Left: Snapshot from the 1940's Disney animated feature, Fantasia, The Sorcerer's Apparentice. Right: Illustration inspired by Goethe Poem from around 1882 by F. Barth
SORCERER’S APPRENTICE ARCHETYPE
In this 1940s animated feature, Mickey Mouse who plays the role of an apprentice puts on his master sorcerer's hat when the latter was asleep. He then cast a spell on a broom to do his chores for him which he later lose control of, until his master finally wakes up and undo all the spell.
This tale was inspired by a poem written by Goethe in 1797 entitled 'The Sorcerer's Apprentice'. Similar to Fantasia, at the end of the story after the Old Sorcerer broke all the spell done by his silly apprentice he said,
"Only a master should invoke powerful spirits."
The Sorcerer's Apprentice later has turned into an archetype of its own and it can be related to the current 21st century 'zeitgeist' which revolves around nuclear energy, genetic engineering, cloning, virtual reality and the latest craze, artificial intelligence.
BREAKING THE ‘SPELL’
In one of his recent lecture, Prof. Yuval Noah Harari, an Israeli medievalist, military historian, public intellectual, and popular science writer draws parallel about the rushed development and adaptation of artificial intelligence into our current civilization. He said,
"If you think about it like a car, when they taught me on how to drive, the first thing is to learn how to use the brakes. It is a bad idea to teach you to go faster and then when you are too fast then only tell you how to stop."
He added, "This is what we are doing with AI. You have this chorus of people in places like the Silicon Valley saying 'Let's go as fast as we can. If there is a problem down the road, we will figure it out how to stop. This is very dangerous."
I have personally witness the sheer arrogance of this so-called FOMO (Fear Of Missing Out) crowd who warned those decided to be an observer first before adapting AI with 'adapt or die' statement.
I have even asked them, "What's this rush in adapting AI?" which no one has the answer. I do. For profit. It is a known saying of old that you should not do things for monetary reason or you shall see the decline of things. But hey, it is how the world revolves now, unfortunately.
These things that has been rushed into our lives by these high tech billionaires for profit is akin to the earlier example of going faster first without learning how to stop.
Akin to the old tale of the race between the hare and the tortoise. It is the arrogance of the hare which made him lost the race by taking a nap midway. Whilst the slow moving yet consistent tortoise won.
THE SPELL OF ‘SOCIAL MEDIA’
Without us realizing it, we do have a clear example today with the social media platform. Its adaptation into our lives through the use of the Internet by those so called Silicon Valley geniuses are clearly without thinking how to stop it when they lost control of it, which is what governments are trying to figure out today, as we speak. None of its 'founding fathers' have thought of its effect on the younger generation and how it affects their family relations and finally the larger society. Only now they are trying to figure our how to apply the 'brakes'.
As what the Old Sorcerer's character in Goethe poem said, "Only a master should invoke powerful spirits." Apparently none of these 'geniuses' have overlooked the meanings from the literature of old which contain lessons, hidden narratives and subtle warnings. Learning from the past is one should do in order to move forward. The failure to do so is one of the reason why civilizations fall.
The pool where Narcissus admires his reflection (left) and the Evil Queen's Magic Mirror (right) is both an embodiment of a device which feeds on the narcissistic nature of human
THE SCREEN AND THE GRADUAL NORMALIZATION OF NARCISSISM
There is another saying which says that if you want to introduce and implement something upon a man, do it slowly. Do it hastily and there will be resistance.
Back then during the early 1900s, the act of murder carries a notion of total negativity and horror. Then, with the invention of the film media, its projection on the big screen may have been horrific to watch at first, but as decades gone by, humanity have even laughed at it through the adaptation of comedy, satire and parody of the subject. Up to a point now the tools are available to commit it (through virtual reality and gaming) and laugh after doing it. Going back to the early 1900s, to laugh at the act of murder maybe reserved to psychopaths or blood-thirsty war generals. Up to the current display of genocide projecting out from the same screen yet the respective recepticles has been dumbed and numbed down by the normalization.
It is the same way on how narcissism has been normalized into humanity. The term 'narcissism' is taken from an old Greek mythology of a character named Narcissus who falls in love with his own reflection in a pool of water. It is ultimately a cautionary tale about the dangers of excessive self-love and the negative consequences of being self-centered which resulted in a personality disorder characterized by extreme self-obsession and a lack of empathy.
Now, all of us are the living embodiment of the Evil Queen in Snow White who looks at the magic mirror on the wall (our smartphones) and comparing ourselves to others, with the capitalists profiteering from this weaponization of basic human desires being constantly fed into the internet algorithm to further maximize their reach.
Some play on symbolism. The Apple Corp logo from 1997 (left). Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden, oil painting by Titian, c. 1550 (right)
Thus came upon us the term 'Facebook'. But no one figured its narcissistic meaning back then right? And also towards the symbolism on the Apple logo which says that humanity have eaten the forbidden fruit and now we are paying for it.
In 'Does Android Dream Of Electric Sheep' written by Phillip K. Dick where real animals has become very rare at the end, and owning a living animal is rarity and says of a higher status symbol and novelty. Perhaps soon, it is just so for being a (real) human.
And learn on how to stop first before learning on how to move fast. Also, again remember,
"Only a master should invoke powerful spirits."
Perhaps, (specifically in Malaysia) we should stop sending lower grades students into the literature classes (kelas sastera) and the higher grades ones to the science stream. Apparently both are connected to each other to understand things as a whole, like in the extincted archetype of old, the Alchemist.
Snapshot from Fantasia 1940. The apprentice learning how to stop the spell but it is a little too late