Everything Important Has Been Said
You don’t need to, but if you read the classics, you’d find yourself circling back to the same fundamental questions, bottom-line wisdom and fantastic follies that pervade today.
Yes, even generative AI cannot invent anything inherently new. It’s all been said in one way or another. I’m literally holding my hands up as I type this (or at least in my head I am). Like why bother? What else is there to write and say?
Every book seemingly a duplicate. Every story on Medium, in movies or music becoming increasingly familiar, no matter its twists, nuances and supposedly unusual circumstances.
So why the retelling? I suppose it’s because stopping is not an option. Because even old stories continue to unfold. And because the individual is different. Oh, but there are commonalities of the human experience. Even perspectives and mindsets can be shared.
There’s another bit. Timing. The same old story can hold a different meaning at different times. Perhaps the reader was not ready yet the first time. Perhaps the story didn’t resonate with her experiences at the time. At another encounter, it could tell the perfect antidote to her crisis. It becomes personal. Real. Relevant. Even inspiring.
Personal. This word has taken on an elevated meaning for me in this day of computer data bits offering insights on the human experience at breakneck speed. Data parading as reflection. Computer generation pretending to be a real storyteller.
Tell you what, this must be why I’ve been having this episode of dissociation from writing. I feel like I have to learn how not to sound like AI. You see, when I was working on a research project for a book, I wrote down my analysis in quite an academic way, as I should. Out of curiosity, I ran the text through a so-called AI detector and guess what? It said the paragraph was most likely AI generated. No kidding?! Like it’s not bad enough that we are slugging it out the human way, to be “suspected” of being AI is an almost-funny, somewhat flattering(?) piece of nonsense.
So, I thought to myself, I’m only going to write about personal things. And even when I set out to write a detail-specific piece of experience, I find myself checking how AI would manufacture such types of personal pieces. I do this to make sure I veer course away from that.
