Living in Uncertainty: Humans, Bots and Self-image

I am starting a new series, Living in Uncertainty, where the key word is ‘uncertainty’.

A few days ago I received an email from quite a famous author (Mr.H/B1), who, after reading my latest book, Who is in? Beyond Self-image, decided to share with me his appreciation and comments.

I felt seen, appreciated, supported, and was also invited to deepen certain aspects. The question of uncertainty, and themovement from pretension to authenticity, in particular, drove our interactions over the next three or four email exchanges.

At the same time, I started suspecting that whomsoever I was dealing with might be a Bot and not a human being.

I therefore decided to ask for an in-person video conference, with the idea that this would shift the matter from hypothetical to some sort of certainty.

In the couple of nights that followed things kept simmering inside. Who am I? Who is the other? Do we really meet each other in our day-to-day encounters when pretty much everybody is wearing a mask? Aren’t self-images just constructs behind which we are hiding?

How come I keep fooling myself, thinking that there is some sort of certainty when I meet another person – just because they appear to be embodied, while, at the same time, I am aware that their appearance is deceptive?

As all these questions kept roaming around in my consciousness – spontaneously and without resistance – I also started to get a sense of excitement and curiosity.

Why do I need to know if Mr. H/B1 is a real human (and here I consciously do not use the word person, as ‘persona’ comes from ‘mask’) or if Mr.H/B1 is a Bot?

And… you know what? I do not need to know. In fact, I welcome the uncertainty as an opportunity to explore – without preconceived ideas and bias – what is more and more the true reality of a very uncertain and unpredictable universe.

Perhaps, if we can recognise this uncertainty as the very warp and weft of Life, it might help us all detect the many ways we hide behind self-images, and help us to eventually unmask ourselves.