Larry M. Coleman

I came across this quotation today while reading The Art of Cycling: Philosophy, Meaning, and a Life on Two Wheels by James Hibbard:

Thinking only begins at the point where we have come to know that Reason, glorified for centuries, is the most obstinate adversary of thinking.

—Martin Heidegger

We are so accustomed to equating “thinking” with “reasoning” that it may be difficult to pull the two apart, and this is what Heidegger is observing here. We may reason by thinking, but not all thinking is reasoning. In fact, not even the important part of thinking is reasoning.

It is the interface where reasoning fades that thinking begins. This is not to say that reasoning has no value or place in writing: we need some structure to serve as scaffolding. However, reason can only take us so far. This is why planning out a story is not the same thing as writing a story. It’s also why a million “How to Write a Novel” books and classes won’t make one write a great work. It may lead you to a publishable one, and if that’s your only criterion for success, then great; I’m happy for you.

It’s where we cross the border between reasoning and head into the land of thinking that creativity begins. Thinking about those ragged edges of things that could exist but don’t, or pulling apart why things exist even if (or especially if) they don’t make sense, and letting go of “why” in favor of “what if” for a moment is where your best work will come from.

There’s a difference between random nonsensicality and uncanny almost-realness. The first is muck and mush and the other is genuine creativity, and the second comes from when we’re standing just on the other side of the line in the trees and flowers and fauna-populated land of thinking while still being able to see the angular, grid layout of the land of reason.

A horse walking down a street isn’t a common sight nowadays, but it’s not uncommon enough to be original. A unicorn walking down the street is a step in the right direction, but mere fantasy. A pot of petunias walking down the street is surreal and nonsensical. But somewhere in that continuum is where creativity lies.

And this is why, yet again, generative AI can’t compete with human creativity. Generative AI doesn’t think as we do, it processes. Its approach doesn’t allow it that fuzzy border: it has a hard line between reality and hallucination, and its hallucinations are not ones of an artist but of a psychotic. It is trained on so much material that by being everything, it becomes no one. It isn’t you with your predilections and foibles and sparks that make you you. It can’t be an individual because it is millions of individuals. The fuzziness and rough edges of human thought are blended out into a synthetic “right enough” gruel that tastes like nothing.

AI can reason faster than we will ever be able to, just as a car can go much faster than we can run. But what it can’t do is go across that border into unreason, pick some fruits, and bring them back to add flavor to its product. That is why it can create a product, but not a work of creative genius. This is your advantage. Be you and use it.