AI & Being Human Together

TL;DR: Where the last post invited us into a multigenerational project. This one is a call to be human together today. To come together IRL. In the flesh. The opposite of artificial. I spend a little bit of time looking at the scarier side of what is unfolding. But I end with an invitation. And with radical trust that there is something in us that can never be lost. 

This one is shorter. It is a continuation of my last post: “AI and Ancestors in Training,” but it also stands alone. I am making a conscious choice in writing longer form. Folks who are not moved by it will not read it. I can see names unsubscribe. I’m ok with that. Because I keep hearing back from you. We only need the hearts and ears of those keened by the same song.

It is not about critical mass. It’s about critical connection.

I will not be a prophet of doom. I am provoked by Tyler Cowen’s provocative question:

“[W]hat kind of civilization is it that turns away from the challenge of dealing with more. . . intelligence? That has not the self-confidence to confidently confront a big dose of more intelligence? Dare I wonder if such societies might not perish under their current watch, with or without AI?”

But neither will I be someone who refuses to look into the danger and the darkness. The ever presence of the void.

Consider this when you think about AI:

In Ukraine:
“[S]mall drones and a denser collection of satellites are also helping to provide the capacity for pervasive surveillance, allowing Ukraine to identify and track threats and targets constantly.

A new generation of cheaper and more precise attack drones carrying bombs can loiter in the air autonomously until they find their targets. Artificial intelligence-backed computer systems can fuse this collected data and other feeds to make targeting decisions, faster than any human.” (NYT: Start-Ups Bring Silicon Valley Ethos to a Lumbering Military-Industrial Complex)

Pretty cool, when it’s the good guys that have the technology to do it. But what happens when the bad guys have it? Or, even worse, what if AI goes wrong, rebels and takes control of it all?

Now combine the power of swarming targeted surveillance with the power of Pegasus. Pegasus is the Israeli technology currently causing havoc at the highest levels of México’s government. (And I’m sure many places where no one has gotten caught):

“Pegasus can infect your phone without any sign of intrusion and extract everything on it — every email, text message, photo, calendar appointment. It can watch through your phone’s camera or listen through its microphone, even if your phone appears to be turned off.” (NYT: He Was Investigating Mexico’s Military. Then the Spying Began)

Can you imagine the potency of these two technologies combined? Can you imagine these powers in the hands of authoritarian governments? Ravenous corporations? Terrorist and sectarian organizations?  Rogue, autonomous AI?

Fear is not the way, my friends. Though it is definitely healthy for us to allow our bodies to shake. To get nervous systems ready to learn how to regulate, heal, sense more fully, then respond.

Right now. Today. We have technology that can perfectly mimic any of our voices. This means a bot can call you with the voice of your child or your partner. A bot faking the voice of your beloved can now be used to extort you. It can manipulate your deepest trust and vulnerability.

Now is a good time to find your secret code words that you share with the people that you love. Get away to a field and leave your telephones behind. Etch your code words into the memory of your heart.

It is with this in mind that Seth Godin asks “What comes after trust?” (Seth’s Blog, May 9, 2023)

He reminds us that:

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“Civil society as we know it is dependent on identity and responsibility. A person does something and owns the consequences. This requirement of identity leads to the dynamic of the free market that we call trust.

But what happens when the email, the essay, the voice, the interactions–aren’t from a person, but from a swarm of bots?

A certain kind of trust is no longer useful. Selfish hustlers are going to be one of the first big winners in the AI race, abusing systems that were built on traditional ideas of identity and responsibility.

Then what?

This is a fine moment to start taking the question seriously.”

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My response to Godin is that: 

We must get together IRL. In the flesh.

That we must learn to look each other in the eye, over and over again. Learn to be in authentic dialogue together, getting more and more of our egos out of the way.

That we must sing songs together. Move our bodies together. Touch the earth together. Meet Solstice and Equinox together. The New Moon and the Full Moon together. Sit in ceremony together. Experience pleasure, laughter, ecstasy, and joy together.

Make ample room to grieve together.

Form very practical support groups on how to live our daily lives. Small circles focused on the things we need help with: a group on how to raise our kids better and get them off their screens. Groups on how to manage our money. How to stay free ourselves from the grip of different addictions. How to support our marriages and intimate partnerships. How to integrate the ecstatic experience into the mundanity of everyday life?

How to learn, to live, see and breathe as people with awakened hearts.

In the wake of the artificial. We are being called back to what’s real.

Jamie Wheal, another prophetic voice in our time, puts it this way:

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Remember What We've Forgotten 

“So can we all just pause for a minute and remember each other?

Remember that around the world, and across the ages, we've all been united in a singular goal: To live in peace, to watch our children grow up to enjoy a life better than ours, and to die in our sleep surrounded by grandchildren.

It's always been this way.

And the research backs this up. Studies from UC Berkeley confirm that when we see images of suffering our vagus nerve––responsible for all sorts of internal processes and self regulation––fires. And those "vagal superstars" that have the most active tone, also have the strongest friendships and display more acts of kindness.  

A Harvard/Princeton study corroborated this with brain activities, showing that viewing pictures of people suffering (like those in the recent earthquakes), activates the same neural regions as a mother gazing adoringly at her child.

We are hardwired to care for each other.  

And when we gather together to share deeply about our lives and our burdens, when we can hug, dance, drum, sing and train, we come back to ourselves.

It's a game changing realization: that we aren't that far apart. That our shame and our burdens are more common and evenly distributed than we'd ever dare guess. That our yearning for joy is shared and amplified by the gifts and talents of others.

The simple things.”

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It is imperative that we do not forget that we have already been through the apocalypse. That genocidal devastation tore through both continents we now call the Americas. That Africans were kidnapped and enslaved for generations.

That Genghis Khan murdered more humans from a greater diversity of tribes than most of the murderous power mongers we can remember today.

That the Roman Empire tore through an endless number of European and other cultures. They wreaked havoc and conquest upon white people who still knew the worship of the old gods. People, who like all original people, understood in their very bones, that everything is connected to everything else. That the river has a spirit. And the mountain has a spirit. That when a bird flies above your skies, it means something. That if you talk to a tree, and sit long enough to listen. The tree will have something to teach.

Brutality, new technology and madness have been with us through the ages. And yet this knowing cannot be stamped from us. It can't be taken from us. Yes. Much has been lost. Not just lives, but stories, songs, wisdom and great understandings of what it means to be human together.

But not all has been lost. It cannot be lost. Not as long as we live. It is stored right here in our very cells. Look at the glory of Black culture today. Spend time with Indigenous folks anywhere in the world today. Meet my elders in Puerto Rico. See the mixed races of the Americas, notice the beauty of people born of conquest, violence and rape.

You will always find those who will refuse to forget.

Like I said in the last post. I am just collecting names. Listening for the others who are called. I have a separate list, one for those who really want to do this. Send me a note. We’ll see what wants to emerge.

And if we don’t do it together, always know that there are other fires being cared for. Adjacent fires. Different experiments. Other folks finding the will to become more human together, even as the virtual, the digital and artificial colonize their way into our lives.

Ours is not just a stand for our lives. It is a stand for this light, this fire that won’t be extinguished. These ways of being that must be passed on.

It is a remarkable time to be alive.

And it is time to be alive together.

IRL. In the flesh.