Teacher For Life … For Everyone!

So, when does our education begin? Is it when we start pre-school or kindergarten? Is it when we start Grade 1? Personally, I think our education starts the day we are born. That first garbled, indistinguishable, confusing noise is our first school bell and when we walk through those school doors, we are given a name tag which contains our nationality, race, religion and ethnicity. We are told that that’s who we are … but I think we all know it is not who we really are.

I’ve read quite a few articles and listened to numerous talks on the subject, and opinions vary a little but it would seem that by the time you reach the age of 7, most of “who you are” has been formed i.e. the foundation has been built. From that point onwards, everything you learn is built on top of that foundation. It is true that, as with a house, foundations can be extended and even contracted … but it’s usually very hard work. Foundations can also be destroyed if some, very powerful, environmental force exerts itself on them. For a house, that could be an earthquake … in your life, that could be a spiritual earthquake or catastrophic trauma … but I would not wish that on anyone; so best case is that we get to positively influence what happens in those first 7 years.

Now, considering that these initial 7 years are the most important years of our education, shouldn’t we have the best teacher/s possible? As a parent, when your children are ready to attend school, you will select, what you think are the best schools and best teachers for your children (within your means) … wouldn’t you? So, during these initial 7 years, who are, typically, your teachers? Your parents, your grandparents, your aunts and uncles, your siblings, your neighbors ... ? Are they the best teachers? Perhaps … but probably not.

Don’t get me wrong, everyone does the best that they can, but we all know that it’s not easy and whether we like it or not, our biases/issues/traumas filter into our teachings. Naturally we believe that everything we’re teaching our children is good and positive but if we really, objectively look at it … is everything positive? When we teach our sons that it’s not okay for boys to cry and show emotion … is that okay? Maybe that’s what we were taught, as were our fathers before us. Maybe it was valid and necessary at that time and although, in our minds, we’re probably doing it from a positive place with good intentions … is it right? Global psychology studies would probably suggest not. How many other problems does this “belief” cause?

On top of that, these are only the things we consciously teach. What about all the subtle messages we transmit unconsciously or subconsciously as a result of our own life experience/trauma/bias? When we shout at our child, because we’ve had a hard day at work, and all they want to do is play with us; it causes trauma for the child because they don’t understand. “Why was it fine to play yesterday and not today” … and instinctively they think it’s something they did i.e. that “something is wrong with me”. As an adult we don’t realize how traumatic that is for them … we’ve forgotten how traumatic it was for us. Raising a child is hard and to make it even harder, every child is different! They all learn differently and experience the world differently depending on everything from genetics to environment! We’ve all, at some point, uttered the phrase “there is no manual for this” … but is that true? Personally … I don’t think so. Not exactly ...

I think there is a wealth of global knowledge on how to raise a child to be a happy, healthy adult who has a valuable contribution to make to humanity and is confident to do so. There have been many studies in psychology, neurology, sociology and other scientific and spiritual fields on this topic. So why aren’t parents and teachers equipped with this information and trained to use it? Maybe some are but I expect it’s only to a very small degree (both in terms of the number of people who have access, and the components of the information they have access to). I expect the information that parents and teachers do have access to, is also heavily weighted towards their location, ethnicity and culture … mostly as a result of the language that the information is available in; since language and ethnicity are often inextricably linked. Once again, I have to emphasize that this is not a criticism. We all work with what we have and with good intentions. What I am suggesting is that perhaps we can improve? Afterall isn’t the whole purpose of life and evolution, to improve on what existed before?

So, let’s imagine …

Imagine that when you are born you are assigned a teacher … your teacher for life! Let’s call her Nat. Nat is an artificial intelligence; an AI that has access to the world’s knowledge and experience. Nat is also continuously learning as the world’s knowledge grows and changes. She is learning, processing and understanding this information at a rate that no human could ever do … and that’s the easy part! The hard part is taking the information and interpreting it within your personal context and then delivering it to you as such … in the way that would be most effective for you at that specific point in time! That means that she has to really know you and must continuously be learning more about you as you change and grow from day to day or even minute to minute … your mood, your energy levels, your health, your blood sugar! Perhaps she will even know your genome which could determine her base algorithm?

Imagine that Nat is able to communicate with your parents’ and your sibling’s AI teachers. She can learn from them and their experiences within your familial context and incorporate those learnings into your education. One could argue that this would introduce the same biases that we’re actually trying to avoid. Perhaps … but hopefully these teachers would have guided their students appropriately OR they may still be guiding them through a particular change, and it is therefore necessary to share that state with Nat. Remember the role of these AI teachers is not to turn everyone into the same robot clone; its job is to guide you, by using the world’s knowledge, without stifling your freedom or creativity. Nat cannot force you to do anything, she merely guides you and makes suggestions based on the information and data she has access to.

When you eventually do enter traditional school, Nat will help you to learn whatever subjects you are required to learn. Irrespective of who sets the curriculum or determines what subjects need to be studied, Nat will help you to learn them in the way that best suits you. She will help you to select the subjects that you are most enthusiastic about and ultimately will help you to select your vocation based on what makes you happiest and also what the world needs at that time. She will help you find your Ikigai! What’s even more exciting for me is that she could also teach you “life skills” that are not necessarily part of the school curriculum. How often have you heard the phrase … “why didn’t they teach us this in school”?

Nat will have access to the world’s knowledge … all nationalities and cultures, all languages, all spiritual and religious teachings. Over time she will learn what methods/concepts/experts/philosophies etc. work best for you and guide you accordingly. She will only be able to do this if she continuously evaluates your experience and performance in all facets of life, in an objective way. What those measures will be, I cannot say … even those may evolve and change over time as Nat learns more about you and the world. Perhaps these measures will be hormonal levels like dopamine or oxytocin or perhaps it will just be the width of your smile? For me the key thing is that Nat is YOUR teacher. She may interface with the AI teachers of others around you, but those interactions must be as brief and contextualized as the relationship that YOU have with those people. The majority of her knowledge must come from valid, recognized and verified sources NOT from other AI teachers! This is not meant to be a “hive” mind that controls all of humanity … this is your own, personal teacher.

This may seem like a complete fantasy, but I know for a fact that technologies already exist that are able to do some of these things. What the actual interface with Nat will look like, I have no idea. I expect it will be a wearable of sorts … probably more than one. I also think that Nat would have to be connected into all of your digital channels and personas. You would need to share everything with her if she is to be fully effective.

Now, you may say that people will never accept this technology as their teacher but … while reading this article, did you struggle with the fact that I gave this AI a name, a gender and to a degree a personality? Some of you probably started seeing a face and imagining a human like form … maybe even a real person! The human mind is a remarkable thing … and that’s the key! The primary component of this “system” is not the AI at all … it’s you.