Deep learning is a term that has got a new meaning by the development of artificial intelligence and its ability to improve its knowledge and skills. Loads and loads of data are what feed its digital brain. But deep learning is also a human activity where the basic difference is that its source is stories and storytelling. Pure data is usually only an add-on in the form of tables and charts if it is at all present. In addition, storytelling can be distributed in many forms like spoken-word and courses, but for deep learning the book is the best adapted format for the human brain.
A human superpower
Storytelling, as the historian and philosopher Yuval Noah Harari explains, is a human superpower. This is both for the storyteller and the reader. Since it not only brings a lot of data in the form of words, but a consciousness to form casation, one of few things that artificial intelligence has been unable to replicate. To use the author Cassandra Clare’s words in the book Clockwork Angel:
“One must always be careful of books,” said Tessa, “and what is inside them, for words have the power to change us.”
Or Stephen King’s words in On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft:
“Books are a uniquely portable magic.”
It is because the words in a good book are an explorative trip that engage the mind in a much deeper way than any other format. What data does for AI and machine learning, books does for the human mindset. Since, to again use Stephen King’s words:
“Good books don’t give up all their secrets at once.”
This means that you can stumble on each page, section and chapter of the book, build meaning and understanding, from your own experiences and knowledge. And then return to find even more or reevaluate your first impression.
A Book’s superpower
As said above a good book is an explorative trip where you can go back and forth between the pages, sections and chapters. The basic layout is fixed while the content plays with the mind in this well-known structure. In this sense a book sets the stage for inquiry, and activates the reader to make predictions.
Since its purpose is not like a course (online or “physical”) with its step-by-step approach to gain knowledge or skills. A similar approach that the assembly lines of the industrial society, with a finished “product” in the end, often in the form of some form of certificate. In this sense, the course concept was born in the industrial age and works according to its prerequisites.
A book’s purpose is neither like a good computer game where taking action and skills often determine the outcome for the player.
The purpose of a good book is immersive. Where storytelling is the driving-force that makes the content flow, engage and play with your mind. In order to put casualties in perspectives to generate understanding. As the Gutenberg’s printing press of the 15th Century did not invent the book, it made it possible to mass-produce it; the book has its origins from ancient times. Whereas classical humanistic education has its origins with philosophers like Pericles, Aristotle, Plato, Protagoras, Isocrates and Socrates.
This human-centred perspective we now have to reinvent when the progress of autonomous generative artificial intelligence is bringing a new lifeform to earth. The humanistic consciousness of a book could keep humans ahead of the development. But what if we could empower the book even further?
Making the book the an even more immersive experience
Technology has revolutionised the way we tell stories. It has opened up a world of possibilities for interactive storytelling experiences that can engage and captivate audiences in ways that traditional storytelling methods cannot. With interactive features to empower and direct focus of the most important parts of the book to improve understanding, or simulate casualties, test the readers decision-making skills by letting her step into the story and much more. The interactive book is making the format even more activating, but still with the in depthful experience.
Here are some tips on how to use technology to create interactive storytelling experiences that will leave your audience wanting more.
Become an augmented storyteller beyond borders
Humanistic Pedagogical Methods in the Digital Age
Written by
LarsGoran Bostrom©