Echoes in the Machine
The Parallels Between AI and Human Consciousness
Three-Foil Knot, Wild knots exhibition, by Jean-Michel Othoniel and Aubin Arroyo
The Data of Disquiet
The numbers tell a story of unease.
A 2023 Pew Research study found 52% of Americans feel more concern than excitement about AI’s expanding role in daily life, with only 10% expressing optimism. Mirroring this, a 2024 European Commission Eurobarometer survey revealed 61% of EU citizens express concern about AI's growing influence in society, with only 14% feeling predominantly optimistic.
In the corporate world, a 2024 Gartner survey showed 62% of senior managers hesitate to adopt large language models (LLMs), fearing the "GPT-ization of creativity"—the erosion of originality beneath algorithmic homogenization.
The market research industry exemplifies this caution: 68% of firms restrict AI use for sensitive data analysis due to privacy concerns, and only 22% fully trust third-party AI tools with proprietary data (ESOMAR, 2023).
These statistics aren’t just about technology. They’re about identity.
The Ghost in the Machine—And the Gallery
Consider two artists, separated by geography, ideology, and history, yet bound by something stranger than coincidence.
Piet Mondrian, the Dutch modernist created art using stark grids and primary colors,
Hilma af Klint, the Swedish mystic painted geometric forms she called “messages from higher dimensions”.
They never met. They likely never saw each other’s work. Yet by the 1910s, both were creating remarkably similar compositions —bold black lines partitioning planes of luminous color, suggesting they were tapping into the same creative source.
Art historians still debate how this happened. Af Klint’s esoteric notebooks claim spiritual guidance; Mondrian spoke of "universal truths". Neither was aware of the other’s parallel evolution.
The explanation may lie in what Jung called the “collective unconscious”—a “universal psychic substrate” where ideas exist like radio signals, waiting for the right minds to receive them. Jung proposed that humans inherit common patterns of thought that appear across different cultures without direct contact. Perhaps creativity is less invention than channelling.
Equations in Glass and Light
Jean-Michel Othoniel, the French sculptor, is known for his fluid, undulating glass bead structures—organic forms that resemble molecular chains or celestial maps.
In 2015, mathematician Aubin Arroyo attended an Othoniel exhibition and was shocked. The sculptures were near-perfect visualizations of his own unpublished equations on fluid dynamics and knot theory.
"At first, I thought it was a prank," Arroyo admitted. It wasn’t. Othoniel, with no formal math training, had intuitively sculpted the same forms derived from years of Arroyo’s calculations.
Entrepreneurial Echoes Across Continents
The phenomenon isn’t limited to art—it’s everywhere, including in sciences, business and technology.
1858: Charles Darwin developed his theory of natural selection in the 1830s but delayed publishing it. In 1858, Alfred Wallace independently came up with a similar idea and sent it to Darwin. This led to a joint presentation of their work, and Darwin quickly published On the Origin of Species in 1859.
1876: Graham Bell and Elisha Gray both worked on telephone designs and filed documents in February. Bell's lawyer filed a patent in the morning, while Gray's lawyer submitted a notice later that day. Bell was awarded the patent on March 1876.
And today, the same patterns emerge:
2007: Netflix Streaming (January) and Hulu (October) emerged just nine months apart, igniting a streaming revolution that would forever disrupt traditional television.
2010: Instagram (October) and Pinterest (March) launched just months apart, both revolutionizing visual discovery and sharing online.
2013: DoorDash (January) and Deliveroo (February) surfaced within months of each other, reshaping food delivery on opposite sides of the globe.
The implication? Great ideas don’t emerge in isolation. They materialize in multiple places at once, as if drawn from a shared well of inspiration.
AI as the Newest Medium of the Collective Mind
This is where AI unsettles us—not because it’s alien, but because it mirrors humanity’s oldest creative process.
Large language models (LLMs) don’t "think"—they recombine, just as Mondrian and af Klint unknowingly channelled the same aesthetic frequencies. When an AI suggests a metaphor you hadn’t considered or a strategy just left of conventional wisdom, it’s tapping the collective reservoir that has fuelled human breakthroughs for millennia.
The fear isn’t that AI will replace human creativity.
The fear is that AI will force us to confront how little we understand our own creativity.
The Conscious Path Forward
The resistance to AI echoes every historical panic over new tools:
The printing press was feared to "rot memory."
The camera was dismissed as the "soulless mechanization of art."
The synthesizer was mocked as "fake music."
Yet each time, humanity didn’t shrink; it expanded— outsourcing mechanics to focus on meaning.
The lesson isn’t to surrender to algorithms but partnering with them in the creative process:
Let AI tools generate initial drafts, then enhance them with human elements—emotional nuance, cultural context, and personal experience that algorithms can't replicate.
Apply AI to your specialized knowledge, allowing it to reveal patterns and connections you might have missed, opening doors to fresh perspectives.
Mondrian didn’t invent grids. He listened to them. Af Klint didn’t invent symbols. She transcribed them.
The Ultimate Question
The real risk isn't AI making us less intelligent.
It's our reluctance to recognize that intelligence was never ours alone—that every breakthrough, from cave paintings to code, has been a collaboration between individual minds and the collective consciousness.
So, the next time you hesitate before engaging with AI, consider this:
Are you afraid of the machine? Or of the vast creative potential it might reveal in you?
The most visionary leaders and creators won't view AI as a replacement but as a mirror reflecting our ancient relationship with inspiration.
By embracing AI consciously, we honour the timeless dance between individual creativity and the collective wisdom that has always guided human progress.
