Man and Superman: India’s Prospects in the Age of AI (Part 6)

Superman has to exist, for the most part, in a post-work society. 

And now, we need to enter the realm of history, anthropology, and philosophy to look for answers.

In the beginning of time, Man hunted and gathered, sat around the fire telling stories. Man sang. Man danced. On the walls of caves, Man drew pictures. The beginning of civilization was when Man stopped to care for fellow-human beings.

As civilization progressed, as property rights emerged, as the concept of money emerged, Man’s desire for status increased. 

Man was no longer content with drawing on cave walls in private. Man wanted to hang paintings on museum walls. 

Man was no longer content by telling stories to fellow tribe members. Man wanted to write books that sold millions of copies.

Simple, collaborative, tribal societal structures fell away.

Aggressive, competitive, globalized world orders emerged.

Work became a key tool in this intensely competitive world order.

Fueled by intense ambition for excess, Man forgot the pleasure of community. Family, friends, dance, storytelling took a backseat as work became the dominant force in society.

The post-work world order will offer us an opportunity to return to simpler values that offer very serious returns.

Is Superman going to be driven by status and excess?

Or is Superman going to pay attention to being present in the moment, enjoy the sublime beauty of roses, the taste of delicious home-cooked food, the pleasure of painting without the need for external validation?

Will Superman dance?

The reason I ask these apparently silly questions is as follows. AI can create Art. AI can compose music. Whether or not a superhuman being can compose music like Beethoven or paint like Van Gogh, AI can certainly do both. In that scenario, what is the value of human-generated music or art? And do you need Einstein-level intelligence in a Physicist to come up with advanced scientific discovery? AI may be better at it.

I happen to also be a painter. When I was growing up here in Kolkata, I used to come here, to Golpark, to the home of my teacher Sri Ramananda Bandopadhyay, every Saturday morning, and paint for 3 hours.

To me, painting is a spiritual process. I don’t paint to gain recognition. I paint because I enjoy the feeling of color and brush and what happens on paper when I pick up my brush and apply paint to it. 

It’s a deeply visceral, organic process. A form of meditation.

I know from my many conversations with Ramananda Babu that he also views painting in the same way. Yes, he has gained recognition as an artist, but his primary motivation is that spiritual process.

This segment is part 6 in the series : Man and Superman: India's Prospects in the Age of AI
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