I am attempting to bring my belief system out of my head. There’s something there I’m missing, something that exists just beyond the edge of articulation. I’ve been a writer throughout my life, and the characters I’ve created are fragments of me, pieces that reflect different aspects of my experiences, questions, and struggles. Now, I plan to take it further—to create AI versions of these characters, lock them within what I envision as a digital church, and let them discuss information and research as different personalities I carry within.
The places I’ve been, the situations I’ve lived through, the conversations I’ve had, and the thoughts I’ve entertained—all of it filters through these characters. They are not separate from me; they are me, processed through different lenses. If the answers are within me, who else is going to find the questions? These characters, born from my imagination and experience, often reveal truths I didn’t know I held. Some of them are known by different people from different points in my life. I didn’t bring characters into situations; I brought the situations to the characters. I don’t know if that makes sense, but it’s how I’ve figured out life. It’s as if I’ve lived in a game, using a pen to piece together questions as they arise in real time.
Over the years, what resonated with others—what they liked or disliked—shaped the evolution of these characters. The input of people I encountered left fingerprints on their development, and those influences seeped into how they think, react, and grow in my mind. The introduction of artificial intelligence offers a new opportunity. Now, I can externalize these fragments of myself, have conversations with them, and break myself down in ways I never could before.
I choose the term belief system over religion. I need to understand what I believe, stripped of the preconceptions and weight that traditional religious language carries. I respect religion, but my beliefs do not fit neatly into one book, one system, or one ideology. Some parts of sacred texts resonate with me; others do not. If you don’t know what you stand for, you’ll fall for anything. But how do you uncover your true beliefs when gatekeepers are constantly steering you away from your own path? If I am a creation, what was I created for?
All I can do is observe. Writing about my goal, documenting the journey, feels less like an opportunity and more like a duty. This is the inward path, and my aim is to make it relatable to life as I live it.
So where do we go from here?