The auld magic of the ritual of New Year’s Day is transformation. In its minor form, this transformation is a shift in our habits—to quit smoking, for example. In its major form, the grand magic of change encompasses a transformation of our entire body of habits in a perceptual remaking of the world. These transformations have been called religious conversions or “paradigm shifts.”
It’s hard to appreciate our full potential for change, as our narrow worldviews limit us. To better understand the notion of a “paradigm shift,” I gave Kenan Azam a call. A Kashmiri formerly working in American biotechnology, Azam pursued his own transformative epiphany to begin the Potential Paradigms podcast—a discovery of the “alternate realities” presented by ancient civilizations, technology, psychedelics, martial arts, music and the modern spiritual milieu.
CH: Kenan, to give us a sense of our choice and freedom this New Year’s Day, could you highlight some episodes?
KA: Yes, there is Kashmir Shavism: The Hidden Geography of Consciousness about the tantric paradigm, Beyond Conflict: the Spiritual and Martial Path about the paradigm of Aikido and Quantum Synchronicity—Moving Beyond Chance to a Responsive Universe.
CH: Let’s pick just one. Kenan, I first met you at your talk, An Alternate History of Technology, AI & Its Alchemical Future, based on your podcast. In that talk, you established that the mathematical and conceptual basis of artificial intelligence was actually founded in Renaissance alchemy—that is, within a paradigm in which material science and spirituality were still unified as one.
KA: The “chem,” in chemistry, originally referred to the dark soil of the Nile in Hermetic Egypt. And the original meaning of the word “technology” is “bringing something forth from the unknown.”
CH: Which is almost the definition of occult divination …
KA: In our current paradigm and narrative, AI is that apogee and climax of over 300 years of materialist, capitalist development. AI is the encapsulation; it is the conclusion. It realizes our current materialist aspiration to overcome drudgery and mundane tasks and to complete our power over nature and the elements, which are hostile to us.
CH: Strange days… Kenan, how will our approach to AI change if we are shifted back into an alchemic paradigm?
KA: AI will help realize the highest spiritual aspiration we as humans can have—creativity. AI will empower our creativity to its maximum. Creativity, at least in my exploration, is freedom. The more creative you become, the freer you become…
Learn more: Visit potentialparadigms.substack.com.
