Having read the wonderful Encyclical Letter published by the Vatican last week, signed by Pope Leo XIV, I felt motivated to write several articles about it. Its title, Magnifica Humanitas: On the Custody of the Human Person in the Age of Artificial Intelligence, invites us to reflect and debate the multiple arguments presented in the text. These point to essential characteristics of our human condition and our potential to achieve a sense of fulfillment, as individuals and as a species.
Today, however, I want to focus on a specific point addressed in the Encyclical that has always fascinated me: the beauty of imperfection. The quote that prompted me to read the entire letter was the following:
“For an algorithm, an error is a defect that must be corrected; for a person, however, an error can be a catalyst for profound change.” (Paragraph 128).
In a world where image and algorithm have become engines of human action, it is not surprising that so many people feel depressed and lacking in purpose. The perfect life, the perfect physique, the perfect family, the perfect job, and complete happiness do not exist. It shouldn’t need to be said out loud; we all know this. However, the constant attention and energy we invest in the idea of perfection, consumed in abundance through digital platforms, paralyses us as a society, with the greatest impact on young people. Entrepreneur, author, and professor at New York University, Scott Galloway, who helps many young men to overcome apathy, insists that:
“Real love requires risk. Real friendship requires showing up imperfectly. Real success requires repeated failure. If we engineer all friction out of life, we engineer resilience out of people.”
Galloway’s warning resonates perfectly with the Pope’s assertions in his Encyclical, especially between paragraphs 118 and 120, which add a beautiful element of spirituality to the topic:
“Our relationship with life seems to be in crisis today. Everything that appears as a “limit” — incapacity, illness, old age, suffering, vulnerability — tends to be seen primarily as a defect to be corrected, rather than as a reality through which our humanity matures and opens itself to relationship. And yet we must remember that humanity flourishes not despite limitations, but often through them… It is only thanks to the interplay of freedom and falls, dreams and disappointments, that the wonders of the soul occur within us, allowing us to sense the richness of our humanity. To renounce this adventure, both tragic and splendid, in the name of a presumed transcendence of all limits, could mean many things, but it would no longer be human..”
Our aversion to suffering and to confronting what we don’t like, combined with technological advancement and the consumption of online lifestyles wrapped in perfect packaging, is trapping humans in a four-walled cell. Religion, spirituality, and introspection are essential tools to free us from that aversion to “the ugly” and the constant burden of pursuing the mirage of perfection. By shedding those chains, a space opens not only for resilience and action but also for empathy, compassion, and the desire to work for the common good.
Those less inclined to religion may find in psychoanalysis similar warnings to those presented by Pope Leo XIV in his Encyclical. Carl Jung stated in his text Psychology and Alchemy from 1944:
“The shadow is a living part of the personality and, therefore, wants to live with it in some way. It cannot be discussed into nonexistence nor rationalized into harmlessness. This problem is exceedingly difficult, for it not only challenges the whole man but simultaneously reminds him of his impotence and ineffectiveness.”
The message seems to be that, as we learn to accept our own shadow, our own imperfections, we become more capable of accepting and even seeing the beauty in the imperfections of others. For example, in a friendship, when one friend shares their insecurities or failures, the other may feel more comfortable doing the same. This shared vulnerability strengthens their bond and allows them to see the beauty in their mutual imperfections.
It is true that humans have always resisted looking at, and especially accepting, our flaws. However, at least in the past, this reluctance was not subliminally promoted by a bombardment of virtual mirages or by multimillionaire executives of Artificial Intelligence. Unattainable ideals are being forged among us that paralyze and distort our humanity. The thought of existing in a world of fictional lives gives me vertigo, and I am frightened that we may lose the ability to recognize ourselves in the faces of others, especially those with whom we have little in common.
As always, I choose the side of rebellion that seeks beauty in the imperfect and the unique, for it is precisely in that search where we experience the most beautiful aspects of being human. As the Japanese fashion designer Yohji Yamamoto says:
“I think perfection is ugly. Somewhere in the things that humans do, I want to see scars, failure, disorder, distortion.”
In those imperfections, in those stories of struggle and self-acceptance, lies our essence. It is there that the small treasures are hidden that grant us moments of fulfillment and genuine connection with the tangible world and our fellow beings.
Magnifica Humanitas: On the Custody of the Human Person in the Age of Artificial Intelligence
Jung, Carl. Psychology and Alchemy. Princeton University Press, 1944
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