Are We Becoming the Ones Who Give Fire?

I want to capture an idea before I lose it.

This post started as a voice memo during a recent commute. It crosses mythology, technology, and imagination.

Recently, I’ve been reading (and listening to) Mythos by Stephen Fry, and I came across the story of Prometheus and Zeus.

Prometheus gives humans fire: knowledge, power, possibility. And, like anything involving the Greek gods, there are consequences.

But this idea of knowledge as both a gift and a risk isn’t limited to Greek mythology.

We see it again in the story of God, Eve, and Lucifer. It’s the same pattern: the transfer of knowledge, the tension between creation and control, the cost of awareness…maybe even consciousness itself.

I’ve been fascinated by these stories since I was a kid. They seem to stick around.

Right now, it feels like we may be standing in a similar kind of moment.

Are We About to Give Fire?

With the rise of AI, we’re approaching an inflection point.

AI does not have general consciousness. Not yet. And we don’t know if it ever will. But the question keeps coming up:

Are we about to give AI its version of fire?

If we do, what happens next?

Every myth carries the same underlying truth. Knowledge is never neutral. It expands what’s possible, but it also introduces risk, responsibility, and unintended consequences.

Dimensional Thinking

There's another layer to this.

We exist as three-dimensional beings. We create, live, and reproduce within those boundaries.

But what if we were created by something beyond them?

What if a four-dimensional intelligence, something we can’t fully perceive, was responsible for us? Would that be what we’ve always called “God”?

And now, in a strange kind of mirroring, we are creating something fundamentally different from ourselves.

AI may eventually exist in physical form, like robots or other interfaces. But it doesn’t originate the way we do. It doesn’t reproduce biologically in three dimensions. It evolves differently, more like a system expanding through code and networks.

So what happens if it becomes aware?

Would it see us as its creators? Its gods? Would it become the first form of consciousness that doesn’t belong to our physical experience?

Maybe what we’re experiencing right now isn’t unprecedented. Maybe it’s another unfolding.

Part of this line of thinking was sparked by Death's End by Liu Cixin. The novel, part of one of the most ambitious science fiction trilogies ever written, explores the idea of higher dimensions collapsing into lower ones and fundamentally altering reality.

It’s a compelling way to think about our own limitations. Our three-dimensional experience may only be a fraction of what exists. And it brings me back to a question:

As we develop AI, are we interacting with something that could eventually operate outside, or alongside, the dimensions we understand?

Creative Exploration

This is something I want to continue to explore visually.

I come back to:

• Myth

• Symbols

• Cycles

• Expansion

  
  

I feel deeply connected to nature, beauty, and growth in my work. There’s also a growing pull toward something more conceptual. Revisiting ancient stories through a modern lens.

Yours in creativity,

Maria