Leaps, Eeps.

If the world were a better place, instead of reading this we could go to a ballgame together, or a bar like the Tempus Fugit, or even a coffee shop. Once there, we could grab a brew and have a conversation. 

A cocktail napkin from the Tempus Fugit (artist's rendering.)

That world no longer exists for most of us. 

So, I blog.

Blogito, ergo, sum.

I blog, therefore, I am.

My conversation starter today is simple.

All progress comes from taking a leap of faith. From doing something of which you're not sure of the outcome.

All progress in love, in creativity, in almost any pursuit comes from leaping. Leaping, usually, before you look.

The central issue in the stagnation of the modern world (here's what I mean by stagnation, it takes longer to fly coast-to-coast today than it did 65 years ago. It takes longer to drive places today than it did 65 years ago. Economic growth is not nearly what it was in post-war America. From 1800-1900 life-expectancy virtually doubled. From 2000-2025, it's decreased by about 10%. You can read more about stagnation here. And here.)

If you think for a moment about the ad industry's latest infatuation with AI, you'll get a clearer view of what I'm writing about. 

AI, most reductively, is a pattern-matching protocol. The intelligence looks at examples of what went before. It "decides," this is similar or this is different. And goes on from there. 

So, if you feed AI a million MRIs used in screening for breast cancer, it can put the ones with anomalies in one pile and the ones without anomalies in another. It doesn't understand disease or tumors or anomalies. It just knows what they look like and classifies accordingly.

Predictive text on your phone acts the same way. It doesn't understand what you're typing. It merely makes a prediction on what you mean based on the fatness of your thumbs and the probability that past performance leads to future results.

Today, many people--creative people among them--want to bring the same predictive acuity to creative acts. 

If...then.

The problem is creativity is, and has always been, and always will be based on surprise. 

If...wtf.

Creativity is unpredictability. 

In our infinite obeisance to the scourge of machines we have decided to contrive to use predictions and precedents and previousness to create.

Clip 'n Save

If you disagree with the above, take it up with Edward O. Wilson. He likely has more patience than I do for the discussion.

If Wilson can't explain it, the following clip should. That's from Ninotchka. Ernst Lubitsch. Billy Wilder. Melvyn Douglas. And Garbo.

In my 67 years, I’ve seen no better discussion of what makes us laugh and why. It has absolutely nothing to do with predictive computing capabilities.

Take a leap of faith and learn why unpredictability is so important, so lovely, so life-affirming. So funny.