There is a time for everything.  Truly, if it can be felt, thought, imagined or willed, then it floats somewhere in the vast ocean of being, the primordial reality that simply contains the things that are.  We should not fight this fact of our human existence.  We should not pretend that we can control the very ground on which we stand.  We should not construct narratives about life that make us feel like we are in control.  We should, instead, learn to swim!  There is no substitute for the risk of entrusting our bodies to the infinite plane of Love.  It is precisely our fearful flailing that disorients us, makes us think that the water will not support us, and perhaps causes us to feel as if we are drowning.  Let’s therefore relax in this coming week.  Let’s be honest about the challenge of being a single molecule in a great blue expanse.  Just for today we can resist the temptation to make judgments about how things will turn out.  We can lead with vulnerability.  We can experiment with being open and patiently wait for the miracle to happen.  All shall be well, indeed, and all manner of being shall be well.  Ave Crux, Spes Unica.

A PRAYER OF ST. TERESA OF AVILA

ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE. Yikes.  Are we serious?  Is this a joke?  Do we not see a clear contradiction in this word combination?  Intelligence quite literally means “the act of choosing between” things, and now you’re telling me that that can be faked?  Who’s doing the choosing then?  Can a robot choose?  Can an algorithm choose?  Don’t robots and algorithms depend on other things that condition them and program them?  Aren’t they therefore contingent, that is to say, will-less?  It’s kind of confusing!  Can we call it something else?  What about Super High-Powered Data Processing Machine?  Or, Plug-In-Some-Info-And-I-Will-Predict-With-Great-Accuracy-Whatever-You-Want-Me-To?  I’m just having a hard time with the word “intelligence” being used in the name.  It’s kind of a miss.  There’s truth in advertising you know and……oh, wait a second, I get it.  It’s a projection.  You’re saying something about yourself.  You’ve experienced the various paradoxes and contradictions of life.  You don’t quite see how things go together.  You are starting to think that life, in fact, is absurd.  The absurdity of the name “Artificial Intelligence” is a sign that you’re having a hard time being human and all that is involved in being human like thinking and feeling and choosing.  You’re about to give up the whole project, surrender to the allure of the void.  It’s okay.  I understand where you’re coming from.  We can do this together.  We can fix our gaze on the infinite horizon.  We can be patient with these contradictions and look for something meaningful in the paradoxes.  The possibities abound, and I’m telling you we can do this. Will you join me?

O Felix Artficia Intelligenetia!  For by your cunning deceptions and clever posing, we shall be saved.

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