When science-metaphysics divide falls apart

What is the brouhaha over AI tech and deepfakes, which seems to go back to a timeless zone? Long before the advent of AI and deepfakes, many characters from Indian mythological epics, Ramayan and Mahabharat, had the ability to morph into different personas. Indeed, the demon Marich in the Ramayan could perhaps be regarded as a conceptual precursor to the modern deepfake phenomenon. Ravan’s kin transformed into a golden deer to lure Ram away from Sita and, thereby, aid and abet Ravan in abducting her.

The ‘deepfake’ game was not just confined to visual deception. As he lay dying after being struck by Ram’s arrow, Marich imitated Ram’s voice while calling out to Lakshman for help in a distressed tone, prompting a concerned Sita to coax Lakshman to help his brother. It was the perfect unguarded setting for Sita to fall prey to the machinations of Ravan, who morphed into a venerable sage to carry out the abduction. It was a flawless two-stage deception at work.

There was a pronounced culture of deception in the mythological setting, in which some characters, imbued with illusory powers through maya, could transform and deceive for malefic or, at times, noble ends. Deception, trickery, and delusion intruded into mythology then, and, through tech, via an algorithmic interplay, now.

Deepfakes spawned by AI, like the mythical ‘mayavis’, are intended to impersonate and deceive. No doubt, mythology, particularly insofar as it encroaches upon the domain of tech, is taken with a pinch of salt by rationalists as it does not rest on a scientific foundation and, as such, is regarded as fiction.

Significantly, there is settled unanimity about accepting the writings of Jules Verne as ‘sci-fi with substance’, ostensibly because they presage actual inventions and enjoy chronological proximity with the latter. Mythological narratives, while not being predictive in a technological sense, traverse a symbolic, moral and metaphysical canvas. Ravan’s pushpak viman, for example, may be regarded as a metaphysical precursor to the flying machine, even though it lacks a scientific rationale.

The mythological mayavis and the deepfake manifestation of AI tech inhabit two watertight compartments, and the twain do not meet. But they do point to a common denominator of deception that has been, and continues to be, increasingly applied to achieving objectives across diverse areas of human endeavour.

Indeed, both mythology and AI-engineered deepfakes evolve from a long-standing human fascination with illusion, identity, and the power to manipulate perception. Mythology caters to the ‘willing suspension of disbelief’ route even as scientific developments rest on the bedrock of empiricism and deductive rationale.

However, one cannot deny that, at the end of the day, imagination powers innovation, which, in turn, paves the way for invention over a scientific and evolutionary route. Somewhere, then, the distinction between fantasy, fiction, scientific development, and metaphysics seems to fall apart, and fantasy and imagination apparently have in them the seeds that sprout inventions.

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