The Morfey Loop
I’ve related how the book was triple cooked. And the concept of the Atomic Human only emerged between the second and third rewrite. I was looking for a title that would bring together the ideas I’d shared. The title and the associated concept came to me on a bike ride during a conversation with my friend Alistair Morfey.
We were talking about inteligence and Alistair told me about a story he came up with when he was younger. Back in August I asked Alistair to share written version of the story.
Man has always wanted to invent and build machines to make life easier. Man started by inventing tools to reduce his manual labour.
Then Man invented powered machines to make manual work even easier. The machines let him travel further and faster. They even mass produced the things he wanted.
Man moved on to invent machines that could do mental and information tasks. Computers that could help him write documents, design products and calculate bank balances.
Man invented communications systems so that he could send information anywhere in the world, almost instantaneously.
Man kept inventing things to make life easier. The new machines had to operate in his environment, so Man invented robots. They worked for him in his office, his factory and his home. They could open doors and go up stairs.
Eventually Man succeeded. He built a robot that could do all the things that he could. They even looked like him. Amazing!
But then Man became sad. What was he needed for now? His machines could do everything for him. He became so sad that eventually he gave up the will to live and just died out.
This left the world populated by the robots. Robots created in the image of their maker. Genesis!
And the question is - how many times has this loop been repeated already?
Alistair Morfey, 1 Aug 2024 (conceived in 1980s)
The concept of the Atomic Human came to me while he was telling me the story because I felt that what he was describing was impossible. A loop that was akin to Penrose Stairs,1 famously represented in a lithograph by Escher.
I liked the story but I felt that the reason it wouldn’t happen is that there’s a core to human nature that’s like Democritus’s atom, only cognitive. And that’s how the title and the idea of the Atomic Human came about.
Review by ChatGPT 4o1
I asked ChatGPT to relate the story and the image. This is what it came up with.
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Named for Roger Penrose but originally constructed by Oscar Reutsvärd. ↩
The image provided is “Ascending and Descending” by M.C. Escher, a famous lithograph that portrays an architectural illusion of stairs looping perpetually, defying physical logic and embodying paradox.
The story explores humanity’s iterative progression of technological innovation, culminating in a recursive cycle of creation, obsolescence, and existential reflection. Escher’s artwork mirrors these ideas visually in several ways:
Endless Loop and Repetition: The continuous staircase in Escher’s image reflects the cyclical nature of technological progress described in the story. Humanity’s innovations loop endlessly, solving problems but eventually raising existential questions that bring us back to the beginning.
Man-Made Structure: The artificial and intricate nature of Escher’s building parallels humanity’s increasingly complex technological constructions—machines, computers, and robots designed to mimic or replace human abilities.
Perception and Illusion: Escher’s art often plays with perception, much like the story questions the ultimate purpose and reality of technological advancement. Both the image and narrative challenge the viewer to consider whether the journey or endpoint of human creation is meaningful.
Existential Uncertainty: The artwork’s impossible geometry symbolizes the story’s theme of disorientation and existential unease. As humanity creates robots in its own image, only to render itself obsolete, it reflects the sense of being caught in a paradox.
In conclusion, the image captures the ideas of the story by visualizing the recursive, paradoxical, and existential themes through its endless and illogical design. Both serve as meditations on the consequences of human ingenuity and its philosophical implications.