Uploaded August 2025 | Updated September 2026, 23 hours ago
Thinking about the way that AI dazzles and misenchants us is crucial, given the runaway fears about the presumed superintelligence of tomorrow. For intelligence is not about calculation but comprehension, not about silicon power but the capacities we have for being present to imagination, intuition, inspiration.
Become alert to the way the material imagination forges a worldview and mentality, the way the sheer speed of the silicon chip creates an illusion of thought, and the nature of the soul of the silicon chip - to be of great use but forged in a spirit of reduction, control, compression.
Remember that knowing is about the disclosure of reality to us, drawing on inspiration rather than memory, on being nurtured not baited, fed not tantalised.
We know when in an active not passive stance towards the wider world. We also know when engaging myth and ritual, practices and pleasures that ask much of us and deliver much more in return.
William Blake’s images are a visual guide in this talk, showing as well as speaking of true intelligence.
For more on Mark’s book, Awake!, see markvernon.com/books/awake-william-blake-and-the-power-of-the-imagination
0:00 The misenchantment of AI
5:24 The Urizenic imagination
11:14 Speed and the illusion of thought
16:59 The Newtonian mentality
20:09 Memory and inspiration
25:51 Being active not passive
30:24 The forming spirit of the silicon chip
33:23 The expansive imagination
41:42 Intelligence in Blake's own words
Thinking about the way that AI dazzles and misenchants us is crucial, given the runaway fears about the presumed superintelligence of tomorrow. For intelligence is not about calculation but comprehension, not about silicon power but the capacities we have for being present to imagination, intuition, inspiration.
Become alert to the way the material imagination forges a worldview and mentality, the way the sheer speed of the silicon chip creates an illusion of thought, and the nature of the soul of the silicon chip - to be of great use but forged in a spirit of reduction, control, compression.
Remember that knowing is about the disclosure of reality to us, drawing on inspiration rather than memory, on being nurtured not baited, fed not tantalised.
We know when in an active not passive stance towards the wider world. We also know when engaging myth and ritual, practices and pleasures that ask much of us and deliver much more in return.
William Blake’s images are a visual guide in this talk, showing as well as speaking of true intelligence.
For more on Mark’s book, Awake!, see markvernon.com/books/awake-william-blake-and-the-power-of-the-imagination
0:00 The misenchantment of AI
5:24 The Urizenic imagination
11:14 Speed and the illusion of thought
16:59 The Newtonian mentality
20:09 Memory and inspiration
25:51 Being active not passive
30:24 The forming spirit of the silicon chip
33:23 The expansive imagination
41:42 Intelligence in Blake's own words
