At first glance, the desire of humankind since the beginning of time.
Already Plato, one of my greatest role models, was almost obsessed with this phenomenon. In his time, perfection existed mainly in ideas. There was no way to create a perfect wheel, no perfectly symmetrical trees growing in the fields. The world was simply not perfect.
Years passed, and his ideas became a trend.
It took less than 2,500 years.
We arrived at an era in which life is easy. Not because it is simple, but because it is no longer about survival. We no longer wait in caves for the chance to catch a squirrel to share with our family. We can secure food, energy, warmth. We could do nothing and live in complete comfort… if we were not humans who constantly inflate their own bubbles and then have to deal with them.
Life has become so easy that we can afford the luxury of not thinking about our own direction. We let TikTok and Instagram guide us. We push our partners to be better, more perfect, closer to what we have seen there—without ever truly knowing whether that is what we want. We forget to embrace those who give us real value, blinded by the glitter of illusions, millions, luxury, and the need to be the best. We waste our time chasing these images.
If I had written this reflection three years ago, it would have been darker.
Today, however, I see hope.
Paradoxically, it is brought by artificial intelligence.
We dreamed of perfection while it was unattainable.
And now that we receive it at the press of a button, we begin to reject it. We look for flaws. We search for signs of artificiality. And suddenly, what is real gains value.
We create digital faces with freckles, imperfect lines, bodily irregularities—just so they do not appear too perfect. Just so they are not labeled fake.
And perhaps this was exactly what was needed.
Such closeness to the virtual world.
So that we could once again notice the beauty that had been in front of us all along.