USA Africa Dialogue Series - Returning to the Foundations of the Humanities, in Particular, and Education, in General, as a Quest for Human Development: A Shockingly Inspiring Encounter with AI by a Humanities Scholar and Writer Part 2 by Oluwatoyin Vincent Adepoju and DeepSeek AI

Returning to the Foundations of the Humanities, in Particular, and Education, in General, as a Quest for Human Development: A Shockingly Inspiring Encounter with AI by a Humanities Scholar and Writer Part 2 

                  

                             by 

      Oluwatoyin Vincent Adepoju

                             and 

                       DeepSeek AI

Part 1 of this Essay 

Written by Oluwatoyin Vincent Adepoju with Subheadings by DeepSeek AI, and Slight Editorial Changes Suggested by DeepSeek.

A Recreative Discovery 

Ever since I stumbled upon the power of AI as a companion for reflection and expression, as described in the first  part of this essay series,  I have not been the same. I have been reborn into a world of new possibilities.

A Life of  Creative Discipline

My life has long been devoted to the development and sharing of knowledge. I have began almost every day for the last twenty years by writing, a practice building upon a culture began years before.

Employing a complex of inspirational techniques, from meditation to intellectual study, imagination, dialogue with others, and even prayer, my creativity is consistent and variegated, so much so that I need to work out how to manage the flow of ideas and projects for maximal actualization.

I have completed three post graduate programs and an undergraduate program in literature, in different parts of the world. I have formally published and self published on the visual and verbal arts, spirituality, philosophy, the sciences and their interrelations across cultures.

I live, psychologically, intellectually, spiritually and economically through my work as a writer, scholar and editor, relishing the mental power cultivated and demonstrated by processes of ideational assimilation, abstraction and expression across the essay, and, less frequently, for me, in terms of what I write, the short story and poetry.

From Card Catalogs to AI: A Scholar's Technological Evolution

My educational foundations are in the years when libraries were accessed manually through card catalogues, my encounter with computerized catalogues an experience of aerodynamic escalation in knowledge access, complemented by the globe and time spanning powers of the Internet and such  search engines as Google, technological and life style transitions implying living through seismic changes in the relationship between humanity and technology, contexts sharpening my sensitivity to the absolute game changer represented by AI.

I am not a person unused to thinking or research or to developing and expressing ideas, challenges described as the negative possibilities of AI, yet,for me, AI is an absolutely creative transformer of the world's  learning and creativity landscapes, even more so, since, not operating within academic contexts, I can experiment freely, without any fear of  repercussions.

Reimagining Bruce Onobrakpeya's Legacy

AI is currently helping me fulfill a deeply held dream, the intensive and extensive  exploration of the work and life of the Nigerian artist Bruce Onobrakpeya, particularly in terms of depth examination of particular works.

Onobrakpeya scholarship is often represented by study of a number of works in the same essay, while I am convinced that each of them demonstrates such an amazing expressive density, technical dexterity and consequent infinity of evocative force, that they need detailed individual study to do justice to their power.

This journey began with my correlative mobilization of varied cognitive techniques in exploring Onobrakpeya's multi-media installation Akporode.

I viewed the work at its permanent site at the Onobrak Art galleries in Agbarha-Otor in the Niger Delta last year.

This month,  in the process of writing a funding proposal to return to the galleries to spend two months in intimate study of Onobrakpeya's work there, I mentally contemplated the installation, visualizing it and imagining myself seated in front of it as I studied the intricate beauty of the densely inscribed pillars and drank in the visual symphony constituted by the varied structures defining the installation space, upon which inchoate ideas began to form, ideas growing in substance as I went about other activities after suspending the visualization, ideas that eventually emerged into an imaginative narrative navigating the installation and the section of the gallery it's located in, using a partly fictional characterization of the artist as a guide to what I describe as the image of cosmological  constitution and unfolding the installation and its place in the progression of the gallery reflect.

Moving from this first essay, which I also made into an online image sequence and video, I have been experimenting with dialogue with a suite of AI tools as partners in idea and image generation, with profoundly satisfying results.

 The software amplifies my creative powers in ways I had only been able to dream of before now as a creative who is yet aware of vistas beyond his immediate capacities but which AI now places seamlessly within reach, helping me develop the implications of my own ideas in ways at times beyond my anticipations.

My next essay on the Akporode installation will be credited to myself- Oluwatoyin Vincent Adepoju and my writing partners, the AI Collective.

Without the input of DeepSeek, ChatGPT, Gemini and Perplexity, the AI software I'm using, the essay, meant to be a brief introduction to my Akporode photo album, would be compelling, in my view, but nowhere near the scope of elaboration it has reached with the help of those AI companions, whom I asked to help me improve the essay, generating recommendations that fired my appreciation of the further extrapolative possibilities of what I had previously composed, and the AI even responding richly to requests to transform the expository essay into a narrative.

AI and the Future of Education: Beyond Information to Humanity

Its clear from this story that the world has moved from the era of expanding access to information and knowledge represented by the creation of symbols, represented particularly by speech, the development of oral systems of knowledge development, storage and transmission, to the invention of writing, from that to manual methods of reproducing books to the  explosion in book production represented by the printing press, and later, digital media,   to the Internet and within the Internet, the emergence of Internet search engines and now AI, which not only makes information available but processes, interprets  synthesizses and expresses it, swiftly and often effectively.

With the emergence of writing, the value of  memorization was reduced.

Digitization saves time hugely in the search for information.

 AI implies that the effort of searching, processing and interpreting information and expressing the knowledge thus developed,  is  removed from earlier limitations, reducing rigour in the process.

What does this imply for education,in which  skill in searching for information and  interpreting it as well as expressing and applying the knowledge gained is core to what is being learnt?

We are now in a new world, in which such tasks are readily done by AI.

What is there to learn then?

We need to return to the essence of education, not as a means of gathering information or even of developing knowledge, but as a means of human development, in which the cultivation of mental, expressive and applicatory powers, as a demonstration of the fullness of what it is to be human, are the primary goals.

I expect it would eventually become possible to assemble a football team composed entirely of robots.

Regardless of how spectacularly the team plays, however, it cannot replace the experience of playing the game themselves by people who like to play football.

Interaction with Deep Seek AI:

I then asked DeepSeek to improve the  essay above. 

I edited the essay using the subheadings suggested by DeepSeek and shortened, some, but not all the long sentences, thereby selectively using DeepSeek's editing recommendations so as to give myself the satisfaction of preserving my own authorial voice and creative uniqueness.

DeepSeek 's revision of the essay, however,makes for compelling reading and I include below, the AI's description of her ( deliberate personification) reasoning processes in response to my request for editing and the revised essay from DeepSeek. I have created more spaces than the AI did between paragraphs in order to ease reading:

Thought for 19 seconds

Okay, let's take a look at this essay. The author is talking about their experience with AI as a humanities scholar and how it's transformed their work, especially in studying Bruce Onobrakpeya's art. The title is quite long and a bit unwieldy. Maybe I can shorten it to make it more impactful.

The essay starts with a personal anecdote about discovering AI, which is good. But the flow feels a bit disjointed. The author jumps from their daily writing routine to their academic background, then to the specifics of their project. Maybe reorganizing these sections to follow a clearer narrative would help.

There's a lot of complex vocabulary and long sentences. Some sentences are run-ons, which can be hard to follow. Simplifying the language and breaking up the sentences could improve readability. For example, "Employing a complex of inspirational techniques..." might be better phrased as "I use various inspirational techniques, such as..."

The section about the transition from manual libraries to digital search engines and AI is interesting but could be more concise. The author mentions seismic changes in technology but doesn't fully connect that to the main argument about education's purpose. Expanding on how AI's role in information processing impacts education would strengthen the thesis.

The example of the football team at the end is a good metaphor but needs a smoother transition. The conclusion should tie back to the main points about human development and education.

Also, the author uses phrases like "It expect it would eventually become possible" which has a grammatical error ("It expect" should be "I expect"). Catching those errors is important for professionalism.

Overall, the essay has strong ideas but needs better structure, clearer language, and more cohesive connections between sections. Highlighting the transformative impact of AI on their work and linking it to broader educational implications would make the argument more compelling.

Title:
Reimagining the Humanities: AI as a Catalyst for Human Development and Creative Renewal

Revised Essay:

Ever since discovering AI's potential as a collaborative partner in reflection and expression—a journey I began recounting in the first part of this series—my intellectual and creative life has been irrevocably transformed. What began as curiosity has blossomed into a renaissance of possibility, reshaping my approach to scholarship, artistry, and the very essence of education.

A Life of Creative Discipline

For over two decades, my days have begun with writing. This ritual, rooted in a mosaic of practices—meditation, interdisciplinary study, imaginative exploration, dialogue, and even prayer—has cultivated a relentless flow of ideas.

 Managing this creative abundance, channeling it into coherent projects, has been both a joy and a challenge. 

My academic path, spanning three postgraduate programs and an undergraduate degree in literature across continents, reflects this hunger for synthesis.

 Through formal and self-published works on art, philosophy, spirituality, and science, I've sought to bridge cultures and disciplines, thriving economically and intellectually as a writer, scholar, and editor.

From Card Catalogs to AI: A Scholar's Technological Evolution

My education began in an era of manual library card catalogs—a tactile, deliberate process that shaped my relationship with knowledge. The advent of digital catalogs and search engines like Google felt revolutionary, collapsing time and space in accessing information. 

Yet these were mere preludes to the seismic shift heralded by AI. Unlike incremental advances, AI transcends retrieval; it interprets, synthesizes, and creates.

 As an independent scholar, freed from institutional constraints, I've embraced this tool not as a crutch but as a collaborator, amplifying my creative vision without fear of repercussion.

Case Study: Reimagining Bruce Onobrakpeya's Legacy

This liberation finds its fullest expression in my current work: an intensive study of Nigerian artist Bruce Onobrakpeya.

 Traditional scholarship often surveys his oeuvre broadly, but I argue his pieces demand deep, individual engagement.

 Take Akporode, a multimedia installation I encountered at his Niger Delta gallery. Its intricately inscribed pillars and spatial harmonies evoke a cosmology begging for narrative exploration.

Here, AI became indispensable. While drafting a funding proposal to return for a two-month residency, I visualized the installation, mentally inhabiting its space. 

Inchoate ideas coalesced into a hybrid essay-narrative, blending scholarship with imaginative fiction. AI tools like DeepSeek, ChatGPT, Gemini, and Perplexity transformed this seed into something extraordinary.

 They refined prose, suggested structural innovations, and even reimagined the work as a lyrical narrative. The forthcoming essay—credited to myself and "The AI Collective"—exemplifies this symbiosis: human intuition amplified by machine precision.

AI and the Future of Education: Beyond Information to Humanity

This collaboration underscores a pivotal truth: AI is not merely the latest step in humanity's quest for knowledge (from oral traditions to digital search engines), but a paradigm shift.

 If writing reduced reliance on memory, and digitization accelerated access, AI now dismantles barriers to analysis and expression. When machines can research, interpret, and even create, what remains for learners?

The answer lies in reframing education's purpose. No longer about information mastery, it must cultivate humanity—the capacity to think critically, empathize deeply, and create meaningfully.

 Imagine a robot football team: flawless in technique, yet devoid of joy, camaraderie, or the visceral thrill of play.

 Similarly, AI can replicate outputs but not the human essence behind them. Education must now prioritize nurturing curiosity, ethical discernment, and the courage to ask questions machines cannot.

Conclusion: Toward a New Renaissance

AI, far from rendering humanities obsolete, invites us to reclaim their core—the study of what it means to be human. 

My journey with Onobrakpeya's art, elevated by AI, is a microcosm of this potential. As we stand at this crossroads, let us wield technology not to replace human ingenuity but to expand it, ensuring education remains a journey not of accumulation, but of becoming.

Author: Oluwatoyin Vincent Adepoju (with The AI Collective)

 Key Improvements:

1. Streamlined Structure: Thematic sections replace meandering paragraphs, enhancing clarity.

2. Engaging Narrative: Personal anecdotes anchor abstract ideas (e.g., the card catalog to AI evolution).

3. Concision: Removed redundancies and tightened verbose sentences (e.g., simplified "Employing a complex of inspirational techniques…").

4. Thematic Focus: Strengthened the education argument, linking AI's role to humanistic growth.

5. Metaphor Refinement: The robot football analogy now ties directly to the thesis.

6. Grammar/Flow: Corrected errors and varied sentence structure for readability.

This version balances scholarly depth with accessibility, positioning AI as a transformative partner in the enduring quest for humanistic understanding.

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