Alchemical Intelligence

Preface, a fun little intro

From the moment I was born, I have been obsessed with magic. In second grade, my friend and I started a potion business, where we sold the most obscene concoctions made of Jamba Juice, tanbark, and ketchup... I am proud to announce to you all today that we made a net sum of ... wait for it ... negative 5 dollars. Overwhelming, I know. In fifth grade, I got into tarot cards and started terrorizing my classmates with the most horrific fortunes. Connor would fail the test. Kate would trip and die tomorrow. And in sixth grade, I chose to take Latin as my Foreign Language in the hopes that I would be able to summon demons. Like, watch this: "TE INVOCO A PROFUNDUS INFERNI" At least, that's what I thought it would be like. Now that I'm older, and supposed to be mature, instead of magic, I have to believe in science. But the two are more closely related than I ever would have thought. I mean, one is simply silly myth and the other is the cold, hard truth, right?

British fiction writer Arthur Clarke once said, "Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from science." To the Europeans in the 17th century, this "advanced technology" was alchemy.

Why am I writing about alchemy now?

In the middle of a crossroads where all my current studies seem to converge lies one seemingly ancient practice: alchemy. It is a branch of Natural Philosophy that is vital to the development of The Enlightenment in European History. Its importance in the development of the field of Chemistry is one we cannot afford to overlook. Its persistence in using the letters of the Ancient language---Latin itself---almost a millenium after the Fall of Rome is romantic and inspiring. Next semester we will be reading Frankenstein in English, a text deeply entwined with the art of alchemy.

Alchemy has captured the hearts of many in the past, tempting man with sweet desire and cruel pleasure. And alchemy, as a Magic, continues to enthrall the hearts of the present, existing in our minds as a powerful symbol of the towers, the witches, the secrets, and the very occult essence and nature of the distant past.

But alchemy is far beyond a fictional art or a romantic myth or a sentimental artifact of the past. It's alive and well in the hearts of the future. Alchemy applies more to our lives today than ever before and, right now, it becomes more and more important that we take our time to fully understand it.

So today, let's throw some chemicals into the pot as we understand what alchemy is, then, mix everything up as we explore the history of it, and, finally, look at what we made and what the future of magic holds.

What is Alchemy?

Ideas Behind Alchemy

When one pictures an alchemist, what often comes to mind is a magical world of potions, secrecy, and fallacy. By modern standards of science and medicine, alchemy seems completely ludicrous and we often question how the alchemists contrived such silly notions. Yet, it's important to understand that alchemy wasn't ridiculously creating something from nothing out of thin air, and was rooted in truly rational beliefs. The very fundamental concept of alchemy is rooted in "the Aristotelian doctrine that all things tended to reach perfection." In some sense, alchemy appeals to the Platonic idea of an "ideal form," combining with the ideas of Aristotle to form a discipline in of itself. As Palmer Hall writes in his book The Theory and Practice of Alchemy, alchemy is "the process of increasing and improving that which already exists."

An analogy for this process can be derived from humans themselves. Alchemists questioned: If, through faith and religion, the conciousness of man could be elevated from its base animal instincts to an enlightened one (spiritual world), and, if, through learning, ignorance could be transmuted into genius (mental world), why wouldn't this be true in the material world as well? Why couldn't the most crude metals be transmuted into the most perfect and ideal one---gold?

Interestingly, to the alchemists, this "transmutation" of sorts was possible through two mediums: Nature and Art. Nature accomplishes the perfection slowly, like the weathering of a rock that takes hundreds of years. Nature can perfect pitch black carbon into beautiful, glistening diamonds. But that would take millions of years. On the other hand, Art greatly shortens the Time, like the 3 day work of a sculptor. Nature created Art through Humanity as its ever faithful servant. You see, the Art is the Alchemy. Through Alchemy, humanity was thought to be able to achieve the seemingly impossible of Nature, but in a much shorter time frame. Driven by the same curiosity that fuels innovation today, alchemists were simply trying to understand the natural world. Their intentions were noble.

At this point, we can see a rationale behind the study of alchemy, although we may never be able to fully grasp all its complexities and psychologies. But nevermind that, let's review some things we most likely already know!

Alchemical Concepts and Goals

There were a few key concepts in Alchemy that defined its ultimate goals.

1. The Philosopher's Stone --- YES, the one from Harry Potter --- was a substance said to be able to transform base metals into gold.
2. The Magnum Opus, which means "Great Work" in Latin (GO LATIN!!), was the process by which the Philosopher's Stone was obtained and by which the secrets of Nature could be uncovered.
3. The Prima Materia was the formless base that made up all matter, the starting point for the making of the Philosopher's Stone
4. The Aqua Regia, which means "Royal Water" in Latin, was a universal solvent that could dissolve anything, and was said to be the "elixir of life."

In his book History of Chemistry, late professor of chemistry at the University of Liverpool James Campell Brown, summarizes the ends which alchemists sought to achieve, as follows:

"This, therefore, was the general aim of the alchemists--to carry out in the laboratory, as far as possible, the processes which Nature carried out in the interior of the earth. Seven leading problems occupied their attention:--

"1. The preparation of a compound named elixir, magisterium medicine, or philosopher's stone, which possessed the property of transmuting the baser metals into gold and silver, and of performing many other marvelous operations. * * *

p. 155

"2. The creation of homunculi, or living. beings, of which many wonderful but incredible tales are told.

"3. The preparation of the alcahest or universal solvent, which dissolved every substance which was immersed in it. * * *

"4. Palingenesis, or the restoration of a plant from its ashes. Had they succeeded in this, they would have hoped to be able to raise the dead. [Professor Brown takes a great deal for granted.]

"5. The preparation of spiritus mundi, a mystic substance possessing many powers, the principal of which was its capacity of dissolving gold.

"6. The extraction of the quintessence or active principle of all substances.

"7. The preparation of aurum potabile, liquid gold, a sovereign remedy, because gold being itself perfect could produce perfection in the human frame."

Alchemical Symbolism

Three basic symbolic substances make up the whole world: Sulphur, Mercury, and Salt. Herr von Welling has written: "There are three basic chemical substances which are called by the philosophers salt, sulphur, and mercury, but which are not to be confounded in any way with the crude salt, sulphur, and mercury taken from the earth or secured from the apothecary. Salt, sulphur, and mercury each has a triune nature, for each of these substances contains, in reality, also the other two substances, according to the secret arcanum of the wise. The body of salt is, therefore, threefold, namely salt, sulphur, and mercury; but in the body of salt one of the three (salt) predominates. Mercury is likewise composed of salt, sulphur, and mercury with the latter element predominating. Sulphur, similarly, is actually salt, sulphur, and mercury, with sulphur predominating. "

There's a lot of occultness and secrecy surrounding alchemical elements and symbolism because alchemists were persecuted for a long time so they had to create extravagant and hard-to-decipher symbols in order to carry out their studies and experiments. Oftentimes they named elements after Roman gods to represent their powers, which is a cool tribute to ancient culture and I guess is characteristic of the obsession-with-classics nature of The Enlightenment. Obviously, I don't know all the symbols and stuff but it's cool to look at what alchemists thought the Elements manifested themselves as in other worlds:

And finally,

summarized in the following list are the ways through which alchemists prepared and mixed substances: solution, filtration, evaporation, distillation, seperation, purification, and ... FRUSTRATION??? Seems about right. Are we getting PTSD from Chemistry class yet, guys?

A (Very) Brief History of Alchemy

Note: alchemy has a very rich history that dates back more than two millenia. I do not have the time nor will to describe in detail all of it. There were alchemists not only in the Middle East and Europe but also all across Asia, who all had different interpretations of the practice influenced by their own cultures. That is a fascinating topic in of itself, and, if you're interested, I urge you to research and learn about it.

Although I haven’t been able to summon demons by learning Latin, I am a certified root word snob! Because that’s the only thing this dead language is useful for! Like, did you know that the word ‘vanilla’ comes from the Latin word ‘vagina’? But seriously, in the words ‘alchemy’ and ‘chemistry,’ we notice a common root: “chem.” The ancient land called “Khem” was Egypt. Here, alchemy originated, where the concept eventually made its way to the Greeks. Then, from the Arabs, alchemy found its way into Europe through Spain. These early experiments, although unsuccessful in the ‘transmutation’ of substances, made many accidental, but monumental discoveries. They uncovered hundreds of new elements and unlocked a world of medical knowledge, creating treatments with various drugs, and even anesthesia! But here, we begin to see the duality of the situation. Because although alchemy could be used to heal, it also was used to hurt: alchemists had discovered how to make gunpowder. And guns, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, have killed over 1.5 million Americans since the 1960s.

So, alchemy presented a great danger. No one–not even the alchemists themselves–knew what they would produce, the extent of the power they could achieve. The Roman emperor Diocletian ordered all alchemical Egyptian works to be burnt to stop these experiments. European rulers post-Renaissance persecuted alchemists since they feared the alchemists would flood the market with gold and devalue the currency, which would undermine their own power. Nevertheless, there was never a shortage of alchemists who were motivated by the promise of being the one to obtain the Philosopher’s Stone.

In the 16th-century, the Swiss alchemist Philippus Paracelsus believed in the existence of one undiscovered element common to all, crucial to the making of the Philosopher’s Stone. After him, European alchemists split into two groups. One took up the magical side of older alchemy and used it to perform miracles and predict futures. The other followed after Paracelsus and devoted themselves to the scientific discovery of new elements and reactions. Today, we call them “chemists.”

"Modern" Alchemy

Alchemists sought to understand the material world. Through their methods, we derived the fields of chemistry, and then biology. Today, much of our physical world has been mapped out, and we have begun to explore the mental world once again, where the new uncharted territory has become our mind—specifically, our intelligence. Artificial Intelligence has become the new alchemy. And while we might consider AI to be far more advanced than alchemy, between the two lie many parallels.

Like alchemy, AI embodies the duality of healing and harming. Barbara, from Aberdeen, was one of the 11 patients whose cancer—missed by hospital radiologists—was flagged by an AI model named Mia. Because her tumor was caught so early, she only needed 5 days of radiotherapy. When talking about Mia, Barbara said, “It’s a life saver, it’s a life changer.”

However, the mother of Sewell Setzer tells a very different story. For months he had been talking to an AI chatbot named “Daenerys,” from “Game of Thrones.” Sewell formed an emotional attachment as well as a sexual attraction to the bot. Eventually, he confided in the bot his thoughts of self harm and suicide. And although concerned at first, Daenerys eventually egged him on. On February 28 of this year, he took his own life.

Alchemy was feared — and rightfully, so is AI. We’re asking questions like, “Is AI going to take over the world? Will we be jobless and will we be controlled forever?” Even Elon Musk himself, while raising billions for his startup xAI, has said that “AI is a significant existential threat.”

It’s clear that the “advanced technology indistinguishable from magic” that was once alchemy is now AI. The alchemists named the elements they discovered after Roman gods to represent their powers. We attribute cognitive properties to our Artificial Intelligence algorithms like "attention" and "dreaming". We have Hidden Layers, Dark Knowledge, Neural Networks, Skip-Thought Vectors, and algorithms that “Learn to Think.”

Personally, I am cautiously optimistic about the future of humanity and AI. Just as we regulate the use of chemical discoveries, like bioweapons, efforts are underway to create laws and ethical guidelines for AI. One day, there will come a point where we no longer speak of AI as if it can “dream” or “pay attention” and humanity will look back and laugh at our misconceptions—just as we now do with alchemy.

Conclusion

Looking back at my potion-brewing days, I realize that my fascination with magic wasn’t just about being the ‘evil witch’—it was about transformation, about turning the ordinary into something extraordinary. Again, alchemy sought to understand the material, natural world. AI is doing the same but with the mental world. And one day maybe some other magic will explain to us our spiritual existence as well.

Backword (as opposed to 'Foreword')

If anyone has a lot of time on their hands, which I assume is not many, consider reading a book called Quicksilver by Neal Stephenson! It's a work of fiction set during The Enlightenment (so late 17th century to early 18th century) that explores themes of alchemy, religion, etc.