On Love
On Love
Research into love started as a side interest for Visioning Lab, explored in between more ‘serious’ topics such as ontologies or metaverse standardisation. Gradually it has moved to centre stage. Why? Because it turns out that love really does make the world go round.
We are moving into a world where everything is possible (through AI), and where we have the luxury of deciding exactly what we want and making it happen. A society supported by AI and drones was imagined by Iain M. Banks in his Culture novels (opens in a new tab) back in the 80s. No-one has to work, so they spend their time playing games and making love.
Yet there are still many very serious challenges that need to be tackled before we get to utopia, such as inequality, environmental degradation, war and violence. But here is where Visioning Lab has taken an interest. What if we take love seriously? What if we situate all decision making about how to prioritise economic, environmental and social issues through the filter of love? What tools and processes are needed to support that, and where does an AI framework fit in?
These are the questions that we are now wrestling with, and it starts with poetry from around the world (opens in a new tab). The next step is a Love Manifesto that could be used to guide the design and output of AI systems as well as humans.
Watch this space.
Love Manifesto
Love in every country
A love poem, song or story from every country in the world, in the language it was written in and in English.
Love Manifesto gathers writing about love from every country of the world: poems, songs, ballads and stories, from medieval Persian verse to modern pop songs. Love is one of the things every culture writes about, and reading these side by side shows how differently, and how alike, people have put it into words.
One for every country
Each country has one chosen work. Some are famous, some are folk songs or oral traditions that are rarely heard outside their home.
Read it in two languages
Where a work is out of copyright, we show it in full, in its original language beside an English version.
Follow the link
Where it is still under copyright, we describe it and link to where you can read or listen to it.
Manifesto for Love, a book of 28 love poems from 28 countries across six continents, is coming soon from Visioning Press.
This is a work in progress. Eventually, we hope to show many poems from every country, so if you have a love poem that you would like to share, please get in touch.
English versions of poems not written in English are new translations made with AI assistance.