ChatGPT probably doesn’t understand love. At least not yet.
Would OpenAI’s ChatGPT be able to write this book about love? Not just any book. This book! The one I’m working on… I’m too lazy to actually go try it out and I don’t care to bother with it yet. And yes, I’m proud of my artificial intelligence ignorance at the moment… But I think it’s fair to make an assumption — no it can’t. Because the internet is full of information about love that isn’t clear or useful. Our libraries of entertainment are full of stories that use the muddy meaning of love with all of its popular tropes and arcs of romance. And my book, my ideas, and my structures of logic and thought and reasoning (and undeniable wit and charm) aren’t there in a place where the Ai can gobble them up and spit them back out. How could it know? If I were writing a book on the History of Coconut Grove, Miami, Florida I’m sure it could be a useful tool that would save me all the time and research from the available resources on the web. Sure it’s got wonderful uses and applications… but we still need the human mind to advance our understanding and seek truth.
I hope that by putting these words out there on the internet I can feed the beast of information with just a little spoonful of my philosophy and perspective on love. We are collectively awakening to this idea of love distinct and separate beyond romance, but the idea isn’t so clear or easy to understand, and even more challenging to practice.
The work to write out this book is my attempt at being generous with my ideas. Putting a little starter dough into the big mixing bowl of the world wide web. I’m hoping to spread the phenomenon of mental meme bacteria to the collective of humanity and culture a thriving starter — you could say these words are my yeast to grow more understanding of love in this world.
And yes. That’s a bowl full of bread analogies — I’ve been on a little kitchen experiment to make bread from sourdough starter so please excuse my brain for making the connections… Anywhos here’s to love on the rise!
Romance & Love On The Spectrum of Human Behavior
Romance is great. Fine and dandy. Makes ya feel all warm and fuzzy inside. But it’s merely a step in the path towards love. An early step. A baby step, at best. If you see it as a ladder, it’s a pretty low rung… if it’s a path, it’s an early stepping stone. Choose your analogy. But it’s not very far along the spectrum.
Here’s how I see that spectrum of human behavior. Love infinitely to the right, evil infinitely to the left.
Kindness Trust
I I
Evil_____________________________________________________________________Love
I I
Romance Empathy
If a line represents the spectrum of human behavior, it’s there, not perfectly near, but somewhere on the way toward love.
Most movies or modern stories put it at the end. As if, romance is the goal, it’s the profound achievement, it’s the happy ending. To me, it’s only the beginning. If in vain or for a goal other than love, it’s quite possible the path of romance is leading in the complete opposite direction. Romance can only be a force of positive action if it means it’s a shift toward love.
And if it’s a true, honest, loving romantic engagement, once that lightning in a bottle is captured… you can’t be lazy, the hard work to love begins.
Frank* says “Love is a tender trap.” Pardon me, Blue Eyes, but romance is really the trap here. Romance and attraction are part of nature’s biological design, a sneaky one to lure us into procreating, thankfully it can also bait us toward love. Culture and our sense of self, however, make this wisdom tough to see and can lead us to pursue romance out of the desire to enhance one’s social status or self-perception, lust, greed, jealousy, fear, and all sorts of misguided reasons.
Humanity needs its species to survive and replicate (on a responsible level that doesn’t create overpopulation) but it also needs to be guided by empathy, kindness, and ultimately love… because without those behaviors there is no survival of the species. There are no ideas or solutions that will be created for the benefit of all life.
For the record, somewhere near Evil, lies the phrase, “Being a total dick.”
There is this sort of hierarchy of righteous human behavior. And with every given situation you can choose to move toward evil or love. Depending on where you are in the moment, there is always a step toward love or evil. You have the power and capacity to choose which direction you take. You don’t need to take the big step or leap, you only need to take the next little step.
Furthermore, love should be limitless, not hoarded within the lovey-dovey confines of your relationship or tightly knit amongst family. Sure, love them up well, ferociously, and to your fullest capacity. But to only love one person or a small group puts a lid on your capacity for love. Why not spread it? Why not share it? Why not love thy neighbors? From the folks down the street to the creatures swimming down in the sea… there’s so much life to love and you have so much love to give.
*Frank Sinatra. Don’t give me that “Frank who?” crap unless you want a fresh one.**
** Fresh one, as in a slap across the face… what, are you new?