(Where) does the heaven really exist? Science would dismiss such an idea as either a poetic fancy or a religious belief, right? Well, as reported, in an opinion essay published in late January 2026, Michael Guillén, PhD, a former Harvard physics lecturer and science communicator, took the internet by storm with a provocative claim; namely, paradise might have a physical address!
I could elaborate Guillen's argument in quite some detail. Well, instead I am going to look at Milton's famous quote. In 'Paradise Lost', Book I, as a punishment for a rebellion, born out of jealousy and spite, Satan and his co(-)horts are hurled in to hell which is dark and hot. As part of the pep talk to energise his followers, and himself, Satan delivers a fiery speech.
The most quoted line therefrom is "The mind is its own place, and in itself can make a heaven of hell, and hell of heaven." In other words, the address of heaven, or hell for that matter, is the "self". The address of heaven is, in other words, not possibly a few galaxies away as the Guillen's of the scientific wor(l)ds would like us to believe.
Milton's quote provides us with an optimism that we can change every situation for the better. It suggests that it is the perspective that shapes heaven/hell/realities. Since it so prioritises the subjective, it gives us the power of agency.
Now let us confront the realities. The AI summit may be over. Yet its echoes are reverberating everywhere. Even at its rather nascent stage, this new fangled technology is re-writing most everything. Even if we forget for the time being the accrued environmental cost and/or the other central ethical issues, we would have to accept that the heaven is where the AI locates it! What say?
Pratima@ Let me give you a concrete example. A brilliant teacher explaining most interestingly a subject is a student's heaven. Now she need not go to any classroom to attain that heavenly feel. The ChatGPT literally hands over such a heaven at home in her palm holding the mobile. The agency soon would be completely 'agentive'!
Quote of the day: "Ignorance is the curse of God; knowledge is the wing wherewith we fly to heaven" argued Shakespeare. The ramifications of the quote are aplenty now!
Word of the day: objective Objective refers to understanding not influenced by personal feelings or opinions in considering and representing facts, and thus verified commonly, by anyone. The fun currently is that objectively born technology is making reality subjective, thereby making the address of heaven quite inaccessible!
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