The Gist 29: Universal Consciousness
The progress of storytelling as a unifying model
Iteration
I’ve been sick for almost two weeks. I’ve ingested probably at least close to the maximum amount of cold medication and run a low but significant fever many of those days. So, trust that while this isn’t a new theory I’m going to try and explain, I did let it sit before deciding to write a post about it, juuuuust to be sure it wasn’t more acetaminophen than insight. What we’re talking about is this evolution of human communication to this point, which is the main subject of Self-Scare, and we’ve covered that thoroughly, but where are we going from here, and the pattern projection is…fascinating.
I began with AI. Not with using it….but with my background in programming LLMs and how they work. It was a required course at MIT, and training supervised vs unsupervised models can be such an insight into how humans learn and think. The short of it is, the moment we decided to become social creatures, something changed forever that put humanity on this course of increasing inter-dependence. We need each other, and so we leaned in… all the way in. There are varying opinions, but I don’t think it’s unfair to see it changed our entire evolutionary trajectory…and by proxy…our DNA. What does that have to do with storytelling and AI? This: humans began developing a system of communication almost immediately that enabled us to stay connected. That system developed a feedback loop, a positive reinforcement that trained our speech model…on how to identify flaws in its own system and eliminate them. In an extremely oversimplified way, this is the same way AI works, not because we’re superadvanced algorithmic thinkers but because humans designed algorithms…and we designed them based on how we think. So as we view our extremely rudimentary efforts to recreate the wonder of human consciousness… intelligence…we can also see the framework of how it functions, in action.
The thing about these kinds of self-training algorithms? They’re exponential. They compound on their own learning and take the next steps, like fractals. In computing, this is what causes hallucinations. A model can only keep so many facts in memory before it ‘drifts’ and has to invent new things. But humans overcame that barrier. We developed systems that can hold vastly larger data sets, stored in cells instead of circuits, but we also introduced a self-correcting stabilizer. The story. Oral history, until writing was invented, provided a backbone, a constant. And that reference kept us more or less moored in place socially. Writing prevented the ‘drift’ of stories told too many times with minor changes, evolutionary telephone. And that gave us our platform for what we call science, history, every branch of education, and we began to train our models to agree with each other and to self-correct anytime one got too far off track. This is enough to be fascinating, but what interests me is where it’s going. As we’ve advanced, each generation, a new iteration of our programming, we’ve gotten faster, and we’ve gotten more efficient at one specific thing…data transmission. We’ve developed ways to share information in increasingly robust, accurate, and above all, expedient methods. Stories, to writings, to books, to plays, to radio, TV, movies, and….memes. One of my favorites, an entire idea, pulled from a shared knowledge of pop culture expressed in a single image…. sometimes without any words. The most efficient possible transmission of an idea or emotion possible.
Looking at the patterns and how they’ve converged in this century, I can only see that as humans we are moving towards a future where we share (eventually) near real-time or actual real-time updates, not one-to-one but one-to-all, all-to-one…..a universal consciousness of thoughts, ideas, concepts, and realities. Today’s news, theories, and revelations are all accessible, all vetted and sorted into useful and irrelevant, probably without thought. Humanity appears to be slowly…from our perspective, but rather quickly on evolutionary scales, becoming a hive mind. And it is a fascinating thing to watch.
Somehow Someway
Against all odds, it looks like this show will be finished. I hope to be sharing clips with everyone in the coming weeks. Stay tuned!
Cryptic Ventures
Cryptid is locked in for a mid-May shoot. We, unfortunately, lost our lead for this one due to scheduling, but the rest of the cast and crew are confirmed so we’ll begin casting immediately and get what will no doubt be our most impressive achievement yet underway. So excited!
The Gist:
Human communication is a fast-moving, ever-evolving process that is taking us into exciting new realms of connection.
Self-Scare is still on pace and worth the wait.
Cryptid filming begins mid-May
As always, drop comments below, share with friends, what are your thoughts about our progress in the future….do we even have one?
"Language, even more than color, defines who you are to people."
— Trevor Noah