing to it because when the majority of the population is capable of doing it, the value of the 'human' ones is going to be more. Like in the classic Philip K. Dick novel 'Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep', owning a living animal in a society is a great status symbol.

Hence the attached photo was taken from the film Superman 2, where the villains have been cursed into a flat plane of glass as a punishment. Something that we are slowly and unconsciously being taken into our own 'flat planes of glass' - our TVs, tablets, and phones. And in the film, it was appropriately named the 'Phantom Zone'.