Hubris, Icarus, AI and Storytelling
“Hubris is from Greek, where it meant “excessive pride, violating the bounds set for humans” and was always punished by the gods.”
https://www.vocabulary.com/dictionary/hubris
I read a book summary (The Leadership Killer by John R. Havlik) which professed to be about hubris, and it got me thinking. First off, I should buy the book and read it “old-school” and not just rely on the summary, (shameless plug).
Secondly, I am incredibly aware of where and how I spend my time — always aiming for a bit better discipline to feed my brain right “for me” food. If I start reading something and am not interested in it within the first couple paragraphs or 50 pages of the book, I drop it and move on. Something about this book summary made me want not to read it because I had this thought “oh, this does not impact me as I am a quintessential female leader with a slew of doubts and minimal ego showing…” So it wasn’t that I was not interested in the book it was that I felt it was not something I needed personally — was this an act of hubris?
This made me pause and think about hubris for a bit. When I was doing my undergrad in Classics, I adored Greek drama and comedy. The story arc should always conclude in a moral lesson for it to stick.
My favorite story about hubris is the story of the craftsman and artist Daedalus whose arrogance and pride made him think he could build wings to fly, only to have his son Icarus use the wings to fly too close to the sun and die.
The artist Matisse was also inspired by this story, and his painting of Icarus is something that I purchased when I had my children. I loved the story, and I loved the beautiful primary colors.
Like all Greek tragedies and comedies, this is a highly complex story interwoven into the history of Greeks living seven thousand years ago (5th Century BCE). Daedalus also built the Labyrinth, a vast maze located under the court of King Minos of Crete, where the Minotaur, a half-man half-bull creature dwelt. The mythos of Daedalus evolved into Roman times where he appeared in more genius creator roles. It was only when he dared to go “too far” did the gods punish him, and as the story goes — the gods punished Daedalus for his act of hubris through his son Icarus who stole the wings and flew too close to the sun and died. Nothing is more tragic than the loss of a child.
There are long dialogues and debates on how and why the gods would punish such a fantastic feat of the invention of flight with the consequence of losing a child, but that is the point of stories. The larger the disaster, the more humans pay attention — we must remember our stories to get people to have dialogues and Think!
The story of an inventor and creator such as Daedalus is also about the consequences of having the gifts to create and then having them be used for ill, aka “daring to defy the gods.”
In my world I am not only always thinking about leadership and my pendulum of my ego (swinging from doubt to believing in myself), I am also thinking about the way that the things that I build can be used for ill, intentionally and unintentionally. Nowhere is this type of dialogue needed right now than in the creation of AI.
Hubris has come to only mean arrogance or putting someone else down so you can benefit. It would behoove us to remember our stories and the complexity of drama that teaches us the lessons we need to pause, think and talk about the consequences of our actions and creations.
