Two dimensions of thought in the age of artificial intelligence

In physics, space-time was a profound discovery. It was a way of seeing two apparently different dimensions as part of one structure, or one fabric as it is now known. Space gave matter form, and time gave it movement. But when Einstein showed that they were inseparable, our understanding of the universe was transformed into something new. Are we ready for our thought experiment?

perception Maybe she’s having her own Einsteinian moment. For centuries, we have dealt intelligence As a single field – a unified ability to think. but artificial intelligence Maybe you split that unit. Thought, like space-time, may have two coordinates. I call it the space of speed and the space of meaning.

Maybe artificial intelligence lives in fast space. It moves through information at tremendous speed, repeating and generating. Think of it as a cognitive engine stripped of frequency. When Deep Mind Alpha fold He solved protein structures in days—a task that used to take scientists years—and he didn’t think the way we think. He was moving through thought the way light moves through space at arithmetical speed across Hyperdimensional reality Which can defy human understanding.

In contrast, human cognition exists in a kind of space of meaning. We move slowly, burdened (or reinforced) by uncertainty and anxiety Passion. We think through the story, including the contradictions. A scientist interpreting AlphaFold results to design a real drug may take weeks or months, but in that slowness comes depth and connecting the data to the consequences.

For most of human history, these two dimensions, speed and sensation, were intertwined. Our tools have made us faster, but they have never separated us from meaning. Then came artificial intelligence, a system designed for speed. The result is not stupid, but something strange.

When speed exceeds sensation

I called this phenomenon Counter intelligence– Knowledge that accelerates understanding. Simply put, it is intelligence stripped of human context and intent.

You can see it everywhere. On X, such as topics generated by artificial intelligence “5 ways to boost your Professional life“ It spreads quickly, full of superficial insight but often devoid of life wisdom. In classrooms, large linguistic models produce prose that lacks the circuitous paths of human learning. In the mental health space, chatbots offer comforting words without the moral weight of empathy, If not worse.

LLM holders, despite their strength, reveal this fragility. When irrelevant “cat facts” were added to the math problems, she faltered. The systems predicted patterns beautifully, but they couldn’t filter out the noise. This is a powerful reminder that prediction is not understanding.

In high-risk areas, this gap becomes serious. Medical AI may recommend a treatment plan without understanding a patient’s full history, providing certainty without wisdom. Counterintelligence is not a mistake, it is often a negligent performance of vision without accountability.

Cognitive engineering

Space and time are related to curvature. This may be an effective frame of thought. Speed ​​gives access to perception or the ability to plan and predict. Meaning gives it attractiveness, interpretability, or even interest.

Central Point: When speed is freed from meaning, intelligence begins to drift into the realm of counter-intelligence. This break is not only technical, but existential. For the first time, our tools no longer share our human rhythm. Think about it, for the first time, human thought is now the “slowest species” in its cognitive ecosystem.

He wallows in the crack

We continue to try to bridge the gap through alignment protocols, “human-in-the-loop” systems, and ethical frameworks. But most of these efforts seem decorative to me. The deeper truth is that thought itself has been divided. Speed ​​and meaning no longer bend toward each other; They work in different “cognitive” fields.

It is important to realize that AI did not steal our intelligence. It might be better to think about how she revealed how fragile our oneness with her was all along. The cognitive fabric was not torn suddenly, but rather extended over the years of digitization. Perhaps our task is not to address separation or the penetrating power of structure, but to learn to see it. Speed ​​shows us what is possible. The meaning shows us what the cost of keeping up with it is.

Right now, we live in between, and perhaps this is where intelligence itself will be redefined. Not as a merging of speed and sensation, but as a strange and disturbed awareness of their disintegration.