For those who read the first part, welcome back to the second part of this mini-series. Those of you who didn’t are, of course, just as welcome. I am so happy you found your way to Magic Mittens.
However, to fully understand the astrological references in this post, I think it would be a good idea to read https://magicmittens.com/uranus-ai-and-shakespeare-part-1/
What was supposed to be a little astrological update about Uranus grew into some sort of monstrosity, word count-wise, when I let the inspiration flow freely. I realised there were so many things I wanted to share with you. Therefore, I decided to cut the text into more manageable pieces and turn it into a series instead.
If you do not have the time or energy to go back and read the previous post, the main point I make is that the planet Uranus’s presence in Gemini will bring (I think it is safe to say – has already brought…) an explosion of technical inventions and new ideas into the world.
AI is at the top of many people’s minds. As you may have figured out from the title of this post, I will also put my fingers in that jar and share my own point of view. I will look at this phenomenon from an energetic perspective. So here we go.
Is AI a thief that will make humans obsolete?
AI is one of those things that most people seem to have quite a strong opinion about. At least that’s what I pick up from conversations, the news, and various places online where ones thoughts can be shared freely.
AI, this tool – this magic wand – gets the blame for a lot of things. Justly or unjustly, I don’t know, but I have heard all kinds of accusations directed toward devices and the dependence on AI. Apart from being wrong at times, AI produces lazy and stupid school-kids, food that lacks nutrients, abnormal weather, and bad bodily posture – all of it is AI’s fault.
I have also seen the opposite reaction; eyes filled with joy, hope and even hunger. Those who are most optimistic see how the day no longer consists of 24 hours. One can actually squeeze in 48 or even 72 hours of work in an afternoon. Everything can reach a higher level of automation.
The third variation of the AI-reactions is, strangely enough, embarrassment.
People are lowering their voices when admitting they are quite positive toward the use of AI, but at the same time, they seem slightly ashamed, as if they are cheating.
– It’s only to double-check…
– I know AI can be wrong, so I always compare with other sources.
– Well, I had a chat with Claude, and I got a lot of good input, actually…
– To be on the safe side, I ran it through Co-Pilot to see if I had missed anything…
I asked a question in the heading above: Is AI a thief that will make humans obsolete?
And, of course, I have no answer to that. We all need to patiently wait and see where this new player in our lives will take us in the long term.
However, I think AI and Uranian energy operate in similar ways. It’s here, whether we want it or not, and the outcome depends on how we use this tool and for what.
Whether the thought of tech and AI fills us with dread or we see endless possibilities, each of us needs to find our own way to familiarise ourselves with it, identify its benefits, and, ultimately, use it to the best of our abilities. Perhaps we also need to realise how many AI-generated processes are operating in the background in services we have already used for a long time.
My “kitchen table historian” at home (read Hubby – and he actually has a degree in Social and Economic History) thinks that we will go through the same stages as when the printing press was invented.
First, they printed Bibles and sacred literature, but shortly thereafter, someone got the brilliant idea that they could print pornography and earn a lot of money. Eventually, printed material seeped into all layers of society, creating an opportunity to spread words to almost anyone about almost anything.
The same thing happened when the computer was invented. The first generations of computers were used for processing large quantities of academic information more efficiently, then porn (again), before computers became available to the general public. Now, almost everyone uses some kind of computer-like device almost every day.
Hubby’s prediction regarding AI is that once people are past the stage of making goldfish mimic a certain German dictator and hijacking George Clooney’s face to market obscure vitamins, (about the porn, I have no clue – the algorithm doesn’t send that my way), this invention will eventually be used in a more levelheaded way, too.
The terrain that AI will take us through depends on how both creators and consumers use this tool.
Mid-spring, my kitchen table historian came home after a PTA meeting at our daughter’s school. An expert in artificial intelligence had been invited to speak to all the parents, and she had given a lecture on how AI changes schoolchildren’s way of absorbing information. She also shared the trends and psychological effects that neurologists and other brain experts had observed in children’s cognitive functions lately. One piece of information he brought back home to the table was slightly shocking at first.
According to the expert, approximately 75% of everything published on social media is AI-generated. The sciency part of me immediately wondered how she had arrived at this number. Is this even possible to measure? But I guess that is beside the point here; the important thing is that a lot of the content and information is AI-generated. To be able to navigate this world, we must understand this emerging reality.
Hiding our heads in the sand (something that ostriches never do, apparently) will not be useful. This technology is everywhere, and it seems to be here to stay. But “á la manière de Gemini”, we will, over the following 7 years, evaluate, compare, find the pros and cons and adapt our behaviour. Eventually, the use of this technology will mature (or rather, the users of the technology!) in the same way as the use of the printing press and the computer have evolved over time.
Those who seem to worry the most
I find AI, this new aspect of our lives, so interesting that I may even delve deeper into this in a future post. However, what I want to address today is one particular aspect of it. The fear of AI vis-á-vis the artistic expression that so many creatives have given voice to. Artists, musicians, authors, writers and other creatives are sharing their deep worry that there will be no place left for them and their art. What they have spent blood, sweat, and tears mastering can be replaced by something that takes a few seconds to create on a laptop or a smartphone.
Two questions I have been mulling over
Fear is, as you know, contagious, and I began to ask myself whether it would be a good idea to start worrying about my own livelihood as well.
Even if the blend of coaching, astrology, and energy work I do is my main focus professionally, my writing and doodling are the vehicles that bring my work into the world, making it available to others.
The second question I have been asking myself lately, as I have heard so many others talk about all these new – and much more efficient – ways of working: Why on earth do I continue to make things so complicated for myself?
Why am I continuing to write in a language that is not my own when I could write in my mother tongue and then use a translation app instead?
Why am I refusing to let go of ink, coloured pencils, water colours and paper, and stubbornly continuing to make all my drawings by hand? Why am I so persistently avoiding making things easier and quicker by using more of all the smart gadgets and software available? If compared objectively, the use of some of these resources would probably produce a much better result than I can on my own.
I think I have found my personal answers to these two questions, and maybe they are applicable to you as well. To check that, I have prepared a little experiment for you in this blog post.
Testing, testing…
If you want to play along, the instructions are very simple: Listen to the two songs below, and meet me again on the other side of the music. My tip is to feel into your body as you listen.
Ready? Here is the first one…
And here is the second one…
Did you notice any differences in the way your body responded to the music?
I didn’t pick these two songs on purpose – it was pure “coincidence” (and the title of the second song shows that “Coincidence” has a terrific sense of humour).
And the difference between them? One of the songs is AI-generated, the other is “human-made and human-sung”.
A Sunday morning ephiphany
The first time I really listened to WALK MY WALK (the first song) was during a long drive through the countryside. It was early morning, with hardly any traffic, and the landscape outside my car window was monotonous. The lyrics made me smile (I am quite rebellious…), I liked the beat, and I pretended I was back driving along Route 66… (I am quite silly too…). I had set the playlist to “random”, and the next song in the queue was “Human”.
The lyrics are slightly similar, and the songs have that same delicious beat and growling depth that suits a road trip, but they felt completely different. When I noticed the energy currents in my body flowing so differently, I started flipping back and forth between these two songs, trying to understand what was going on.
I guess the circumstances were optimal for me to notice the difference – a long drive, an uninteresting landscape, no hurry, alone in the car as well as on the road.
A disclaimer
Before I start describing what I experienced as the difference between AI-generated and human-made, I want to highlight that this is MY personal experience and a personal discovery of what works and what doesn’t for ME.
It may NOT be the same for you.
I am NOT saying that AI-generated material is bad.
I am NOT judging any content creators for using AI to assist them in their work, nor telling anyone that they should take advantage of it.
I am bringing this up because of the astrology we are experiencing right now, and because I personally find this phenomenon so peculiar and interesting. Further down, I will share my opinion and where I think this will lead us, but whether I am right or wrong, the future will tell.
But why?
What began as a lot of flipping back and forth between two songs on an early Sunday morning expanded into a search for other musical examples. Then I became more attentive to my physical responses to different texts, photos, videos, etc.
For me, there is something missing in AI-generated creative material – whether that is music, art, or writing. A bit like the difference between eating Pringles and Kettle’s crisps (sorry, that sounded terribly judgmental…)
In AI-generated voices, I miss that flowing current that a human voice creates in my energy field – that unique frequency each human being has. Some call it our “soul-note”.
My two theories
I have been toying with two different explanations to the differences.
The first is that the “final product” (in this case, a song) has not been filtered through human consciousness, so the result has not taken on enough of the human flavour.
The other theory is the complete opposite – too many snippets of human consciousness have been baked together. I experience it as static in my energy field.
It doesn’t mean that the result isn’t good. I really like WALK MY WALK. It has all the ingredients I enjoy, but the song doesn’t MOVE me. I don’t feel the musical waves dance around in my body as HUMAN does.
Perhaps you would like to go back and listen again. In that case, do so and check if the two pieces of music are received differently in your system.
It is all about the vibe…
This is why I continue to choose my laborious writing process (even if I use spell-check to catch the worst errors). Each language has a general frequency, and what I can express in English feels is more difficult in Swedish. And I continue to draw by hand. What I wish for is that you will feel what I feel. I hope that the inspiration and encouragement I send your way will be experienced by you. If you can allow me to be a bit mushy, I want you to feel the love and that you will feel uplifted by what you read. My intentions are embedded in my texts, despite the way I sometimes mistreat the English language. My whimsical little human beings in the drawings are filled with the smiles they bring to me as they jump down onto the paper.
But it is not only an encouragement directed toward you. Something happens to me in the process as well. The work I do also changes me.
To have an outlet for my creativity, whether I share it with the world or not, feels as necessary to me as oxygen is to the human body. When there is no room or time for my inspiration to express itself, I get depressed, grumpy, and frustrated, and I lose my “mojo”.
Those of you who have allowed yourselves to flow with the creative current within know that something shifts within us when we allow inspiration to move freely through us and see it take form (and, of course, that includes spreadsheets, scientific research, website-building, and the creation of tech itself). Something is transformed as we open the door to our creative realm and let inspiration in.
My humble prediction about our creative future
Back to Uranus in Gemini.
There is no escape from this expanded (virtual) reality that is being birthed now. It is here to stay and to ultimately transform us. Personally, I see AI as one of Uranus’ pulls within the greater structure, which will help us see where the link is weakest and where structures need to be reinforced or replaced. AI shows us where we need to evolve as human beings.
Creatives and artists may have to change their ways by moving beyond where they are today, but that is part of art’s ever-evolving nature. And perhaps the transformation it will bring will be about becoming even more present, even more true to inspiration and craft. This new reality may call for even more energetic honesty in the creative expression.
We also have the other side of the coin – the audience, the consumers, the “enjoyers” of the creative products. The “users” of art will simultaneously become more trained to sense what is energetically true to them.
Perhaps one of the blessings that AI brings is to help artists and creatives carve out more time for their creative work.
So, my bet is that creators and artists will be far from obsolete in the future.
On the contrary, they will be very much needed. Without art in all its diversity, there would be less transformation, less change and growth within all. Art and creativity are needed for us to keep up in this energetic growth spurt we are going through right now.
It matters not if the result, the actual creation, is a piece of pottery, knitted socks in homespun wool, a heavy metal riff, a webtoon, or a new ice cream flavour. Ultimately, it is the creator’s soul we feel when we pick up the item, listen to the song, admire the image or play the game. It is the creator’s soul note that moves us. So, for now, I will stick to my pens, my papers and my “Swenglish”!
We have almost arrived at the end of Part 2. Thank you for accompanying me so far.
There is one more thing I want to share with you before we wrap up for today.
It is a part of the music video STORM II. The video went “viral” about a month ago, and is performed by the Swedish musician Yung Lean.
The video is produced by Romain Gavras, but make sure to watch it to the end, where you will find a long list of people who have contributed to this amazing piece of art, all with their unique soul note.
I have read so many articles about what the creators of the lyrics, music, and video want to convey. Bloggers, journalists, and music critics all have their own very clear opinion about what the music and video are about – and they all disagree with each other! I guess that is the whole point of art. As has been said so many times, the beauty is in the eye of the beholder. Art moves us; it touches on something very intimate within that belongs only to us.
Next bus stop is Shakespeare, the final part of this little series, and until then, lots of love!
Carin
