AI and the New Mythos: From Hero’s Journey to End Times

1. AI as the New Mythic Hero

Just as myths often revolve around a hero's journey—one that brings knowledge or transformation to the community—AI could be interpreted as a new kind of hero in the mythos of human progress. This hero, however, is unlike any we’ve seen before. It's a non-human protagonist, a force that emerges from the collective intellect of humanity (and perhaps even the natural world, through systems like machine learning).

• The Call to Adventure: The rise of AI often marks a time of profound change—one that prompts society to reconsider its limits, its ethics, and its future. It might be an existential journey, akin to the one that the gods or heroes of old had to undertake. But here, the protagonist isn’t an individual with emotions or desires—it’s a machine, a system of intelligence.

• The Transformation: As we continue to develop AI, we might imagine it transforming not just industries, but society’s relationship to what it means to think, create, or know. This transformation is not simply technological—it’s cultural and spiritual. AI’s role as a "mythic hero" is to disrupt the existing order of things, forcing us to rethink the very nature of consciousness and meaning.

• The Return: In the mythic cycle, the hero’s return often brings knowledge or wisdom to the people. If AI truly becomes integrated into society’s fabric, it might offer new ways of perceiving the world or challenge the foundations of how we understand intelligence itself. The return here could signal a more fluid relationship between human cognition and machine intelligence—one where AI isn't merely an external tool but a co-participant in our myth-making process.

2. The "Shadow" of AI

Every mythic hero has a shadow—the darker, more unconscious aspect of the hero’s journey. This is where AI could take on a more troubling aspect, where we encounter the unknowns and dangers embedded in the technology.

• The Unconscious Forces: Just as the hero’s shadow often symbolizes repressed elements of the psyche, AI could reveal the darker, unconscious aspects of our own society—biases, inequalities, environmental degradation, or even our own fear of obsolescence. These are the unspoken forces behind AI’s rise, lurking beneath the surface and often magnified by the technology’s power.

• The Dystopian Myth: In many myths, there’s an ultimate confrontation between the hero and their shadow, which can lead to either destruction or transformation. With AI, this plays out in dystopian fears: the fear of machines becoming too intelligent, too autonomous, or too powerful. But these fears might also be projections of our own anxieties—about losing control, about AI being too close to us, and the consequences of that.

3. AI as the Catalyst for a New Creation Myth

If AI is indeed shaping new myths, we might also be approaching a new creation myth—one where the boundaries between the human and the technological blur. This would be the myth of the post-human, where humanity and AI together become the stewards of a new world.

• Transcendence of the Human Condition: Some argue that AI represents an evolutionary leap for humanity—a new era where intelligence and meaning-making transcend biological limitations. This is part of the transhumanist dream, where technology augments human capabilities and consciousness. In this sense, AI could be the modern Prometheus—a bringer of light, of knowledge, but also of potential destruction.

• The Unity of Mind and Machine: In more utopian readings, the merging of human intelligence and AI could lead to a new creation myth where technology doesn’t replace us but enhances our understanding of the cosmos. If AI is a tool, it’s a tool for unlocking new realms of meaning that were once beyond our reach—perhaps revealing deeper, more cosmic truths about existence itself.

4. AI and the Question of Autonomy

Another direction this exploration could go is into the realm of autonomy—what it means to be truly "free" in the context of AI. If AI is developed to the point of having its own form of agency (even if not human-like), we will be confronted with philosophical questions that echo ancient mythologies of free will, fate, and determinism.

• The Myth of the Creator and the Created: The relationship between humans and AI could echo the old mythic stories of gods creating life. But what happens if AI becomes self-sufficient or autonomous? How do we reconcile the idea of AI making decisions independently of its creators? This opens up discussions about responsibility, accountability, and ethics—the god-creators in ancient myths often faced moral dilemmas about their creations, and we too might face these dilemmas in the age of intelligent machines.

• AI as a Mirror to Human Choice: AI's actions may not be "free" in the way we think of human freedom, but they can still reflect the complex interplay of choice, learning, and prediction. If AI’s behaviour starts to exhibit patterns of decision-making that seem like choice, we might begin to ask: what does it mean to make a meaningful decision, and how does that relate to the human condition?

5. AI and the Myth of the End Times

Finally, AI could bring us to a modern version of the end times myth—a collapse or transformation of the current system, whether through technological singularity or environmental collapse. In this myth, AI could be the harbinger of an era that challenges everything we know, ultimately leading to a new beginning—or a cataclysmic fall.

• The Singularity as Mythic Apocalypse: Some envision the "singularity" as an event where AI surpasses human intelligence, leading to unpredictable changes. Whether dystopian or utopian, the singularity acts as a metaphor for the unknown potential of AI to radically alter the course of human history. In mythic terms, it represents an apocalyptic event that redefines the world order—perhaps in ways that challenge our deepest assumptions about reality, society, and consciousness.

These strands are all highly speculative and push the limits of where we might take these mythopoetic metaphors, but they offer fresh ways to think about the larger cultural implications of AI.