CONCEPT
Perceived Vastness
The first component of Keltner's awe model: the recognition that something encountered exceeds the current frame of reference — not merely in degree but in kind.
Perceived vastness is the triggering condition of the awe response — the moment the observer registers that what she is encountering cannot be absorbed through her existing categories. Vastness is not limited to physical scale. It includes conceptual, moral, perceptual, and capability vastness. What unifies these instances is structural: each exceeds the observer's framework in ways that demand response. The vastness must be perceived, not merely present — an enormous phenomenon that the observer has categorized flattens into the mundane, while a small phenomenon that exceeds her specific framework produces genuine awe. In the AI transition, perceived vastness is the first component delivered in abundance: the capability of large language models routinely exceeds the frameworks of those who encounter them.
In The You On AI Field Guide
Vastness is perceiver-relative in ways the technology discourse consistently misunderstands. A capable AI system produces no awe in the user who has thoroughly categorized it, regardless of the objective impressiveness of its outputs. The same system produces intense awe in the