Celebrating Imperfection

The sink was blocked, dirty water going nowhere. Was it a surprise, I wondered, that this happened only two days after the great Saturn and Neptune conjunction? Saturn represents solid structures, Neptune the mighty ocean – and there it was, the ocean contained in my kitchen sink!

But while it can be a relief to blame others – partners, polititians, planets –, blaming rarely changes anything. So I got my phone out, asked ChatGPT what to do, and was presented with three possible solutions. I tried the first, and failed; but the second suggestion worked. Sink unblocked, problem solved. Thank you, AI.

In my day-to-day life, I've been using three languages for quite some time. It's often great fun switching between English, Spanish and German, but it can also be really tiring. And so I appreciate AI's help with some corrections and translations. I also use it for research, legal questions, and basic surviving skills like trying to figure out how the new remote control for the television works. All very helpful stuff. But as we all know, where bright light shines, there's usually a dark shadow present, too.

Recently I received an email from a fellow author, offering praise and potential collaboration. His first email fooled me, but by the second email, I noticed the already familiar AI style. Curious, I continued the correspondence, and, as expected, by the third email someone tried to sell me their marketing services. No big deal, you might say, but unfortunately, these messages from artificial voices are increasing – and the clear boundaries we once had between what's real and what's fake are rapidly dissolving. Neptune has brought a thick fog to Saturn's clarity.

I've asked Google what percentage of all social media posts are created with AI. Are you ready? Here's the answer:

Some forecasts are suggesting that up to 90% of all online content could be synthetically generated or modified by the end of 2026. Currently (March 2026), 71% of social media images are AI-generated, and over 50% of long-form posts on LinkedIn are likely AI-created. 

Yes, the AI-generated texts and posts are all wonderfully perfect. No spelling mistakes, well-structured, with neat bullet points. But the more you read all those artifical posts, the stronger the feeling of emptiness grows. It's becoming all the same, and suddenly I'm beginning to miss something which my order-obsessed Capricorn self never thought it would miss: imperfection.

I'm not against AI. It's the future that's already here, happening all the time. But the lightning speed with which it is conquering our daily lives is, quite frankly, frightening. Are we aware of what we are losing? And are we willing to lose it? Soon, there might be no real personal texts left, and that which is wild might die out. Like a modern river, each sentence will be perfectly straightened; like an animal in a zoo, each paragraph will appear beautiful on the outside, but empty within. How can truly soulful words survive in such an atmosphere?

We can't go back. We can't stop, either, for the race towards an unknown future has long begun. But perhaps we could slow down. Perhaps we could remember that rivers are only healthy when they meander, and animals are only happy when they're free. Perhaps we could celebrate imperfection – not all the time, and certainly not when the sink is blocked, but each day there are opportunities to do things differently. Opportunities to be human, rather than perfect.