Perception vs. Perspective and The Meaning of Life
Memorial Day Reflections on What Everyone is Missing About the AI Revolution
“All right,” said Deep Thought. “The Answer to the Great Question... Of Life, the Universe, and Everything…is…is…Forty-two,” said Deep Thought, with infinite majesty and calm.
-- Douglas Adams, The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy
“It is a slightly arresting notion that if you were to pick yourself apart with tweezers, one atom at a time, you would produce a mound of fine atomic dust, none of which had ever been alive but all of which had once been you.”
-- Bill Bryson, A Short History of Nearly Everything
In Douglas Adams’ absurdist classic, The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, a society of hyper-intelligent beings construct the most powerful artificial intelligence super-computer ever created, named “Deep Thought”, in order to find the answer to the ultimate question of life, the universe, and everything. After seven million years of computation, Deep Thought finally reveals the answer: it is 42.
This seemingly nonsensical result left the story’s characters bewildered. And for decades it did the same for most readers.
Adams never explained his thinking while alive. For years, people assumed that the lesson of the story was that life itself was meaningless and absurd. But in fact, Adams was actually providing a different, very subtle, yet profound message.
Years after his death, it emerged that Adams had begun his career writing code as an early machine language programmer. At that time, the number “42” represented a universal editor. It was, for those early coders, a programming term that was used to represent a variable in machine language.
In essence, Adams, by way of the artificially intelligent Deep Think, was saying that the meaning of life, the universe, and everything, is really just a variable. The purpose of life is whatever we choose to make of it.
It is an idea deeply relevant to our current obsession with artificial intelligence (AI), and also one worth reflecting on more broadly this Memorial Day.
The AI Revolution: Hype vs. Reality
As investors we have conviction on the enormous potential of AI and other advanced technologies to drive growth and deliver strong financial returns. We also have conviction on the ability and importance of technology to advance societal health and resilience here in the US and globally. These two truths are the foundation upon which Audere was formed.
They are why we invested last year in the Series A of Atropos Health, an advanced AI platform pioneering high-quality, personalized real-world evidence using generative AI. Incubated at Stanford Medical Center, Atropos is forging a brilliant path to dramatically improve health outcomes, and we see it as a prime example of what successful AI companies can deliver.
This past week Atropos announced a $33M Series B led by Valtruis with participation from McKesson, Merck, Breyer Capital, and Emerson Collective. We are thrilled by their progress and believe Atropos will be a unicorn (based on significant revenue metrics no less!) in the next couple of years.
We have also invested in BioPhy.AI, a company developing advanced AI capabilities for synthetic clinical trials. And most recently we invested in Heimdall Bio, which is currently operating in stealth but did provide a brief overview of their pioneering solution using AI for genomic prospecting at the LA Milken Conference a couple of weeks ago.
We know there is massive potential for artificial intelligence to unlock enormous new capabilities and to revolutionize industries, and we are actively investing into companies that have developed game changing capabilities. But not all that glitters is gold, and that is doubly the case in AI. We remain highly skeptical of technologies that look like fashion trends, or worse, fantasies.
Today’s hyperbolic fascination with AI has begun to mirror the quest in Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy to build an all-knowing AI supercomputer that will give us the all the answers. Amidst bold (dare we say BS) claims about an omniscient singularity in which super-thinking computers subjugate all of humanity, it’s crucial to discern what current AI technology actually represents. What it does not represent. And what it cannot represent.
“The hype around AI ignores the fundamental distinction between Perception and Perspective—a difference that is critical to understanding AI’s potential and its limitations.”
AI has made remarkable advances in the last few years, enabling machines to perform tasks that historically required human attention and intelligence. However, in our view the hype around AI overlooks the fundamental distinction between perception and perspective—a difference that as investors and builders we believe is critical to understanding AI’s potential and its limitations.
Perception vs. Perspective: Understanding the AI Dilemma
Perception and Perspective are related but entirely distinct concepts. Perception refers to the ability to capture and analyze sets of real-world data based on our senses and experiences in order to reach conclusions or recommendations. It is a mindset in which more information is always useful, and in which recency is heavily favored. Perception is focused on seeing and interpreting anything and everything that is immediately observable.
Perspective is influenced by perception, but is also informed by principles, beliefs, convictions, and experiences. Perspective involves understanding the broader context, discerning which data is meaningful (signal) and which is irrelevant (noise). It is about understanding the big picture; seeing the forest as a distinct collective entity with its own reality, and not simply as a large group of individual trees.
Perspective is important because it can provide a vastly more accurate understanding of unique moments in time. It offers a systemic understanding based on first principles and not simply temporary inputs and individual data points. And while it is important to perceive what’s going on in the world, it is perspective that helps us recognize that systems are far more than the sum of their parts, with entirely different behaviors than their individual constituents.
AI as Hyper-Perception: Seeing all the Trees and none of the Forest
We believe Artificial Intelligence offers hyper-perception. The massive compute and sophisticated multi-dimensional capabilities of AI models allows users to ingest, synthesize, and analyze unprecedented amounts of data with incredible speed and accuracy. Using AI, we can identify hidden patterns and make incredible predictions. This capability will transform fields like healthcare, finance, and manufacturing. However, AI’s ability to scale perception can mislead people into believing that it is somehow omniscient, and that is where perspective is important.
Perspective: Seeing the Forest
Perspective allows us to understand complex systems and environments as more than just the sum of their parts. As Bill Bryson noted, every human is made of billions of individual atoms, but viewed individually, our atoms cannot convey the essence of a human being. The system is far greater than the sum of its parts.
Current AI technology, while powerful for synthesis, analysis, and optimization, is essentially a sophisticated tool for averaging the conclusions embedded in raw data. It may present its conclusions as a fully formed system—a forest—when it more accurately represents the aggregate of a vast collection of individual trees. AI benefits from huge amounts of atomic information, but it doesn’t yet possess the holistic understanding of the entire system. AI has mastered the text, but not the context.
The Limits of AI: Genius and Heretical Questions
The strength of AI lies in its ability to process and analyze data and to reveal hidden relationships between potentially infinite dimensionality. It is capable of identifying connections that were previously unknowable, of predictively automating the next logical output, and of ingesting and categorizing all manner of data.
Using AI, we can imitate the writing of Shakespeare. But AI cannot make us become Shakespeare for the simple reason that Shakespeare was far more than simply his words.
But AI in its current form is reliant on its underlying data and the limitations of its logical architecture. It is a hyper-perceptive platform. As a result, it ultimately provides the average or most likely results of based on vast quantities of inputs.
AI is unlikely to produce outlier behaviors, uncorrelated decisions, or the unexpected leaps that characterize human genius. Using AI, we can imitate the writing of Shakespeare. But AI cannot make us become Shakespeare.
As we have discussed in prior posts, innovation often comes from asking heretical questions—those that challenge conventional wisdom and explore the unknown. These questions arise from unorthodox thinking that is often unpopular, unwanted, and unexpected. Heretical ideas require radically unique perspectives that AI, in its current form, is unlikely to provide.
Breakthroughs often come from individuals who think differently. Albert Einstein’s theory of relativity, for example, emerged from questioning the established Newtonian framework. Similarly, Richard Feynman’s work on quantum electrodynamics began with his unconventional interest in the wobbling motion of a spinning tin plate.
These are stories for a future post, but both stand as examples of thinking that were considered so outlandish as to be absurd in their time. That they are no longer heretical is a testament to the power of human creativity and genius to explore, discover, create, and ultimately transform the world.
The Future of AI: Complementing Human Genius
We believe that AI is a powerful tool, but it is just that. Its impact will be determined by the skill and judgment of the hands that wield it. The true potential of AI lies in its ability to complement human intelligence, not replace it.
What is being missed in all the hype and fear is that AI will neither rule us nor replace us. AI will equip us with more capabilities, and it will be as useful or beneficial, as harmful or dangerous, as we make it.
To harness the full potential of AI, we must recognize its limitations and leverage its strengths in conjunction with our own human creativity, intuition, and perspective. This synergy can drive advancements across industries, from healthcare and finance to manufacturing and beyond.
Embracing Perception and Perspective
The AI revolution holds immense promise, and we invest in AI because we recognize its incredible power to disrupt legacy industries. We are truly excited about the potential of this and other technologies. But we are also disciplined in understanding that AI is neither a magical elixir nor an evil monster: it is a machine.
Artificial intelligence technology will be what we make of it. It is a canvas we inherit and upon which we can paint new futures, informed by our perceptions and guided by our perspectives. It will be the same for our country.
AI represents a challenge, the potential to reshape our world in profound ways. In this regard it is like all innovations that came before. And while we perceive that AI will bring dramatic disruption, it is important to maintain perspective.
Change is always exciting, unnerving, filled with opportunities and threats. The future of AI technology is uncertain. And that is both a source of inspiration and justifiable concern. It is the same for democracies.
Ultimately, artificial intelligence technology, like the number 42 in The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, will be what we make of it. It is a canvas we inherit and upon which we can paint new futures, informed by our perceptions and guided by our perspectives. It will be the same for our country.
This Memorial Day, we remember all those whose sacrifices, efforts, and talents allow us to be here today. And we are humbled and honored to support the extraordinary dedication and sacrifice of those who continue to build and secure a better future here in the US and around the world.
As always, we love to partner with exceptional founders and innovative investors. Don’t hesitate to reach out.
Let’s build a better future.
Peter & Maggie