the fisher king

Digital, AI. From "The Royal Court of What is Hidden" series.

Minted upon request for @CozomoMedici, this work was created in early 2020 as part of a series exploring what beautiful and terrible concepts a transhumanist society may arrange itself around.

In particular, this piece references the story of "The Fisher King," an Arthurian legend about the keeper of the Holy Grail. The Fisher King was a great ruler wounded by his own spear, representing an ethical failure. His wound was not only unable to heal, it spread, tainting everything around him. This unending affliction could only be healed via insight, specifically, by posing the right question to the King--that question being: "Whom does the Grail serve?"

The term "Holy Grail" originates etymologically with the word "san-graal," meaning "Royal Blood." This piece imagines an AI-Assisted child of noble lineage. If "innocence" is a major piece of what we strive to protect in children, and AI augmentation will allow in-mind, instant access to the breadth of human knowledge, what will a transhuman child look like? Will "innocence" become divided by class? Will we still value it? If not, what will take its place?

AI is the last invention we will ever have to make--it can solve the great afflictions that have plagued us since our dawning years, and it can create whatever we need to grow, moving forward. The quest for true AI is humanity's grail, and we are both its maker and its keeper. The question we must ask every step of our hero's journey toward this new reality is simple: "Whom does the Grail serve?"