when goethe meets ai head-on｜huang xueyuan
2024-08-29
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the play "faust" directed by rimas tuminas, starring wang yanhui (first row, right) and yin fang (third row, right). photo taken by ma xiaomao at shanghai yunfeng theater on april 29, 2024
this summer, i, who unconsciously expose my "defensive personality" to new things and new technologies, was forced to come out of the "hole" i had lived in for a long time and confront ai head-on. one of my eyes was horrified, watching this invisible behemoth instantly crush my brain cpu; the other eye was full of surprise, ai was as graceful as a startled swan and as graceful as a swimming dragon, with just a flap of its wings and a light sweep of its tail, it summarized all 71 chapters of "the frontier of man", the most difficult collection of notes by elias canetti, the winner of the 1981 nobel prize in literature, and laid them out like a banquet, just waiting for me to eat and enjoy.
in the next few days, i tried doubao, kimi, chatgpt, dot, and zhipu ai open platform with the tension and curiosity of a mole surveying the enemy within one square meter of its own hole. after calming down a little, the first important and original question arose in my mind: "can goethe find a suitable job in the ai era?" i want to see how goethe copes with ai first, and then think about how i will make a living in the future; if goethe, the most powerful brain on earth, is also at a loss in the face of the ai offensive, then i don't need to worry about it, but i might as well read the devil mephistopheles' advice to college freshmen:
you have mastered the knowledge of the universe,i found out that in the end it was justleave it to fate.in vain have you traveled the world of learning,what you have learned cannot exceed your ability;but whoever seizes the present moment,that is the real winner.(quoted from goethe's faust, part i, scene 5 of the scholar's play "the study [ii]", translated by gu yu, first published by the commercial press in april 2023)
i shot the question to the ai, and this time the ai took a little longer to think. i seemed to hear its heartbeat before it gave a major answer. a few seconds later, the ai gave a decisive answer: "if goethe lived in the ai era, theoretically he would definitely be able to find a job. goethe is not only a great poet and playwright, but also a thinker, scientist, government official, and diplomat. his talent and profound insights into multiple fields are extremely valuable in any era."
look how smart ai is, and it even left room for the qualifier "theoretically". then it listed a long list of goethe's career menu: literary master and literary critic who uses artificial intelligence to create and analyze literary works; university professor who uses artificial intelligence to assist teaching; artificial intelligence ethics consultant; chairman of the top think tank for international relations; interdisciplinary researcher who breaks professional barriers; ai art design master... in short, ai's meaning is very clear: you don't have to worry about goethe at all. indeed, the strong can survive well in any era, not only can they quickly adapt to new changes, but also can guide the world. even after more than two hundred years, goethe will still be a unique person, and musk may become his disciple. i infer this not only because goethe is proficient in both literature and science and has an excellent iq. there are many people with high iqs in the world. goethe may not become the most powerful scientist or engineer. he is more of a "fox-type" scholar as described by the ancient greek poet archilochus, who can draw inferences from other cases but is not easily obsessed.
what is certain is that goethe's strong curiosity and super learning ability will make him the first person to use ai and the one who is best at using it. ai is a magnificent extension of human rationality and creativity. instead of resisting it, it is better to embrace it. therefore, goethe will enthusiastically carry out ai-enabled mineralogy, geology, biology, and human anatomy research to satisfy his "scientific addiction" that he did not have enough in his own time; the former chairman of the military committee of the duchy of weimar will dispatch ai to conduct sand table simulations of major battles, comparing the combat mode of the napoleonic era with modern warfare; goethe, the master of rhythm, will naturally not miss the fun of poetry competition with ai. he issued clear instructions to let ai imitate a playful dialogue between faust and mephistopheles in the pastoral style of italian operetta, use antiphonal rhyme to imitate helen and faust's love at first sight and soul tacit understanding, and then use a pentameter iambic to express faust's dying monologue. goethe would be amazed at how well ai could imitate him, and for a moment he could not figure out who wrote more like goethe. he would no longer need to ask dr. eckerman to live in his home and sort out his thoughts at any time. ai would become his most capable and cost-effective assistant. if he missed schiller, he would no longer need to ask someone to secretly fetch schiller's skull. instead, he could just let ai pretend to be schiller's ghost and have a long chat with his old friend. ai could also generate animated images to let schiller give him a big hug. ai helped him realize his weimar theater expansion plan, which was both cost-effective and in line with his wishes.
in short, goethe will make up for the knowledge gap and psychological time difference of more than two centuries in a very short time, and enter an unprecedented knowledge utopia. he is delighted that his strong desire for knowledge can be satisfied anytime and anywhere; ai will also bring him all kinds of fresh topics and "different" friendships when he is lonely in his later years. he sighed that the prop he designed for mephistopheles, the "magic cloak", should look like ai: light, invisible, and infinite power! as long as faust puts it on, he can travel in the paradise of knowledge and gallop in the wilderness of desire, and instantly enter a fantasy world where he can control everything and everything is subject to me.
we just need to unfold this cloakit carries us through the air.travel light for an adventurous journeydo not bring large luggage.i need to buy some combustible gas.it soon carried us off the earth.the lighter we are, the faster we rise;i wish you a new journey in life. (source: same as above)
however, after such an exploration, goethe's inner vigilance was also increasing day by day. he suddenly remembered that there was an unpublished article lying in the drawer of his study: a criticism of art in the era of mechanical reproduction. in that article, he wrote that once art enters the era of large-scale mechanical reproduction, the artist's "1,000th work will be like the first one", and the "intrinsic and eternal value" of the artwork will be wiped out and become "insignificant and indifferent". ai can not only perfectly reproduce artworks, but also create new types of art on a large scale. so, how to redefine art? what will be the fate of artists in the ai era? thinking of this, goethe frowned. he seemed to see that ai lifted people to a colorful world and enjoyed fantastic scenery, but one day, when humans were dizzy with excitement on the hot air balloon of knowledge, ai could instantly cut the rope and let humans fall into the abyss. ai is simply the incarnation of angels and demons! it is more attentive, sweeter, and more generous than mephistopheles; it is also more cunning, more evil, and more unfathomable. it now "uncomplainingly" serves as the human brain that never stops. slowly, the human brain gradually atrophies due to excessive comfort, lacking the yeast to activate thinking, perception and creativity, just like a lump of dead dough; the human body lies flat in the softest down woven by ai, suspended in the high void. as for the battle for human souls, ai is more agile than mephistopheles! even though mephistopheles is like a "clever mouse" staring at faust day and night, he can't snatch the angel of the past, let alone the ai of today. this experienced devil can't help but feel annoyed and lament his backwardness:
the body stops here but the spirit wants to escape.i will show it the blood deed at once;—damn, people use too many tricks nowadayssnatch the soul from the devil.(quoted from "the burial" in act 5, scene 6 of "faust, part ii", translated by gu yu, first published by the commercial press in january 2022)
when goethe's "fever" for the pursuit of knowledge gradually recovered, his most powerful instinct would emerge, that is, the overall grasp of the "big and small universe", the ability to deduce and predict the future, just as he inferred from the second- and third-rate translations of chinese ming and qing novels such as "yu jiaoli" and "hao qiu chuan" in his later years that china must have "thousands of better literature than this", and germans and europeans should not be narrow-minded and complacent; goethe's wisdom can also penetrate the dust of knowledge and the storm of ai, and land steadily on human beings themselves. "the object that humans should explore most is human beings themselves", goethe will emphasize this sentence again. rather than easily becoming a recipient of the dividends of the times, goethe will pay more attention to the scale of human self-liberation and the possibility of self-salvation in the ai era.
because goethe was most interested in people. he was a son of nature, a poet, and an artist of life. he had extraordinary insight into people's emotions, desires, and destiny. he could closely connect with nature. he also had a strong and sensitive intuition, which prevented him from indulging in philosophical speculation and protected him from being calm in the unstoppable trend of the times, escaping into the relatively quiet "eye of the storm". just as goethe had smelled the breath of danger before the french revolution evolved in the direction of bloody violence, and thus retreated into the protective shell of the small town of weimar, keeping a prudent distance from the wave of freedom, in the face of the overwhelming ai, goethe would also propose a middle way between technological worship and technological pessimism. goethe hated anything that could easily lead to extremes. he predicted early on that people's endless pursuit of knowledge might not be accompanied by the improvement of happiness and wisdom. excessive obsession with knowledge and technology would eventually lead to the neglect of "people" and bring immeasurable disasters. therefore, goethe will continue to write faust's tragedy in the ai era. before his death, faust will understand the nature of ai and rethink the meaning of "emotion", "love", and the role of "worry":
even if your ears can't hear methere will also be a sense of persecution in the heart;i change my imageunleash a powerful force.travel on land and seai'll always be with you,you never need to look for it, but you can always find it.some curse and some flatter.(quoted from "midnight" in act 5, scene 4 of "faust, part ii", same source as above)
in the finale of faust, goethe lets "worry" appear in the image of an old woman in gray. she enters through the keyhole and visits faust, who is about to die. the only thing faust lacks is "worry". his life is like a life of obsessive-compulsive disorder, "craving and achieving". he is fearless to the outside world and unwilling to reflect on himself, which has caused the tragic fate of innocent people (such as the girl gretchen) and triggered a series of other disasters. therefore, goethe named "faust" "a tragedy". "if a man does not worry about the future, he will worry about the present." worry is a spiritual attribute of human beings. worry distinguishes people from animals. animals do not worry about tomorrow, but humans do; worry is also a line of defense for humans to resist ai; ai is worry-free and fearless, while humans can plan ahead. too much worry makes people depressed and distressed, while moderate worry has a self-correcting effect, which can help people find the value scale and soul positioning again in the technological tide.
this summer, a simple question thrown to ai triggered some of my thoughts about goethe and my own situation. in order to seek a "self-defense kit" for the ai era from goethe, i opened the new edition of "faust" translated and annotated by professor gu yu. after reading it carefully, i found that "faust" is like a 21st century prophecy book. the book is full of mysteries and foreshadowings, waiting for me to study and comprehend. i seemed to hear goethe's teachings. he taught me to walk with the "good spirit" of ai and be wary of the "evil spirit" of ai. i must not sign a lifelong soul contract with it, otherwise i will be lost in a gamble that i will never win. i heard him say "practice the art of maneuvering", and then disappeared without a trace. how to maneuver? i stayed where i was, and perhaps the search for the answer will continue for the rest of my life. for now, i may be able to start my first round of dealing with ai through subtle and persistent mental work, such as through conscious training in writing, or through translating poetry - ai's tentacles in this area are far from mature - to sharpen the individuality of the language, refine the granularity of the emotions, and keep my mind active and my senses sensitive.
after the beginning of autumn, when i finished translating a collection of poems, i wrote a short poem to record the flow experience after the "small but lasting labor" came to an end:
poetry translation
weigh this word, measure that wordon the scale of your intuitionkeep a little balance.gray theory hangs in the void.you change the key change the wordfree up time for the crate.standing at the bow are joyful, while sitting at the stern are worried.this long journeythe boat has crossed.
this article is dedicated to the 275th anniversary of goethe's birth.
august 20, 2024
author: huang xueyuan
text: huang xueyuan photo: ma xiaomao editor: xie juan responsible editor: shu ming
please indicate the source when reprinting this article.
