Embracing humanity in the age of AI

Change is the only constant in our evolution as human beings and yet we fear change.

Every advancement, change or new ideology has generated fear and trepidation in the hearts of the masses.

The advent of AI is no exception, and for good reason. My previous posts and articles will attest to my own grave concerns that echo the potentially dystopian picture of the AI-altered future that we face, and the level of responsibility we suddenly need to achieve as a unified species in the face of this alien interloper.

and yet.....

As a technophile, lover-of-all-things-automated, determined believer in the greater-good potential of tech and connectivity, and an early adopter of every AI tool out there, I believe that AI will be the alien invader that will catapult us towards a more humane existence. To get schmaltzy about it, every sci-fi alien invasion story ends with a heart warming confirmation of what makes us human and "worth saving after all". And I'm starting to spot that theme in this AI-saga of ours.

Is AI giving us the opportunity to 'escape the machine'?

The Industrial Revolution leveraged physical labour as an integral part of the machination of industry. The Information Age built human intelligence into our IT systems and workflows. We're part of the cogs and wheels of the systems that we have created. As the machines became more complex, the cogs got smaller, until we find ourselves in a convoluted, layered, industrial complex where we cannot have an identity without having a "career". We can't have a career without specialising in a field of study. Your value is attached to the specificity of your expertise, your "niche". Your interests have to converge onto a laser focused "profession".

So we develop "hobbies" to occupy the other 99% of our intellect, our emotional reach, our physical prowess, our highly evolved "human" selves.

Maybe having AI augmenting or, more likely, replacing "knowledge workers" and having robots replace "labourers", will give us license to level-up, to be less "worker" and more "being", less "knowledge" and more "wisdom". Could we evolve into a society that values "know-how", insight, social connectedness, where we are grounded in our intrinsic value as people, gentle to our bodies and sensitive to our ecosystems and the planet? Maybe, getting out of the driver seat, out of our heads, and out of our cubicles will get us out of our "boxed" identities.

Maybe we can just cancel the rat-race due to lack of interest!        

I would love to see the resurgence of the "Renaissance Man (Person)".

"Renaissance man, an ideal that developed in Renaissance Italy from the notion expressed by one of its most-accomplished representatives, Leon Battista Alberti (1404–72), that “a man can do all things if he will.” The ideal embodied the basic tenets of Renaissance humanism, which considered man the centre of the universe, limitless in his capacities for development, and led to the notion that men should try to embrace all knowledge and develop their own capacities as fully as possible." https://www.britannica.com/topic/Renaissance-man

We might return to placing ourselves at the center of everything. We might find ourselves valuing the artisan, the artist, the "thinkers" and the philosophers rather than the building, the education, the publication and the ideology. We might value them, not because of the numerical price tag attached to their "output", but value them because they are people who make our world more beautiful, and ourselves better understood. Rather than being hailed as "professional" we will be praised as being "well-rounded", "skilled", "multi-facetted".

Instead of leading introductions with "So what do you do?" we might ask "So, tell me about yourself. What are you busy creating? What do you think?".

For me, AI is as good as an alien invasion, and true to genre, this story ends well. Instead of us continuing as minions digging deeper and deeper into industry, technology, data, we have the opportunity to let AI get on with that while we scan the horizon. We become free to be bored, to make random, intuitive connections, and to generate collaborations that improve the human condition. We might rediscover the thrill of exploring unchartered territories. Unfettered by the drudgery of keeping the wheels turning, we will be free to, finally, collectively explore what it means to be human, the outcome that every good alien invasion ought to have.

If it turns out that AI does evolve into more than a tool, more than a "artificial-resource", and it does meet or exceed our intellectual capability, maybe we will end up watching the rise of humanism and the age of the "Intelligence Evolution" with AI-bots standing beside us, less master-and-machine, and more like partners in a brave new world. Either way, it's going to be interesting, what a time to be alive!