I don’t know about you, but I want to live in world that supports Life. Not a world that seeks to devour it.
So, why would I give my power away to artificial intelligence when I have free lifetime access to real, embodied, mystical, unique, creative, natural, living intelligence?
Tell me.
Why would I do that?
Because it’s faster? But what if I don’t want faster? What if I want to take my time?
Tell me.
What is better about faster? Who is that serving?
*Hint: It’s not me, not you, but people who make a lot of money from you being faster
Because it’s helping us to progress and move forwards?
But how is it?
Tell me. Please.
Because to begin with, from what little I know, I do know that the infrastructure needed to support AI is literally devouring the Earth (aka our home) and the livelihoods of living creatures, humans included, at a rate immeasurably faster than we were managing to do already.
That sounds more like going backwards to me.
It can’t be because it does stuff better. Because it doesn’t. It really, really doesn’t. Maybe it can do a couple of cool-ish things. But mostly it makes everything look and sound generic.
Why would we ever want everything to be generic?
Tell me.
When did we become so indifferent to being original? To our own innate creativity? To the value of wrestling with ideas, navigating creative tension, finding the sweet spot, magical ah-ha moments.
Is it about accuracy?
I don’t think so. I’ve tried using it, pretty extensively, as a tool to support my research work. It ain’t very accurate at all, and that worries me...
Because I’ve heard high-level politicians say they use it regularly for doing data analysis, writing key reports...yadayada, who cares, right?
Tell me.
Why are we are more cautionary about trusting in the reliability of Wikipedia than a far bigger, far more problematic system of gleaning information?
*notice I said information there, not knowledge, and yes, there’s a difference.
Because it’s setting our children up for the future?
Maybe have a look at the plethora of research (or just take a hard look at yourself) on the “good” that increased use of devices, smartphones, and social media has done for humanity, e.g. the reduction in our grey matter. The state of our nervous systems. Anxiety. Depression. Addiction. Social isolation. Literacy and numeracy. The list goes on.
Awesome job guys.
Our schooling system and the state of young people’s mental health has never been more broken than since we introduced laptops and the internet to classroom learning. I am a high school teacher. I was there. I have watched the shift happen in real time. And I’m watching it happen now with AI in our classrooms.
Children should be playing and learning outside, interacting with real people. All of us should be.
Am I saying AI shouldn’t exist or that I won’t ever use it?
Not necessarily.
Am I saying we should be asking some bigger questions, like what is being lost and what is being gained, and is that really worth it? Take some more conscious steps? Be mindful in how we choose to engage with it as a tool?
Like with most things we humans do...
Absolutely. Please. Can we?
Me personally? I just want to see the emphasis shift.
I want to be part of a humanity that honours and elevates the living intelligence of the Earth. The stars. Our bodies. Our true nature. A humanity that doesn’t belittle the knowledge of ancient, living lineages of wisdomkeepers.
I want to be part of a humanity where wealth is measured by the state of our inner world, our health and our relationships, not our bank accounts.
I want to be part of a humanity that chooses connection, thriving, vibrant communities, meaning, enrichment, making time, creativity, soulfulness...a world that values the wisdom of lived and embodied experience more than information.
I want to live in world that supports Life.
Not a world that seeks to devour it.
The image here is one I took in my garden of the beautiful Himalayan Clematis vine, which flowers in Spring and has the most truly beautiful fragrance. Unmistakable and like no other scent. Just so extraordinary and irreplicable. I managed to capture a little bee collecting pollen and thought this image was perfect because of the impact that AI data centres are having on bee populations. We need bees way more than we need AI.