Beyond Artificiality: Generating Appreciation for Life
Dear All,
This is the first essay in a new series within the newsletter called "Beyond", a series in which I try to reach 'beyond' a current view by providing a different perspective. As always, I’m hoping that this may serve as a loving and gentle reminder to remember what is truly important in life, in your life.
As we stand on the eve of yet another grand introduction to human society, in the form of the global implementation of artificial intelligence, I consider it important that we try to define in advance our relationship to its use and ask ourselves whether we really want to be in relationship with this technology? With these words I am not trying to contribute to yet another dystopian scenario, there are plenty of voices sounding in that direction and besides the fact that I have too little insight into it myself, I feel it is appropriate to shed light on this subject from a different perspective. My intention for this writing is to ask ourselves how we wish to create a way of interacting with this technology, before this technology has crept into our lives to such an extent that it is no longer of service to us but we are once again of service to the technology.
Many major “introductions” that we bring into society, such as the introduction of the car and its associated infrastructure, the television, the computer, the ubiquitous smartphone - and the extent to which we have become dependent on it - and now artificial intelligence, concern introductions that have world-changing implications that were not yet sufficiently known at the time of introduction. In many cases, a large-scale introduction comes to us in the form of a promise, namely the promise that it will simplify our lives, enrich them or make our lives more enjoyable. From a car, a dishwasher to a telephone, all forms of technology are in some sense at the service of humans and should therefore truly enrich human life (but also the lives of other beings). I am of the (unpopular) opinion that in many cases this does not appear to be the case and that many forms of technology do not lead to a greater quality of life or a greater appreciation of life, but rather further impoverish it on an inner level. Many everyday forms of technology distract us from the invitation to make ourselves present for life, an invitation that lies in performing the most mundane tasks such as manually washing the dishes. Disguised in a cloak of convenience it may make our lives easier on the surface, but the real effect appears to be that it takes us away from a true encounter with life.
“I’ve heard my teacher say, where there are machines, there are bound to be machine worries; where there are machine worries, there are bound to be machine hearts. With a machine heart in your breast, you’ve spoiled what was pure and simple; and without the pure and simple, the life of the spirit knows no rest.”
The example I want to give is based on the smartphone because the parallels are enormous. When the first iPhone was released by Apple in 2007, it ostensibly came in the form of a brilliant piece of technology, whose design and human ingenuity could be described as admirable. Mainly discussed were the many possibilities that were enormously innovative, but no one could have foreseen at the time of its introduction that within fifteen years after the original release the entire world would have been changed by (among other things) this type of technology. Few could have predicted that a few years after its introduction, people would be completely preoccupied with their phones, that the phone would have such a strong appeal that people no longer talk to each other at train stations and walk down the street staring at their phones. This is (unfortunately) not an unrealistic view, look around you, this has become the surreal reality in many places in the world (from cities to even remote villages). Everyone fully relies on this piece of technology and uses it frequently, the idea of doing away with it has literally become unthinkable for many. How is it possible that something that has come to us in the form of convenience, entertainment and solutions has such a major dark side in which it consumes human lives? Although I live without a smartphone myself, this is not a complaint against the smartphone or technology in general, I also absolutely see the great possibilities it offers. However, I personally believe that the way it is designed (particularly the smartphone) has such a grandiose and irresistible appeal to people that it constantly tempts us to interact and even depend on it. The almost magnetic attraction is simply too great for many people to be able to adopt a healthy form of interaction, which results in a form of interaction as we now see exhibited, in which we have become dependent on what is offered to us. So, to what extent is something that seemingly looks like it comes to simplify our lives really something that simplifies our lives? Are these technologies and digital services really a service to our lives?
I foresee that artificial intelligence will become the leading form in which everything we now design, invent, manufacture or fabricate will, to a large extent, be in consultation with, if not completely taken over, by systems controlled by artificial intelligence. Therein lies the danger that man deprives himself of the opportunity to further develop himself by going through the exercise of inventing, producing and experiencing. We are moving into what I call a “generated generation” and that is that the next generation of people will grow up with the growing presence of artificial intelligence. This so-called “generated generation” will experience it as normal that when you have to think of, solve, make, write or draw something, this can all be generated or obtained through a form of artificial intelligence, where previous generations had to go through the exercise themselves in orde to arrive at a creation or an insight. Many of the innate talents or inherent abilities of humans will no longer have to be called upon or developed to the same extent because we can simply have this generated and outsource it to artificial intelligence. There is a great danger in the enormous convenience that technology offers us because it tempts us to no longer rely on humans and their unique gifts. We must remember that when we give this away or outsource it for the sake of convenience or speed, we deprive ourselves of a wonderful opportunity to develop ourselves further. As far as I am concerned, it is a much richer methodology to have to undergo, solve, experience and learn something ourselves because it gives us the opportunity to become present for life. We should make ourselves aware of the fact that there is beauty in washing your own dirty plates after eating a meal, learning to grow your own food, sitting around a fire instead of in front of the television. There is a beauty in learning to be a writer, as challenging as it is, there is a beauty in the many obstacles that can invite creative processes just as there is a beauty when objects are hand crafted and not machine produced. There is a beauty in boredom, allowing not-knowing and not having to fill it all the time with entertainment to distract you. There is a beauty in all of this and it speaks of the magic of life in which we are present for the way life speaks to us.
“How different everything is for the craftsman who transforms a part of the world with his own hands, who can see his work as emanating from his being and can step back at the end of a day or lifetime and point to an object — whether a square of canvas, a chair or a clay jug — and see it as a stable repository of his skills and an accurate record of his years…”
Artificial intelligence is the next promise that should guide us to the gates of improvement, after all the promises of the past decades, artificial intelligence is banging on the door, ready to guide us by the hand. In the ignorance and unpredictability of the large-scale consequences, which are as yet impossible to fully fathom, many are awaiting the arrival of this new adventure. The adventure that hopefully takes us out of the problems we have created ourselves, but it is not the future that our focus should be on but it is the past. History teaches us that it is many of these large-scale introductions that have taken us further away from the essential aspects that make life so rich. Many technologies may make our lives “easier” but often not simpler. I think that, as is often the case, the promises appear to be greater than the actual benefit for people and that once again we end up sidelining ourselves through the false pretexts of greater convenience. Ultimately, the question is whether it enriches life, not whether it is just easier or faster. My prediction is that we realise too late what the dangers are when we fully implement and interweave this into our lives and that we thereby deprive ourselves of many opportunities for development and expression. I think that when we tire of the novelty of it, in the longer term we have introduced something into our lives that we rely completely on that impoverishes many aspects of the human experience and does not contribute to an increased level of appreciation.
Dear friend, it would have been much faster if I had had this text generated, but instead I spent days carefully trying to express my thoughts on this issue. I propose that instead of thinking about how to generate everything, I think it is very important that we learn to generate appreciation in our own lives by making ourselves present to the ubiquitous beauty, creation, inspiration and abundance of life. Being able to live through the human experience and move through it yourself is what generates appreciation.
To be in the presence of life, in every action, to become present to its beauty.
In love and reverence, sven
