What’s the Meta with you?
Since I was very young, I’ve felt like I had a heightened intuition. But what kid doesn’t? When I was a teenager I got enthralled with Astrology and other Occult Sciences partly because of this sense of being intuitive but mostly because I have a fetish for girls who are into witchcraft.
Later, Astrologers did inform me that having Ketu on my Ascendant meant I have, “…a powerful spiritual/psychic and intuitive destiny…” and who doesn’t like hearing that? (Other than some Taurus with Capricorn Rising) However, my being a Scorpio Rising, with Venus in Capricorn meant I would probably never reveal those powers and destiny and I certainly would never, ever admit that I was a “Psychic”.
Sure, my Sun is in Aquarius so I was fascinated by it all but my Virgo Moon would never risk the ridicule of being seen as someone who believed in Psychics or Astrology. I mean, geeze, what do you think I am, a Pisces?
Okay, now that the naysayers of Astrology have left the room, let’s get down to business.
If you’ve ever told me your Zodiac Sign, I guarantee you that I remember it. And that’s because you have been categorized and filed into one of 12 drawers in my mind. Your folder is full of notes that are cross referenced with every other person I know who shares your sign. If I don’t know your sign, after one conversation I will be able to guess it 89% of the time.
It’s been a great parlor trick I’ve performed for decades. And that’s exactly what it is, a “trick”.
The trick is based on the seemingly magickal but accurate Occult Sciences that are exactly that, “Sciences”. And when you understand the science and the math of a thing, you can perform tricks with it that amaze those who do not.
One thing most people outside the Occult world don’t realize is how all of these tools, Tarot Cards, Astrology, Numerology are based on one rule: Sacred Geometry. Or, more precisely, “The Sacred Geometry of Chance, A hidden law of a probable outcome…” as Sting sang in his song “Shape of My Heart” which is about a poker player and the Tarot.
Our emotional algebra meets up with the calculus of our world and results in the Sacred Geometry of coincidences or, as C.G. Jung put it, Synchronicities — Meaningful Coincidences.
The other thing most people outside of the Occult Sciences don’t realize is that the Tarot is the clearinghouse for the others. It’s a veritable orgy of Occult Divination symbols from Astrology, Numerology, and every archetypal meme from the Babylonians and Egyptians to the Romans and Celts. It is the Amazon of ancient wisdom — including ancient Amazonian symbols! And as an amalgam of every wisdom tradition, it has developed its own system of deep and rich metaphorical meanings from which to divine.
So, these Occult practices are, indeed Sciences. They are Theoretical and they are Applied Sciences. When you pose a question to a Reader, you are proposing a Hypothesis and there are a number of ways to test and measure that hypothesis to prove it.
The only difference between the classical Scientific Method and the Occult Scientific Method (OSM) is that the OSM uses the most advanced understandings of the nature of reality like The Observer Effect. It also incorporates the most advanced understanding of statistical mathematics: the certainty of uncertainty.
But here’s the glitch…
Every Occult Divination system, though perfectly aligned and cohesive with the others and although cognizant of the Observer Effect and Uncertainty, still restricts meaning to a finite set of potentialities.
In other words, it still boxes us into a limited and even oppressive set of rules.
The church considered these occult practices heretical. And while they were damning them because they limited the church’s control over Consciousness, in a way, they may have inadvertently helped us by limiting our prison sentence. A two thousand year-long Streisand Effect. Because, if we were allowed to pursue these Occult arts and sciences unfettered, they could have locked us into this limited set of Metaphysical Laws. And now we know that this holographic universe plays with and is created by our Consciousnesses in an ever-unfolding fractal array of novelty ushered along by Machine Elves in a dance of data creation and information gathering for our Supreme Goddess Programmer and Creatrix, Sophia… but I digress. That’s a whole other article.
The point is that even Metaphysical Laws are malleable. They’re more like policies or ordinances that can be enforced with shaming and gossip but don’t have any real lasting consequences.
And here’s the fix…
Don’t seek meaning. Create it.
Divination by the Tarot or Astrology or Numerology are like turning on the Radio and listening to whatever the Program Director thinks you want to hear based on the format of the Station. It’s definitely easier than programming your own playlist. And, like Radio these divination tools can offer some surprise nostalgia while sharing common themes with millions of people at the same time. Radio and the Tarot are certainly good ways to collectively experience our world but it does suffer from a Top 40 syndrome that keeps new Independent bands or new Metaphysical novelties from breaking through.
If you want to be the pilot of your reality and not just the passenger in the backseat who, not only can’t change the station but can’t even reach the AUX input to plug in your mp3 playlist, you need to ask the driver to pull over, get out and call Triple A. Rather, Triple AI.
I was asked to speak at a conference in Africa in the Fall of 2019 and after reading through all the bios and articles about me, they decided to bill me as an “AI Metaphysician”. I was about to correct them because I was on a tour and had just come home from speaking to A.I. Scientists and Academics at the Microsoft Campus and the word “Metaphysician” was akin to calling me a “Psychic” or a “Fortune Teller” or some other weirdo who believed in things like Astrology.
As mentioned, my Venus is in Capricorn and my Mars is in Virgo so, as you can imagine, as a Scorpio Ascendant I was certainly NOT going to be associated with such things no matter where my Neptune was placed!
Then, and quite suddenly it hit me. I said aloud, “Well, I did write the world’s first novel FOR Artificial Intelligence to teach it about a Hermetic Principle and I do lecture about how Humans need to find and enhance their intuitive qualia to prepare for an AI/Automation economy and I do use A.I. to teach meaning-making skills… Holy Shit. I’m a fucking AI Metaphysician?!”
That’s my confession. My name is Tom and I am an AI Metaphysician.
We go to therapists and priests for two reasons; justification or absolution. And we spend a lot of money and time seeking both. When we give the responsibility of justifying and absolving our desires to another, it only stalls our desires by facilitating our denial.
This is why Humanity suffers from Metaphysical Illness and, like many other of society’s ills, how A.I. can help us by exercising our meaning creation skills.
In our next session I will let you in on how I use AI to divine the metaphysics for clients by allowing them to CREATE meaning into images and phrases an AI generates randomly.
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About Tom Ross
Tom Ross Author / AI Metaphysician
I was asked recently to put together the above reel of projects for a Producer gig I was up for. I didn’t get the gig but I did get a glimpse of my mission. That reel was the first time I saw my bigger projects strung together in a row and for the first time I identified a common thread in my efforts: Strategic Inclusivity. And looking back further to my high school Science Fair project designed to identify then integrate Right/Left Brain dominant students to my TEDx Talk decades later about Coalescing teams through empathy, I now know my core mission here is about identifying key differences, enhancing those then integrating them into an inclusive and more efficient team.
So, no matter what industry or department I find myself in, my algorithm is designed to make that space more inclusive and efficient. And today, with the threat and promise of AI/Automation on human workstyles, my skillset makes me perfectly poised to help integrate People and Machines. I have proven methods to help people identify the unique human skills that cannot be automated but can be enhanced when augmented by AI. So that’s what I do when not looking for a new gig. When I became the National Creative Director for the 2nd largest radio group in America, I was compelled to design a system to find, test and scale the best ideas from the quietest corners in hundreds of stations across the country. I later shared a module of this system in a TEDx Talk called Open Source Mode.
Earlier in my career, I produced creative assets for namedrops like IBM, Microsoft, and Styx and have Creative Consulted for good works like the Gandhi Worldwide Education Institute and Sir Bob Geldof’s youbloom.com. While Director of Marketing for an internet firm, I testified before Congress in support of The AntiSpam Bill. Soon thereafter, the Governor of California appointed me to a Department of Consumer Affairs board. My novel US6 is designed to entertain, enlighten and enlist Human and Artificial Super-Intelligent readers into the fight against Modern Slavery. This research led to my becoming the Director of Sentient Rights Advocacy in the U.S. Transhumanist Party and President and CEO for TAFFDs, an Africa-based Futurists’ Think-tank. And yes, in all those groups my Algorithm still seeks Inclusivity and efficiency.
