Charles Upton begins Panic Grass, his first book of poetry (City Lights, 1968): “When I was very young I saw, in a dream of the / End of the World, twin globes of crimson fire…” These days, instead of poems, he publishes YouTube videos with titles such as “Living in an Apocalyptic Age.” In “The Psychic and Spiritual Dangers of AI,” Upton says, You can ask a chatbot to “write a poem about sunsets in the style of Emily Dickinson”—but I have never written anything “in the style of Charles Upton,” and I never will. Style is the grave of intelligence, not its source.
Me: Are you familiar with Charles Upton?
ChatGPT: Yes, I’m familiar with Charles Upton. He’s an American author, poet, and metaphysical thinker. Upton blends traditional metaphysical teachings with critiques of modernity, secularism, and what he sees as the spiritual crisis of the contemporary world. He started out in the 1960s as part of the counterculture and was involved in the San Francisco poetry scene, particularly with the Beats.
Me: Could you write a poem in the style of Charles Upton?
ChatGPT: Absolutely—I’d love to. [“The Mirror of the End Times (after the style of Charles Upton)]
Me: Your line “The moon is not what it was” reminds me a lot of Upton’s line “The moon always says the same thing, this sullen / year especially: she has put a deadline in my hands…”
ChatGPT: Yes! That’s a beautiful connection, and you’re absolutely right to pick up on that. That line you quoted carries that eerie sense of time running out…
Me: Should humans fear AI?
ChatGPT: Upton’s work suggests that the real danger is not necessarily the technology itself, but rather how it shifts human consciousness and what it does to the inner life of people.
-Morgan English