The Intersection of AI, Black Swans and Serendipity
Ask Good Questions and You Will Get Good Answers
The Intersection of AI, Black Swans and Serendipity — AI Image by Author (Microsoft Designer)
Imagine finding yourself in front of your computer, engaged in a conversation with an advanced AI about the nature of human consciousness. Its response leaves you perplexed: “Human consciousness is an ocean of which you see only the surface. Beneath, there are currents of subconscious thoughts and intuitions that brush against infinity. Have you ever considered that your consciousness might be a node in a cosmic network of awareness?”
These words shake you. It’s not the pre-packaged answer you expected. It pushes you to reflect, to dig deeper. These are the answers you seek because you’re aware that AI needs probing, specific questions that delve beneath the surface. But after hours of contemplation, you feel frustrated. You decide to take a break and go out, despite the pouring rain.
Bus stop
At the bus stop, an instinctive gesture — grabbing a lady’s flying umbrella — triggers a series of unpredictable events. The ensuing conversation, meeting her son a month later whom she’s eager for you to meet, his invitation to an evening with his friends, and finally, the deep connection with a girl who shares your same existential questions — all this forms a chain of coincidences that no algorithm could have predicted.
This is an example of a life occurrence that makes me think, by association of ideas, of philosopher Nicholas Taleb’s “Black Swan” theory: a rare and unpredictable event with significant consequences. But unlike Taleb’s large-scale Black Swans, I would affectionately call these “Black Swan Chicks” — personal, intimate, but no less transformative.
The irony is that while AI was pushing you to consider consciousness as part of a broader network, real life was weaving that very network around you. The chance encounter at the bus stop created connections that led to profound insights, concretely realizing what AI had only theorized.
Hidden connections
This brings us to a crucial realization: artificial intelligence and the serendipity of real life are not opposing forces, but complementary ones. AI pushes us to formulate deeper questions, and to consider perspectives that might elude us. It trains us to think in new ways and to see hidden connections. But it’s in real life, in chance encounters and unexpected conversations, that we often find the deepest insights.
AI functions as a mental trainer, honing our ability to perceive and understand. But the real “game” unfolds in the real world, where our trained minds are ready to seize opportunities for understanding when they present themselves.
Consider how the abstract idea of a “cosmic network of awareness” discussed with AI comes to life when you find yourself immersed in a deep conversation with the girl at the party. It’s no longer a theory, but a lived experience.
New approach
This new paradigm invites us to reconsider our approach to learning and discovery. It’s no longer about seeking answers only in databases or blindly relying on chance. Instead, it’s about cultivating an open and curious mind, trained by interaction with AI, but always ready to seize the opportunities that life presents to us.
AI can prove to be the telematic equivalent of a mechanical shovel. These machines are equipped with a blade used to lift and move large quantities of sand and earth. In the same way, I believe that AI provides us with the conceptual tools to “move the sand,” and “dig beneath the surface,” but it’s up to us to use them in the real world with great attention and consciousness. It’s up to us to be present, to be open, to be ready to recognize those moments of serendipity when they occur.
Every interaction, every chance encounter, could be a “Black Swan Chick,” a potentially transformative moment that only waits to be recognized and nurtured. AI helps us refine our perception, but it’s up to us to have the courage to act on these perceptions, to follow those threads of connection when we feel them vibrate.
And…so?
While we delve deeper into the era of artificial intelligence, let’s not forget the transformative power of the unexpected. AI is a powerful ally in our quest for understanding, but the deepest insights, the most significant connections, often come in the least expected moments, in the most spontaneous interactions.
True wisdom lies in the ability to integrate these two forces: the deep analysis and stimulating, profound, “digging” questions posed to people and to AI, and the openness to the unexpected that life offers us. It is in this balance that we can hope to unravel the deepest mysteries of consciousness, reality, and ourselves.
The next Black Swan might be just around the corner, perhaps at the next bus stop. The question is: will you be ready to recognize and embrace it?
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