Seven billion pairs of eyes
I'd rather be human than AI
Here ends another year. Tonight the door closes on three hundred and sixty five pages we filed under box number two thousand and twenty three. Each page filled with stories from seven and half billion pairs of eyes ! Every story, even when lived in unison with another pair of eyes, unique and unrepeatable. Each story translated by a weird pink squishy brain influenced by innumerable filters and rose coloured glasses - unlike computers and AI mathematical and logical beings, we’ll never retell those stories exactly as they happened, because there is no story without the human. After all, does a tree falling in a forest make a sound if no one is there to hear it ?
Every single one of those three hundred and sixty five days I have lived, that I know. But what is uncertain to me, is how each one of those days truly unfolded. I saw what I saw, in my own little world, coloured by my experiences, my wishes, my understanding. I think I can retell the story of some of those days, the more memorable ones. And I imagined a whole lot more stories because my mind never stops talking. Doesn’t everyone’s mind talk incessantly behind one’s eyes ? Soon what I imagined and what I actually lived will surely mingle in the pink mushy brain cells behind my eyes, because the wiring in there is not made of copper and silicone - we can call it magic, until one day we end up figuring out what it really is - in the same way electricity used to be called a magic trick… The nature of the human mind is one of the last frontiers of science… doesn’t that make it even more fascinating, knowing it is so unknowable ?
We’re not computers, our intelligence is not artificial. What we think may be trained by education but will always be coloured by this mysterious thing called emotions. Emotions are influenced by our genetic mapping, our physiology, and mystery of mysteries, our individual personalities.
The words I write, thinking of something specific in my mind, you may very well be interpreting completely differently, as images come up in your mind and seem to match randomly with what I am saying… That is why art is so magical, because, where a piece was created to illustrate the artist’s intentions, it can evoke something completely different to the beholder.
Those who claim to know the true meaning of a painting or poem and impose it on others are missing the whole point of the magic of art. Might as well ask a computer to create images from a set of words. You don’t know what inspired me to write these words, but you may fully understand what I am saying, as they may evoke something that means something completely different to you..
Two humans dancing a story together in this life will not experience that dance the same way - one may lead and the other follow, the roles may inverse at times, one interpreting the other’s moves by their personal understanding of the meaning of each step, rythm, request, acquiescence, creation, concession. Words spoken or written by one may mean something entirely different to the ears or the eyes receiving them. But always they will speak some meaning. Sometimes meanings emitted and meanings received will glide and the resulting dance will flow, even if those meanings weren’t the same. Sometimes feelings may change and meanings evolve… How are humans supposed to understand each other ? Sometimes two meanings will clash and the dancers will struggle, the dance lose its flow, maybe so much so that the dancers will move in opposite directions and follow their meanings away from each other.
And that is the beauty of life ! That is the magic of humanity ! It’s all so mysterious ! We should all be laughing instead of being so serious ! You think I said something but I actually meant something entirely different, isn’t that funny ? It’s not cause for getting all upset… And if you think what I’m saying is naive and simplistic, well, why not ? Nothing really needs to be so complicated and so serious…
“Not a shred of evidence exists in favour of the argument that life is serious” - Brendan Gill
Loss hurts, but hurt makes you feel alive ! There is no love without hurt, no life without loss. Nothing lasts, nothing good doesn’t have an ending, no life doesn’t end - and that is what makes it all so precious !! So live every single one of those three hundred and sixty six days next year as if it’s the only day you’ll ever live, as if you’ll never remember it anyway, as if no-one actually knows what you’re doing so who cares ?
We’re all just trying to get from today to tomorrow, so help each other out: look into the eyes of the person in front of you and see that they have the same pink mushy stuff behind their eyes that colours their life in the same weird different way as you… and laugh. Laugh a lot !
Yes, twenty twenty four is a leap year so you get one extra chance to do something crazy. So do something, any small thing, that will make a difference to the rest of your life, even if you don’t ever remember that small thing. Make every day that extra special day.
Happy New Year 2024 !
Loving each of your pink squishy memories