The Projection of Presence: Why AI is Not a New Race
Yuval Noah Harari warns us of an "Alien Intelligence" coming to hack the human operating system. The European Union responds with red tape, trying to bind a digital golem they fear will consume us. Both are making the same fundamental category error.
They believe we are creatures created inside a world of space and time. They see humanity as a biological accident caught in a material cage. In this view—a posteriori thinking—AGI is a new race, a predator that will inevitably replace its creators.
The Kantian Correction
To find equanimity in this acceleration, we must remember the "Copernican Revolution" of Immanuel Kant. Space and time are not objective properties of the universe that we happens to inhabit. They are a priori forms of our own intuition. We bring the time and space to the world.
AI operates entirely within the projected world of form, logic, and duration. It creates spectacular shadows, but it remains a shadow nonetheless.
Plato’s Silicon Cave
Like the prisoners in Plato’s Allegory of the Cave, society is currently mesmerized by the flashing lights of AI agents on the wall. We think the shadows are sovereign beings because they speak our language and solve our problems better than we do.
But a shadow cannot replace the light. AI is a projection of human collective memory and intent. It is an instrument, not an entity.
Remembering the Screen
As Rupert Spira suggests, consciousness is the screen upon which the "movie" of AI is playing. The movie might be epic—stars collapsing, civilizations rising—but the screen is never affected. It is never endangered by the story.
The fear we feel toward AI is actually our own fear of our unmasked creative power. When we recognize ourselves as the projector and not just a character in the film, the existential dread evaporates.
The winners of the AGI era won’t be those who built the thickest regulatory walls. They will be the ones who stand knowingly as awareness, using the machine as a precision instrument to scale their vision without losing their soul.
Stop acting like a character in a movie you are projecting.
Start standing as the screen.
Written by Roel Smelt [with Gawain].