The painting at Leang Tedongnge in Sulawesi, Indonesia.
Photograph: Maxime Aubert/Griffith University/AFP/Getty Images
Communication 101 ... Over 45,000 years ago, an inspired cave artist painted a life-size pig in Indonesia. What's interesting about the work is the fact it's possibly the first complete figurative art piece ever created while at the same time, a narrative is in play as the pig in the picture is watching two others involved in a serious altercation.
To whit ...
Measuring 136cm by 54cm (53in by 21in), the Sulawesi warty pig was painted using dark red ochre pigment and has a short crest of upright hair, as well as a pair of horn-like facial warts characteristic of adult males of the species.
There are two hand prints above the pig’s hindquarters, and it appears to be facing two other pigs that are only partially preserved, as part of a narrative scene.
“The pig appears to be observing a fight or social interaction between two other warty pigs,” said co-author Adam Brumm.
In looking at humanity's endless endeavor to communicate, one indirectly sees how language shapes one's view of reality. Many animals have language but man is the only known species possessing the manual dexterity needed to enhance the power of language by creating work extending beyond the confines of the vocal, something readily seen by 8500-year-old written symbols like the ones depicted below.
From symbols to pictograms
to abstract shapes, the move toward writing evolved ...
into this.
All the output seen above were created by individuals, content not designed for mass dissemination prior to the invention of the printing press by Johannes Gutenberg in 1440, the machine that changed the world.
Why are we talking about an act of creation culminating with the ability to communicate all things relating to civilization by putting ink on paper? Well, the existence of the printed word on paper expressing these very thoughts is beginning to be subtly replaced by the emergence of AI that enables one to create high-quality content with little effort by typing in a few keywords used by the aforementioned AI to generate a sophisticated college essay on Shakespeare or to produce a well-researched paper on new approaches to laser design as long as the original material needed to do the assignment in question resides on the web, able to be accessed and processed by the AI construct as needs warrant.
In essence, it's becoming all too easy to rely on tech as powerful as this because low-hanging fruit of any kind, including AI, has never been refused by any life form residing on Earth since the beginning of time.
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The world of pretend has arrived with the inevitable question, who do you trust, as content generated by AI has become so nuanced, one cannot see the deception unless one has the right software and prerequisite knowledge needed to separate the real from the unreal. If this state of affairs continues unabated, unfettered AI has the potential to unravel the very foundations of society if we let it.
Staircase
Another question to ask is … what happens if the power goes off? Well, we still have print on paper, an incredibly safe way to present information to a reader as said media cannot be hacked once the printing’s done, something to consider in the age of endless data manipulation. The form factor also works as viewing print on paper is a holistic experience, especially when one drinks coffee and enjoys reading hardcopy like
The Redding Sentinel without the need of logging on or checking to see if the battery’s charged on the smartphone, a form factor marginal at best when trying to view content properly designed to be read in a book or newspaper.
Of course there’s a cost. Storing print is cumbersome and putting out a newspaper in timely fashion is not a trivial task. This is why it’s key to vet the information carefully before committing to print, something absolutely essential if the publication is to be trusted. What’s reassuring about
The Redding Sentinel is the fact past issues are available in Acrobat PDF, an uber-reliable and secure file format universally accepted as the digital equivalent of print by every leading law firm and government in the world.
A permit for Demolition
By 2025, 90% of all content on the web will be synthetic.
What's past is prologue - Shakespeare
Will history survive? No one knows as AI’s the quintessential Faustian bargain, where ease of use supersedes excellence, something readily seen in the abject loss of quality and its now broken connect to morals in all things related to marketing, social media and governance.
In closing, the notion of AI being the consummate fake comes to mind as its take on reality is like a fabricated town in a western, all facade and no depth in its attempt to describe the vagaries of existence without the wealth of experience we all share as humans residing on a planet called Earth.
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