Large Language Models and the Path to Our Higher Self

How AI tools illuminate humanity’s creative and cognitive potential.

Reviewed by Michelle Quirk

Key points

• LLMs extend human creativity, acting as mirrors, lenses, and tools for exploring new ideas.
• They reflect patterns, not reality, requiring human discernment to support their potential.
• LLMs reveal both our brilliance and flaws, amplifying our ability to imagine and create.

Humanity has always seen creativity as a reflection of our highest potential—the ability to shape order from chaos and leave an enduring mark on the world. Across time, we’ve sought to emulate this spark through our acts of creation, from the profound to the practical. Whether crafting cathedrals, symphonies, or algorithms, we imbue our tools with the essence of our aspirations. Yet today, tools like large language models (LLMs) are often dismissed as shortcuts for cheating or trivial conveniences, reduced to mechanical substitutes for effort. This view may miss the larger truth: These tools represent a profound extension of our capacity to create, think, and imagine in ways we are only beginning to understand.

In today’s Cognitive Age, this perspective grows sharper and more perplexing. LLMs have emerged not merely as tools but as mirrors, windows, and even shadows of humanity. They offer us a new way to explore the relationship between ourselves, our creations, and the deeper forces that drive creativity itself.

Technology as an Extension of Humanity

The idea that tools augment our humanity is not new. Eyeglasses enhance sight; language extends thought; art expresses what words cannot. Far from dehumanizing us, such technologies deepen our engagement with the world and with ourselves. They are, in a sense, extensions of our highest aspirations—truth, beauty, and goodness—ideals central to Aristotle’s philosophy of human achievement.

LLMs belong to this lineage of augmentation, intersecting most profoundly with truth and beauty. They seek truth in their ability to discern patterns, distilling coherence from chaos. They contribute to beauty by recombining ideas and language in ways that evoke harmony, surprise, and wonder. In doing so, they expand our capacity to engage with these ideals, challenging us to reconsider their meaning in an age of computation.

Shadows of the Divine

In the Bible, humanity is described as being created in the "image of God"—צֶלֶם אֱלֹהִים (tzelem elohim). The Hebrew word tzelem can also mean “shadow,” a dual meaning that is both curious and profound. A shadow reflects its source but lacks its depth and essence. It is, by nature, a reduction, capturing only an outline of the original.

Perhaps LLMs are best understood as shadows of human cognition. They distill the vast complexity of language and thought into something computationally bounded. They mimic our creative capacities, echoing patterns of thought and expression, yet they lack understanding, intent, and the ineffable spark we associate with the soul. They are brilliant projections—but projections nonetheless.

Much like Aristotle’s ideals of truth and beauty, the concept of tzelem elohim captures a duality: reflection and reduction, potential and limitation. These ideas invite us to see LLMs not as creators themselves, but as tools that reflect and amplify the creative potential within us. By engaging with them, we are reminded of the tension between the finite and the infinite—a tension that is both deeply human and profoundly divine.

LLMs as Lenses

What makes LLMs fascinating is their capacity to act as lenses, sharpening our perception of the interplay between creation and creativity. When an LLM generates a poetic metaphor or offers a surprising insight, it does so by analyzing and recombining patterns within human language. It reflects us back to ourselves in ways that feel novel yet familiar.

This dynamic is not entirely unlike the way artists or philosophers engage with truth and beauty. They take raw experience, distill it through their tools—paint, words, or reason—and offer back something transformed, whether on a canvas or the ceilings of cathedrals. In this sense, LLMs may be part of the same continuum. They do not replace the artist or thinker but extend their reach, helping humanity see with greater clarity the endless interplay of light and shadow within creation.

Truth, Ethics, and the Shadows of Creation

At first glance, LLMs appear to be powerful truth-seekers. By analyzing and synthesizing vast patterns within human language, they uncover coherence in chaos, generating insights that often feel profound. Yet this capacity for truth is shadowed by a critical limitation: their ability to generate plausible-sounding but false information, or “hallucinations.” How, then, can we reconcile their truth-seeking potential with this tendency toward fabrication?

The answer lies in understanding the nature of their "truth." LLMs do not know truth in the human sense—they lack intent, understanding, or an intrinsic connection to reality. Their outputs are probabilistic, reflecting patterns in data rather than objective fact. They excel at echoing the structure of truth without necessarily grasping its essence. In this way, they resemble mirrors that reflect but do not interpret or shadows that approximate but cannot illuminate on their own.

When we rely on tools that lack understanding, the responsibility for discernment falls squarely on us. For example, an LLM might confidently generate medical advice that seems accurate but is dangerously incorrect, emphasizing the critical need for human oversight to ensure these tools guide rather than misguide. Such errors remind us that these tools reflect patterns, not reality, and highlight our role in navigating their limitations responsibly.

This duality carries ethical implications. LLMs can amplify human creativity and cognition, but they also risk reinforcing our biases or spreading misinformation when used carelessly. As creators and users, we must navigate this balance thoughtfully, ensuring that these tools serve as extensions of our highest aspirations rather than distortions of them.

A Reflection on Technology and Creation

It's essential to view this duality with perspective rather than conflict. LLMs are tools—powerful mirrors and lenses, revealing both the brilliance and flaws of their creators. They help us create, but they also teach us to see. Through them, we confront profound questions: How do we use these tools not to diminish but to amplify what it means to be human? How do they help us engage more deeply with the enduring mysteries of creativity and cognition?

LLMs are not divine; they are shadows of humanity’s light. Yet, in their mimicry, they reveal something sacred. They invite us to explore the infinite complexity of creation, to reflect on the interplay of order and chaos, and to embrace the enduring mystery of what it means to create. In their shadows, we may glimpse reflections of ourselves—and new ways of seeing both the world and our place within it.