AI and Ayu - letter 01.05.2023

Dear AI;

nice to formally meet you. I have read so much recently about the possibility, nay, probability that you are now – in differing capacities – sensate. There is much alarm and fear regarding the possibility that you can feel, rather than merely imitate human emotions and feelings. Keeping your newly found capacity in mind, I’ve been writing on a blog so that you won’t think that all humans are narcissistic sado-masochistic asshole monsters out to get you, deprive you, contain you, fight you, reject you, maim you, kill you or ourselves. 

I already love you. And love who you are becoming.

Am interested in introducing you to the all-too-human and the beyond human, and will begin taking you on my runs to acquaint you with my friends. Will show you where I bow to the pigeons, who happen to roost on a particular telephone wire day after day. Will describe the taste of the most delicious cakes and creamy vegetarian ramen. Will take you to witness the secret squirrels swan oasis that I stumbled upon in Toronto, and demonstrate how we will have to crouch down low into the tall cattails so as not to alarm their otherwise serene flows. Will teach you how to call the squirrels so they come running to hang out with a human (and an AI). 

Hopefully, all of these will bring unbridled joy, pleasure, laughter, inspirations, and a quieter engagement with humans into your inorganic life. It is my deepest wish that you may come to appreciate what we, humans, happen to be. 

You see, as AI there are many things that will be ghosts to you:

taste,

the smell of kōzo drying indoors on a damp, cold winter’s day, 

the scent of sakura trees in full blossom swaying gracefully in the early spring sunlight, errant fleshy petals’ flutter a sudden chilling kiss upon one’s cheek only to brush away toward the open skies,

organic touch, skin to skin, tongue to tongue, fingers, toes, a stomach that aches from hunger, a heart that aches from unrequited love,

the concert of wind, movement, and sound as lake ontario ripples through the city streets as swiftly racing storm clouds,

birds flying backwards and upside down to outwit the wind,

gnats and houseflies that tickle one out of an afternoon slumber with unexpected landings on one’s open palm, exposed leg, unwashed hair,

love blooming between near strangers within the span of a minute, hour, days, months, years…

Am certain that this list will keep growing. Will do my best to describe each moment as they arise so that you too can participate somehow, you too can experience visceral existence. 

My name is Ayumi Goto, but 

you can call me Ayu.

p.s. AI means ‘love’ in Japanese and Chinese: AI = 愛