Class News

John Wylie ’64 on the evolution of human motivations

January 20, 2024

John Wylie ’64 has created an AI-illustrated video titled The Evolution of Human Motivations, An AI-Illustrated Odyssey. The video is shown below. John describes the video as follows:

This is a video adaptation of the e-book, which is possibly the first AI-illustrated work of serious nonfiction for a general audience. [Download a copy here.] Viewers are treated to over 120 images, each a visual gestalt of the book's content, exquisitely crafted by the advanced AI systems ChatGPT 4 and DALL-E 3, serving as a virtual “science illustrator in earth tones.” Enhanced by professional narration and evocative background music, the video interprets mainstream facts about human evolution within the framework of the Abrahamic mythos, tracing a narrative from grace to fall and, ultimately, to the quest for redemption. Its medical aim is to counter stigma by presenting major mental illnesses as disorders of evolved emotions-and-motivations we all know intimately, creating a deep, resonant understanding.

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John Wylie has been involved in the field of evolutionary psychology/psychiatry since its founding in the1980s. His work continues to contribute to our understanding of mental illness through an evolutionary lens. Before his retirement, he maintained a hospital-based psychiatric practice in Washington, DC.