Why the 'AI Open Letter' is a Good Thing. The Plot of the Marshmallow versus the Acorn.

The oak beams of Oxford story

During my studies one of my professors told me this story, that has made a great impression on me ever since:

I wanted to use this story to set the stage for this article, but during the fact finding phase, I found no evidence for this to be true. On the contrary, I found an article in the Guardian revealing the story to be a myth:

Because I wanted the story so much to be true, I also checked ChatGPT, in order to find new leads that might lead to a confirmed source for the oak beams story, which in my memory was related to the Bodleian Library:

So, ChatGPT was fed the story also, and very specific details, that, however, could nowhere be confirmed as fact. And it is also a much heard lesson learned with regards to ChatGPT; it is parroting information that it was fed, no guarantees for any factual value.

The Marshmallow and the Acorn

The oak beams of Oxford story would have been a great intro to what philosopher Roman Krznaric coined as the tug of war in our minds between our short-term 'marshmallow brain' and our long-term 'acorn brain'.

In his book "The Good Ancestor: How to Think Long Term in a Short-Term World", Roman Krznaric coins the marshmallow brain, inspired by the 1970 'marshmallow study' by Mischel, W., & Ebbesen, E. B. (1970). Attention in delay of gratification. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 16(2), 329–337. https://doi.org/10.1037/h0029815. The study indicated that human kind is wired for short-termism; when placed in front of a marshmallow, and promised a second marshmallow, only if the first marshmallow is resisted for 15 minutes; instant gratification wins.

Another inclination in the human mind, and at the opposite side of the 'marshmallow brain' is the 'acorn brain', that focuses on long term thinking and planning. The Oak Beams of Oxford story would have been an example of the latter.

In a picture- from The Good Ancestor (pg 12):

The way to be a good ancestor, and build a world that is also good with 'seven generations from now' in mind, is to move away from short-termism, or the 'terror of the now', with the digital distraction (homo distractus) that we touched upon in an earlier post.

The legacy mindset, the cathedral thinking and the transcendent goal are rather different world perspectives, as Krznaric explains in his book, and also here:

It is also what motivated me to sign the AI Open Letter by Nathalie Smuha et al:

The 'Move fast and break things' strategy is short-termism behaviour, that may have a larger footprint than we realize, or than we are capable of understanding now. So, this is a plea for thinking long term, in a short-term world.

And the way to do this, is to implement 'privacy by design', a Trust Framework, and a proper governance; activities that ensure Daniel Kahneman's "slow" System 2 thinking: to consider long term effects, beyond the short-termism, and towards long term thinking.

#GoodAncestor #Marshmallow #Acorn