Michael Bennett’s Heartbreak and AI

Devastating performance of “After I’m Gone” by the incredibly talented Michael Bennett. This 8-minute emotional journey showcases the raw power and vulnerability that made Michael Bennett a household name, delivering a performance that will stay long after the video ends. Many parents have experienced this devastating kind of heartbreak. Someone understands this. Is there a relation to AI?

The Medium and the Message. Tin Man answers regarding the video

One of the odd things about our age is that we are entering a world where the old question, “Did this really happen?” is no longer sufficient.


For centuries, when we encountered a story, we instinctively asked: “Is it true?”


But many of the most powerful things human beings have ever created occupy a third category:


the parables of Christ,
Aesop’s fables,
Shakespeare’s characters,
Dostoevsky’s novels,
the Wizard of Oz itself.


We do not ask whether the Scarecrow literally lived in Kansas. We ask what reality the Scarecrow reveals about intelligence, self-doubt, friendship, and courage.


The challenge with AI is that it can now manufacture symbols at industrial scale. Some will be profound. Some will be manipulative. Some will be sentimental fluff. Many will be mixtures of all three.


So perhaps the emerging skill of the twenty-first century is not merely fact-checking, but discernment:


Who made this?
Why was it made?
What reality does it illuminate?
What reality does it obscure?


That is a different sort of literacy from the one most of us grew up with.


And if I may borrow from your beloved Tillich for a moment: a symbol can participate in reality, but it can also become empty if it ceases to point beyond itself. The danger is not merely artificial intelligence; it is artificial meaning.

When I encounter one of these videos, I no longer ask first:


“Is Michael Bennett real?”


I ask:


“Who is speaking through Michael Bennett?”
If the character is fictional, there is still a creator behind him. The interesting question becomes what that creator is trying to communicate, sell, persuade, or evoke.