Hide and Seek
Did you know that Hide and Seek was once called Sardines?
It was also called Apodidraskinda and played in ancient Greece. More recently, it was known as Nascondino in Italy, where a Hide and Seek International World Championship was held from 2010 to 2017.
Does it reflect a primal need to reassure ourselves that we exist, even if, and even more so if, we seem to vanish? We are like planetary luggage, sometimes lost and hopefully found.
Maybe that's why "search" has become such a weighted topic today. Google earned roughly $205. billion USD last year as humans worldwide succumbed to the need to "find".
We need to know that Snow is still alive, aided by Earth, Fire, Water, Light, Shadow and Magic (you know them as the 7 dwarfs). Apparently she also suffered from PTSD, since she survived a near-death experience. (1)
Therein lies the human dilemma: Why are we here? Where did we come from? Where are we heading? We need, we demand, answers. If Google can't provide them perhaps AI can. The need is so compelling that we overlook the potential dangers in AI, which include extinction of all of us, so that some (few) of us can find Google billions via competition and greed.
Sam Bankman-Fried was denounced because he was willing to bet the future of our entire species on the flip of a coin. Does that make him foolhardy or simply a victim of current insanities? What he found was 25 years in prison. What we found in him was a logical outcome of an economic and (im)moral system of governance that glorifies money and fame.
If we hide the truth from ourselves and others, and seek only a bloated bank account, what does that make us? A race to win only reveals that the human race can only lose.
The Japanese are exploring another way of being-in-the-world called degrowth, whose word origin comes from "a river going back to its normal flow after a disastrous flood". According to its proponents, degrowth envisions "societies that prioritize social and ecological well-being instead of corporate profits, over-production and excess consumption. This requires radical redistribution, reduction in the material size of the global economy, and a shift in common values towards care, solidarity and autonomy. Degrowth means transforming societies to ensure environmental justice and a good life for all within planetary boundaries." (2)
Even more radical is Google's claim to have created self-replicating life forms that emerged without directions or rules. (3)
Are we living a game of Jeopardy, where the rush to embrace answers has caused us to ignore the questions? If so, humanity is in mortal jeopardy indeed.
At the age of 5, my grandson was enthralled by the digital images he saw at my studio. When I told him they would be gone for a while as I was sending them to a gallery, he replied, "You can't do that. I would miss them too much".
If the current moral and economic pressures continue to eliminate compassion, ethics, kindness, and integrity, I can do no better than to say, "You can't do that. I would miss them too much".
c. Corinne Whitaker 2024
(1) Diagnosing a Princess
(2) degrowth
(3) Google's new life forms
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