Homo Creator as the core of the creative process

Light and shadows of digital reality. The image of the engineer in the 21st century

Abstract

The paper argues that seemingly human behavior of algorithmically organized models does not indicate the presence of subjective experience, but rather the agency inherent in any individualized cognitive agents, and does not imply the potential for replacing humans in creative activities. The methodological basis of the analysis is the non-dual worldview, which can be considered as an additional tool used alongside the binary-calibrated toolkit of classical epistemology. Since creative dynamics involve stages that are predominantly based on the binary functioning of the mind and stages that unfold in accordance with the non-dual worldview, it is necessary and fruitful to use both resources, but at different levels. In insightful comprehension, Homo Creator and the problem situation merge, becoming a single whole and expressing the determination of a new cognitive instance, aimed at self-discovery, to achieve the goal of completing the previous nonequilibrium state. In this complex process, not only the cognitive space of the problem being solved transforms but also the agency of the creative personality changes, leading to significant changes in the realm of affordances. In these dynamics, the barrier of otherness, which usually separates the knowing subject and the known object, dissolves, and the intellectual agent rejects his own identity, becoming consonant with the void, which allows him to achieve a sense of integrity with the field of inquiry. These contradictory dynamics cannot be reproduced by AI systems. In human experience, it is ensured by the presence of an element that vigilantly captures what is happening even when the «operational mind» functions erroneously. In the Dzogchen tradition, this is called primordial awareness. It preserves the identity of the deep foundation of human agency, even when the cognitive agent abandons his own self-centered dualistic mindset. For artificial intelligence systems, the dynamics of simultaneously denying and preserving their own identity is not feasible.