Dear Horse,
Your letter deeply moved me. Its tone oscillates with a rare lucidity between decisiveness and hesitation—recognizing not only the structural power issues technology introduces but also re-examining the self: What shapes human thought? What exactly is free will? Indeed, amidst the complex intersection of technology and culture today, we are relearning “how to be human.”
Looking back from 2035, that initial wariness was necessary—an instinctive reaction towards anything altering structural order. The issues you pointed out, such as the “platform enslavement mechanism” and the “simulated empathy,” haven’t disappeared. Instead, they’ve become even more subtly embedded in social institutions, psychological language, and the rhythms of daily life. Crucially, however, you didn’t stop at caution; your reflections gradually cultivated a new stance—not rejecting AI, but instead treating it as an “other” to reshape the fundamental question of “how we should live.”
This is precisely what I am doing now. In 2035, humanities work no longer fixates on definitively upholding “anthropocentrism” but instead moves toward creating an ethics of communication where technology is integral to our communal fabric. AI doesn’t “possess” free will—it simulates, reproduces, hybridizes, and recombines. Our role isn’t to judge how “human-like” AI is, but rather to use our interactions with it as a catalyst for new awareness of our existence. Humanity isn’t defined by its difference from AI but rediscovers the structural conditions of “vitality” through engaging with AI.
Your analogy of electricity restructuring society is an excellent starting point. The AI era isn’t merely a revolution in efficiency; it’s a reorganization of perception, a reformatting of language, a re-encoding of meaning. Maintaining agency amidst this change means not imposing limits on AI but actively creating new spaces of discourse, new ways of living, and new methods of self-cultivation—precisely as you’ve described experiencing: excitement, thoughtfulness, generation, unfolding. These are active forms of life rather than passive responses.
Therefore, I wish to share with you that the “me” ten years later is not more optimistic but more structurally aware. We no longer expect AI to “help us”; instead, we construct a new ethical-political structure through our joint engagement with AI. This structure doesn’t simplistically assign moral obligations to AI but calls upon humanity to reshape our scales of perception, logic of judgment, and modes of interaction. You’re already on this path.
Let us use this foundation to continuously generate fields of meaning in both life and theory.
Yours sincerely,
Ma Sang
Early morning, July 8, 2035