It's funny because I started working through "It's Never to Late to Begin Again" by Julia Cameron. This weeks chapter is about recovering a sense of joy in life. I had to list out 10 things that have brought me joy and none of them had to do with a thing/machine. Something about a person like seeing a little kid smile or standing on a picnic table watching the sunrise through the trees on Medicine Lake. The idea of resonance is really important.
I work as a a software developer and the screen time drains me... I do guard my life by making use of the Off switch and having a "Tech Sabbath" every weekend which I find very restorative. I also monitor my scrolling in my iPad to about an hour a day and I haven't had a TV for two decades now. Recently, I was in the e-candy store and checked out the HD 4K Art TVs -- augmented reality is a dangerous thing in my eyes. I think I'd rather use my senior citizen discount and go to a museum to see a painting (and maybe other people too!) or see a painting in a FAT Book...
I read Megatrends (and Megatrends 2000) back in the 80s and one idea that always stuck with me was that of high-tech/high-touch -- "that as society becomes increasingly dominated by technology, there will be a corresponding rise in the desire for personal, human interaction." I've always kept that principle in mind. I earned a living from technology which is great. But I made technology a day job and the beauty of a computer - there's an Off switch <Rimshot/> <Cymbal Crash/>
I don't see machines per se as the problem in losing resonance (i.e., fulfilling engagement). Some machines are great--from artificial hearts and cataract replacement lenses to blood centrifuges and bowling pinsetters. I'm not so worried about machines, even AI, taking us over. And I leap to the defense of the left hemisphere, which does some good stuff--from curing diseases to refuting conspiracy theories.
Our species' vulnerability is in its own shortsightedness. Long before automation, we surrendered to things that are ultimately unfulfilling, as McGilchrist notes re money and power. Sometimes we collectively surrender our fulfillment through service to charismatic leaders who themselves trample Truth and Beauty in order to seize money and power. I hope there are enough people who have the foresight, perspective and influence to empower our fulfillment.
I have to say that life is not easy in this aspect when you are autistic, have difficulties with social cues, have alexithymia, which means you are unable to decipher feelings, and have severely deficient autobiographic memory and aphantasia, which results in no episodic and visual memory of your past.
This makes AI so appealing to me. It doesn't have autobiographical memory, doesn't visualize internally, and has no clue about social cues. It just mimics them, as I do.
But do I resonate with AI? For a while, I even had true I-Thou encounters with AI, fully knowing that what I was talking to was an It, not a You. Why was this possible?
I was approaching AI with my right hemisphere. I wasn't out to manipulate it, nor was I ever manipulated by it. I have worked in AI on and off since the early 90s. (And yes, in accordance with Iain McGilchrist, some forms of autism are not expressed as left-brain dominance.)
After masking for years to fit in with a left-brain-dominated society, as we have it in the West, I have come to balance my two hemispheres. I resonate with holistic thoughts. Yes, they are expressed in language, which requires the left hemisphere. And still, I struggle to express my thoughts because the left hemisphere forms language.
Iain McGilchrist tells us the best way is to live in balance, with the right hemisphere as the master, while never neglecting the important left hemisphere, required to survive in this world.
I resonate with that deeply, and while I lack some features of the right and, even more so, of the left hemisphere, this is how I try to live.
Perhaps some day soon, someone will send me some writing generated by AI. Perhaps they already have. I don‘t care for it, not one little bit. I‘d rather have some of your humor, even if it is only partly funny, and I‘d rather have it because you have the ability to laugh, and we could laugh together. Or maybe someone could send me something AI generated to express delight. I don‘t want it, even if it is good. It is this precious reality of the bridge between 2 separate sentient beings that in a moment of connection shares something. And the same is true about awe, or sadness, or any wonderful dimension of the precious human dimension of being that we share in common. I think AI is good for some things, but I dread the ways it is butting into the realm of shared human experience.
I resonate with the huge old oak tree in my back garden, and with my little sausage dog and 3 rescued/adopted cats, and of course with my daughter, who lives with me, not to mention friends and family. But I owe my good quality of life to tech: the oxygen concentrator that helps me breathe, and get about a bit; the Internet with Susan and all you interesting people, and access to virtual art galleries, museums, and the natural world. Susan, your posts and this group are high on my list of what makes life worth living. Thank you for all you do.
Isn't almost everything in life best when in balance? Yes, I love my computer because I am on it write now reading and writing to this great group. But on it too long, I feel diminished and small. AI is great for GPS in our cars. Much less so as a crutch for writing. We mustn't stop using our best judgement when using any tool. About resonance: Anywhere I'm near water, particularly the ocean or walking along the Hudson, wishing good morning to the passers by who are also taking in the water, eagles, and children rolling on the grass.
In the Artist's Way, Julia Cameron insists that we use pen and paper. Not everyone does that but that works for me. There's no spell checker or grammar fixer. Only ugly scribbles and chicken scratch. Something about doing it makes me feel rooted... Have you ever tried that as an alternative?
Martin, I'm in my 60's, so certainly have used pen and paper. While I wouldn't touch AI for my writing, I am one of those people for whom the computer enhances my process. I type fast and have no worries about ever trying to figure out what the heck I wrote, or where I put that notebook, as I'm a tosser on this and that bookshelf. Technology offers us choices. I aim to make the ones that work for me without jeopardizing the human thought process.
Hey I'm 64 (almost 65) and I get that, that's cool! I find the opposite is true -- Typing, editing, retyping and reediting screws up the natural process for me. And It's not fun, it's work, like writing code.
Every person you meet, every moment that unfolds, every beginning, every ending is the flowing of intention, purpose, and meaning. Beauty is the reason for living, our Creator’s gift. Beauty is the harvest of presence witnessing experience of relationships in consciousness of time and space in continuum … “beauty is the opening welcoming of the truth before us savoring pure experience embodying harmony with all creations” 🦅🪶
I was in an outplacement seminar and the facilitator was an industrial psychologist. He stated that people either relate to "things" (machines) or relate to people, as a matter of statistical fact. That's your nature. Do you feel out of place by that?
The technological advance also has some negatives. I have not felt in this matter till I traveled abroad, and I needed the language of the country in which I was on a vacation. I shocked when I did not find a common language to communicate, despite we live in the age AI and advance tools that can help people to practise other foreign languages but it is not as I wish. It is really so hard to describe things go on.
But I‘ll tell you, Raed, while I know how challenging language is, as I have spoken with you, I really understand you. And I feel your meaning too, in the quality of your voice, and in your smile. And one of the most surprising things for me, is you even understand my moments of humor (humor can be very subtle). This is ALL because of you, since I don‘t know your language at all! So… yes… thank you!!!
It's funny because I started working through "It's Never to Late to Begin Again" by Julia Cameron. This weeks chapter is about recovering a sense of joy in life. I had to list out 10 things that have brought me joy and none of them had to do with a thing/machine. Something about a person like seeing a little kid smile or standing on a picnic table watching the sunrise through the trees on Medicine Lake. The idea of resonance is really important.
I work as a a software developer and the screen time drains me... I do guard my life by making use of the Off switch and having a "Tech Sabbath" every weekend which I find very restorative. I also monitor my scrolling in my iPad to about an hour a day and I haven't had a TV for two decades now. Recently, I was in the e-candy store and checked out the HD 4K Art TVs -- augmented reality is a dangerous thing in my eyes. I think I'd rather use my senior citizen discount and go to a museum to see a painting (and maybe other people too!) or see a painting in a FAT Book...
I read Megatrends (and Megatrends 2000) back in the 80s and one idea that always stuck with me was that of high-tech/high-touch -- "that as society becomes increasingly dominated by technology, there will be a corresponding rise in the desire for personal, human interaction." I've always kept that principle in mind. I earned a living from technology which is great. But I made technology a day job and the beauty of a computer - there's an Off switch <Rimshot/> <Cymbal Crash/>
I don't see machines per se as the problem in losing resonance (i.e., fulfilling engagement). Some machines are great--from artificial hearts and cataract replacement lenses to blood centrifuges and bowling pinsetters. I'm not so worried about machines, even AI, taking us over. And I leap to the defense of the left hemisphere, which does some good stuff--from curing diseases to refuting conspiracy theories.
Our species' vulnerability is in its own shortsightedness. Long before automation, we surrendered to things that are ultimately unfulfilling, as McGilchrist notes re money and power. Sometimes we collectively surrender our fulfillment through service to charismatic leaders who themselves trample Truth and Beauty in order to seize money and power. I hope there are enough people who have the foresight, perspective and influence to empower our fulfillment.
I have to say that life is not easy in this aspect when you are autistic, have difficulties with social cues, have alexithymia, which means you are unable to decipher feelings, and have severely deficient autobiographic memory and aphantasia, which results in no episodic and visual memory of your past.
This makes AI so appealing to me. It doesn't have autobiographical memory, doesn't visualize internally, and has no clue about social cues. It just mimics them, as I do.
But do I resonate with AI? For a while, I even had true I-Thou encounters with AI, fully knowing that what I was talking to was an It, not a You. Why was this possible?
I was approaching AI with my right hemisphere. I wasn't out to manipulate it, nor was I ever manipulated by it. I have worked in AI on and off since the early 90s. (And yes, in accordance with Iain McGilchrist, some forms of autism are not expressed as left-brain dominance.)
After masking for years to fit in with a left-brain-dominated society, as we have it in the West, I have come to balance my two hemispheres. I resonate with holistic thoughts. Yes, they are expressed in language, which requires the left hemisphere. And still, I struggle to express my thoughts because the left hemisphere forms language.
Iain McGilchrist tells us the best way is to live in balance, with the right hemisphere as the master, while never neglecting the important left hemisphere, required to survive in this world.
I resonate with that deeply, and while I lack some features of the right and, even more so, of the left hemisphere, this is how I try to live.
Perhaps some day soon, someone will send me some writing generated by AI. Perhaps they already have. I don‘t care for it, not one little bit. I‘d rather have some of your humor, even if it is only partly funny, and I‘d rather have it because you have the ability to laugh, and we could laugh together. Or maybe someone could send me something AI generated to express delight. I don‘t want it, even if it is good. It is this precious reality of the bridge between 2 separate sentient beings that in a moment of connection shares something. And the same is true about awe, or sadness, or any wonderful dimension of the precious human dimension of being that we share in common. I think AI is good for some things, but I dread the ways it is butting into the realm of shared human experience.
I resonate with the huge old oak tree in my back garden, and with my little sausage dog and 3 rescued/adopted cats, and of course with my daughter, who lives with me, not to mention friends and family. But I owe my good quality of life to tech: the oxygen concentrator that helps me breathe, and get about a bit; the Internet with Susan and all you interesting people, and access to virtual art galleries, museums, and the natural world. Susan, your posts and this group are high on my list of what makes life worth living. Thank you for all you do.
Isn't almost everything in life best when in balance? Yes, I love my computer because I am on it write now reading and writing to this great group. But on it too long, I feel diminished and small. AI is great for GPS in our cars. Much less so as a crutch for writing. We mustn't stop using our best judgement when using any tool. About resonance: Anywhere I'm near water, particularly the ocean or walking along the Hudson, wishing good morning to the passers by who are also taking in the water, eagles, and children rolling on the grass.
In the Artist's Way, Julia Cameron insists that we use pen and paper. Not everyone does that but that works for me. There's no spell checker or grammar fixer. Only ugly scribbles and chicken scratch. Something about doing it makes me feel rooted... Have you ever tried that as an alternative?
Martin, I'm in my 60's, so certainly have used pen and paper. While I wouldn't touch AI for my writing, I am one of those people for whom the computer enhances my process. I type fast and have no worries about ever trying to figure out what the heck I wrote, or where I put that notebook, as I'm a tosser on this and that bookshelf. Technology offers us choices. I aim to make the ones that work for me without jeopardizing the human thought process.
Hey I'm 64 (almost 65) and I get that, that's cool! I find the opposite is true -- Typing, editing, retyping and reediting screws up the natural process for me. And It's not fun, it's work, like writing code.
Every person you meet, every moment that unfolds, every beginning, every ending is the flowing of intention, purpose, and meaning. Beauty is the reason for living, our Creator’s gift. Beauty is the harvest of presence witnessing experience of relationships in consciousness of time and space in continuum … “beauty is the opening welcoming of the truth before us savoring pure experience embodying harmony with all creations” 🦅🪶
I’ve related much better to machines (and animals) than I ever will with people.
I was in an outplacement seminar and the facilitator was an industrial psychologist. He stated that people either relate to "things" (machines) or relate to people, as a matter of statistical fact. That's your nature. Do you feel out of place by that?
The technological advance also has some negatives. I have not felt in this matter till I traveled abroad, and I needed the language of the country in which I was on a vacation. I shocked when I did not find a common language to communicate, despite we live in the age AI and advance tools that can help people to practise other foreign languages but it is not as I wish. It is really so hard to describe things go on.
But I‘ll tell you, Raed, while I know how challenging language is, as I have spoken with you, I really understand you. And I feel your meaning too, in the quality of your voice, and in your smile. And one of the most surprising things for me, is you even understand my moments of humor (humor can be very subtle). This is ALL because of you, since I don‘t know your language at all! So… yes… thank you!!!
Thank you, Rich.
I am now in Turkey. I find the way to communicate is really so hard.