Set Your Mind to It

Imagine that you want something so badly, that it hurts. Imagine that someone gives you the common advice, "If you set your mind to it, you can accomplish anything." But when they say it, it sticks. It clings to your mind, and you 'set your mind' and put in maximum effort.

Now, imagine you want something... fairly badly. You tell people you want it badly, but the level in which you want it isn't as great. You'd like this thing, sure. It doesn't hurt you to want it. But it would be nice to have. Someone gives you the advice, "If you set the prompt correctly, it can accomplish anything for you." It replaces the advice that stuck before, and it takes over your mind. It's your new thought. "This thing can accomplish for me."

Have you seen the movies where the characters don't build or create or diagnose, rather they wave their hands around in the air in the invisible future technology? They press floating buttons and prompt the machine to run equations and solve issues. The problem is solved, not because the character did anything remarkable, but because they asked a machine to do something. If they had no part in creating this technology, the payoff can be miniscule. "I wanted to see the good guy save the day, I didn't want to see him use Microsoft Excel so that it could save the day!" That's the state of AI today.

There's many uses with AI, there's many sides of it, and a whole host of issues. There's a lot that could be delved into, but we won't search every pocket of that lake... you know, the one AI is actively draining. No, we're just going to explore one pocket of it all. The pocket that has people contracting out their work to AI to accomplish things for them. Droves of people no longer wish to "set their mind" to anything, they just want to think something in their mind, and then have technology "create" that thing for them. "Create," "steal," let's not quibble over things like "definitions of words."

There are so many people who no longer wish to feel true success, who no longer wish to put in the work and cherish the journey. They want an end result; they want the words "The End" just before the credits. They either don't know or don't care that the fleeting bit of misplaced joy that they experience doesn't even compare to what they would have felt if they did it themselves. The journey would have been longer, but the feeling would have been better. Instead of a high mountain peak of elation, they prefer for less time to pass in order to get a blip of happiness on their sad little heart rate monitor. Is that even a real heart we're monitoring?

Some people will be offended by this, but that's only because they're too deep in it. We've seen too many movies where the characters are doing great things with such ease thanks to their virtual assistants, now the masses want to do the same thing. But hold on, wait, we already are. Those that can have a song created, have a story created, have a video created... they don't even have to try. They don't even want to try. They just want the machine to do it for them.

Art is a human creation, but not every human gets to do it. Some of them put the restraints on by not trying, some of them put the restraints on by not trying hard enough. People may or may not be talented enough, but they won't know unless they put in the effort. There are no shortcuts to creating art. You don't get to stand on the same level as an artist if you don't put in the hours outlining, the hours composing, the hours pondering, piecing together, altering, taking it all apart, and building it all back together. You have not gone through the trials and tribulations that they have; you don't get to share a platform with them.

But AI is letting you, isn't it?

And worst of all, you might be an artist deep down inside. You're not letting your true self emerge. You're burying yourself underneath all the inauthenticity.

People who are using AI to "create" art and putting in no effort, they're under the rubble. The AI is the enslaving antagonist in the movie, but it's no movie, it's happening. It's the classic double whammy. They're preventing you from discovering truth inside of yourself and digging deep inside and peeling it out. They're preventing you from doing some of the most human things you could do, by offering you a quick dopamine hit. They aren't ripping your soul out of you, they're just burying it underneath code and prompts and algorithms and illusions of success. They're blinding you to what you could be, to what you could achieve, by handing you a quick fix.

Because they like zombies. Because they like those that don't rock the boat with their art.

That's part one of the double whammy. Part two, the very same things that are enslaving you are enriching them. You're adding to the list of things collapsing the planet, and you're adding to the numbers in their bank accounts. Like any good antagonist, like any good evil genius, they've figured out a link to what they want, and what you want. They've determined that you want to feel a sense of accomplishment, and they figured out a way to give you synthetic success. It won't feel as good if you stop and think about it too much, you'll smell the burning plastic and taste the cheap substitutes. But that's why they don't give you too much time to decipher all its ingredients. They found the thing you wanted, they gave it to you at the speed of light, and they linked it up to the machine that fattens their wallet.

Each prompt pushes you further away from artistry, further into a sadness you haven't yet detected; each prompt pushes them further up the pedestal, fortifies their throne, and strengthens their control. Their iron fist has grown into stronger metals. A titanium fist, a chromium fist, a tungsten fist.

You're living tongue to fist... or is it hand to mouth?

It's frightening that they've created something to control us and simultaneously strengthen their ability to rule. We see the characters in the movie waving their hands around and accomplishing things with such ease, and we wanted those limitless possibilities for ourselves. It's like being a god in your own mind but a zombie in the minds of onlookers. Your brain is going stagnant from lack of use. The folds responsible for critical thinking or about to atrophy. They've convinced you that using your mind less and achieving something that you mildly desire in seconds with little effort is a good thing. It's not.

How do I know that you only mildly desire it, you ask? It's simple. If you really wanted it, if you wanted it so badly that it hurt, then you'd try for it. If it pained you because you didn't have this thing, then you'd crawl under the barbed wire and drag your body along jagged rocks to truly achieve. There wouldn't be a question about the effort you needed to put in.

You'd put in maximum effort.

Don't set your prompt.

Set your mind to it.