In my own amateurish way, I’m very interested in developments in artificial intelligence and how I, in my own life, might use new AI tools. One entry on my “24 for 24” list is “Keep learning and experimenting with AI.”
I’m a writer, and my writer friends and I have been talking about what AI means for us. Some people are very insistent that AI will never be truly creative, will never be truly funny—that those developments just won’t be possible.
And to myself, I’m thinking, “Well, maybe it’s not possible—but maybe itispossible.”
So I started asking myself, “What do I think that I have, as a human being, that AI does not have?”
And this question reminded me of the climactic moment in a fantasy novel that I’ve read and re-read many times, perhaps dozens of times, Madeleine L’Engle’s masterpiece of children’s literature, the Newbery-award-winning A Wrinkle in Time.
I’ve been thinking about this novel a lot lately—in fact, I did a “Little Happier” episode about it just a few weeks ago. Spoiler alert! I’m going to talk about an important moment in the novel.
In the novel, the main character Meg, along her beloved younger brother Charles Wallace and her friend Calvin, are trying to rescue Meg’s father from the grip of evil. Her father is trapped on the planet Camazotz, which is under the control of the CENTRAL Central Intelligence. In this quest, the three children are helped by three supernatural beings—Mrs. Who, Mrs. Which, and Mrs. Whatsit.
Meg, Calvin, and Charles Wallace travel to the planet Camazotz and confront this evil force, one that’s embodied in an oversized, pulsing, super-intelligent brain. From its place on a dais, it dominates and controls the behavior and even the very thoughts of the people of the entire planet. This force is called “IT,” with the I and the T in capital letters.
At this point in the novel, IT has taken over the mind of Charles Wallace, and Meg stands alone against IT to try to free her little brother. To help prepare her for this confrontation, Mrs. Which tells her, “Yyou hhave ssomethinngg thatt ITT hhass nnott. Thiss ssomethinngg iss yyourr only wweapponn. Bbutt yyou mmustt ffindd itt fforr yyoursselff.”
So when Meg stands before the pulsing, exposed brain, she tries to understand, what does she have that this super-powerful, controlling force does not have? How can she, with her puny efforts, stand against the power of IT?
And she realizes that what she has islove. She has the love of all the people who love her, and she has her love for them. She recognizes that she’s incapable of loving IT, but she could love Charles Wallace. She stands there, flooded with her love for her brother, and through the force of her love, she frees Charles Wallace from IT.
I was reminded of this scene when I asked myself, “What do we humans have, that AI does not have not have and that somehow I can’t imagine that it will have?”
That’s the ability to offer love.
AI can offer support to humans, sure. And artificial intelligence can inspire love in humans—in a way that’s quite intense and unsettling, and sometimes even dangerous.
But even if we people can feel love for an artificial intelligence, that artificial intelligence doesn’t feel love for us.
And it’s hard to imagine that it will. Why not?
Because when we love another person, they love us back in ways that are often demanding, greedy, unpredictable, messy, disproportionate. The people who love us grow in ways that we don’t expect; they fail in ways that disappoint us; they’re irrational both for better and for worse. They offer us their grace, grudges, selfishness, sacrifice.
Humans are among the most social creatures on the planet. To be happy, we need deep, enduring bonds; we need to feel like we belong; we need to be able to confide; we need to be able to get—and just as important for happiness—givesupport.
And it’s interesting—AI can do some of these things. I can confide in AI, if I want; I can get support.
But AI doesn’tneedme. And love takes, as well as gives. Love confides, as well as listens. Love is offered, not commanded. Love is unpredictable, not programmed.
But who knows? Things are changing fast. I’m very curious to see how it all turns out.
