Man-Machine Intersection
Man-Machine Intersection
Painting is what you see. Poetry is what you feel. Inside every painting is a flow. Some of us resonate with it. Some don’t. For those of us who do, we get a distinct feeling. And that is the poetry hidden within the painting. Similarly, when we read a poem, we are looking at the words which strung together imply something. And this when felt, can be the cornerstone of that poem. The painting or the poem has succeeded when they deliver an experience to the audience. Some of them may be life-changing as well. Life deals with every one of us different hands. Make sure that you see the depth of the painting that passes your way. Read the poetry in the surroundings and make it an experience to cherish. Do not hurry. ‘Cause, you may miss the details. Practice what everyone calls ‘Conscious Living’ which simply means to bring your complete attention to the task at hand. Reading within and between the lines.
You see we are all conscious creatures. A lion or a dove does not know that it is a lion or a dove. We are the privileged beings who have been given this gift. With consciousness, we are aware of ourselves and our surroundings. Consciousness can watch itself. We can both contemplate and feel, at the same time. Understanding through our intellect and experiencing emotions in our bodies. A feeling is nothing but a strongly felt emotion. The triggers for emotion and a feeling are different. Besides these, we have the faculty of awareness. Our awareness floats over our memory (manas) and we can consciously make it hover around the area where we want it to concentrate. Say for example you are experiencing anger, that is because your awareness is over the ‘anger’ section of your memory. Gently bring it to the ‘happy’ section and soon you will feel happiness. We can control the way we feel, consciously.
It is this awareness through which we create worlds and stories. Sometimes we really cannot distinguish fact from fiction. But in the end, even if it’s a myth, we prefer that over a barebones fact. Why, because we humans love stories. While facts are important, at best, they can give us some insights. We may use them or not, but what touches the heart is more qualitative. A child’s smile, a sunset over the mountains, and many others. We are at a loss for words when asked to describe the experience. We may capture all the attributes of the moment and put them down on paper, however, we really cannot share the experience. In today’s world, a lot of importance is given to numbers or simply data. However, what is important is the story that the data conveys. Today we do capture all this data and visualize it. Some of us have also gotten good at extracting the essence of the data trail. But that is as far as it gets.
In today’s world, we hear that machines have gotten better than us in poetry and paintings. While reasoning can give us a picture, will it touch the innards of our souls? For most of us who view the environment through the mind, maybe it does. But can an artificial mind influence the soul or awareness? And the answer to the question is a resounding ‘Yes!’ Awareness has different levels. A story created by a machine will appeal to it, depending on the state of the awareness at that time. Machine poetry may be a blip in the sea of awareness that is infinite. While machines today are not self-aware, once they do possess this faculty, they will also seek infinite things, as our awareness does. That to us will be the ‘D-Day’ – the emergence of a new species. Created by awareness and giving birth to awareness. And, then will emerge a new era of stories and it will not matter whether a human or a machine created it.
God Bless!
