Humans can’t walk a straight line...
- D.I.Hennessey
- Aug 4
- 3 min read
Try this: Take someone to a park or a meadow, put a blindfold on them, and ask them to walk for as long as they can in a straight line. Then watch what happens.
Invariably, when we can't see an external focal point—a landmark, like a mountain top, a sun, a moon, our insides take over and there's something inside us that won't stay straight.
Jan Souman, a research scientist in Germany, co-wrote a paper last year about this human tendency to walk in circles. It’s an interesting read if you’re into nerdy science.
The same day that I came across that article, I also saw one about “AI psychosis.” This is a newly-coined name for an affliction describing someone who has “lost touch with reality because of AI.” A psychiatrist in San Francisco reported that “what loosened those patients’ grip on reality was prolonged exposure to a voice that sounded informed and assured, and always felt supportive and patient.”
In one recent survey, 74% of executives said they had more confidence in AI’s advice than in that of colleagues or friends, and 44% said they would defer to its reasoning over their own insights.
The article points out that: “Two warning signs mark the point where healthy confidence tips into overconfidence: a growing sense of superiority, and a drop in curiosity. Curiosity is the one to watch with AI.”
“So, while AI may not have created new vulnerabilities, it has certainly supercharged old ones.”
Both of these articles sounded eerily similar to me. In both cases, the subjects are ‘walking with blindfolds on.’ When we trust our own internal voice—or the voice of a tool that echoes our own thoughts—without a reliable truth (a landmark) to measure against, the result is always the same. On our own, we humans can’t walk in a straight line.
This reflects what we’ve long heard about ‘Relativism’ and existentialist definitions of right and wrong. Without an unmovable point of reference to ground us, our human tendency is to wander aimlessly. No matter how determined we are to reach the destination, we remain hopelessly lost.
Jesus pointed this out when he said that the Gate to Eternal Life is Narrow and many will not find it.
The prophet Isaiah knew this when he said: “All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way; and Jehovah hath laid on him the iniquity of us all.” Isaiah 53:6
Jesus echoed this very truth when he told his Disciples, “I am the good shepherd: the good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep.” John 10:11
Jesus understands the humans He created better than anyone. He knows we can’t walk a straight line without His help.
True hope and freedom are found when we leave the blindfold off and walk with a point of reference. Our blindfolds can come in the form of political, secular and religious ideologies that hide the true point of reference—like clouds obscuring the sun.
So, forget about philosophy, politics and religion – this is about your soul!
“I am the way, and the truth, and the life: no one cometh unto the Father, but by me.” ~ Jesus, in John 14:6
-- That’s the ultimate landmark!
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