Can We Strike a Balance In This Age of AI?

Wholeness is at Our Door

In this age of AI, can we strike a balance between embracing technological advancements and creating meaningful, healthy lives? Are we ready to respect our natural interconnectedness and see that opportunity is knocking wildly at our door?

What if we begin to choose to focus on wholeness and made healthier choices? When examining the Internet of Things (IoT), for example, we find many unconnected and unfit-for-purpose Things. And isn’t it crazy that when we log into another app or platform, we must fill out a new profile. Sometimes there’s a link to another app, but often, databases remain siloed.

Although privacy issues are significant today, many systems already have major security flaws. But why are so few seeing that wholeness is at our door? Why don’t we create one profile, which can be modified, that goes with us in this age of AI?

As AutoGPT arrives, we don’t all witness the miracles that experts widely report. Instead, we see the continued support of existing systems. Re-thinking or re-imagining keeps us stuck in what already exists, but we have an opportunity to think, imagine, and create what we genuinely need. And breakout of the chains of yesteryear.

When Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) emerged in businesses, it forced departments to share information, making many uncomfortable. However, IT mostly continues as an internal vendor to businesses, with systems built in isolation. Our backend systems collapse because our foundation falls apart. But can we embrace the opportunity to collaborate and create whole robust and ethical systems in this age of AI?

Interconnectedness in the Age of AI

Wholeness is key right now. The woodwide web has always been here, teaching us about nature’s interconnectedness and the natural tendency to change and transform. It is the foundation for understanding how to create living systems and as a result, thriving purposeful communities.

Three phenomena surround Artificial Intelligence. The first, the fearful one, receives the most headlines: AI is our savior, and if we don’t get onboard, we will become victims of history. And Singularity is the goal. Just connect with futurists like Faith Popcorn who is ushering what she calls the “AI revolution” in with a full heart, proclaiming this is the only way forward.

The second calls for integrating AI purposefully and consciously, leveraging and leading with human intelligence. Perhaps this is a way to create more fulfilling jobs and automate menial tasks.

Experimentation enables us to leapfrog and create healthy systems instead of merely fixing or saving existing ones. This is the approach that makes sense to me and many others. There is nothing to fear when we are navigating in humane ways and integrating whatever is valuable.

And lastly, many people don’t really care about AI and don’t even know that this is the age of AI. Day-to-day life somehow is the priority.

Maybe people will care more when we shift the focus from what AI destroys or eliminates to how it can help us thrive in wholeness.

Call to Action

Buckminster Fuller reminds us that, “Spaceship Earth is so extraordinarily well invented and designed that to our knowledge humans have been on board it for two million years not even knowing that they were on board a ship … We are not going to be able to operate our Spaceship Earth successfully nor for much longer unless we see it as a whole spaceship and our fate as common. It has to be everybody or nobody.”

We have an opportunity right now to choose wisely and with human intelligence when it comes to AI. Things don’t happen to us; we create them. And we can create a humane integrated approach to AI just like the fear being unleashed.

It’s time to create communities that focus on restoring the environment and taking care of people.Can we develop ecological artificial intelligence, with expansive forest gardens for example, and integrate healthy business ideas?

There is only one choice left to make, and that is to act now and focus on our greatest opportunities for all of us and the planet. Isn’t this such an exciting time to be alive and influence our Spaceship here on Earth?

Related: The Power of Being Real