Reclaiming Identity

Hey, I have an idea!! Let’s turn over our intelligence to something that has no beating heart or moral compass. Let’s excuse people from having to think independently or hold difficult conversations, as they outsource it all. Let’s create a world where nuanced thinking and the ability to spontaneously react like a great jazz musician is neither needed nor valued. If something doesn’t fit on the limited menu options, it’s not worth discussing. Let’s shut ourselves in our personal echo chamber that only echoes back the things we mindlessly accepted as true and never hear another voice. 

 

I started writing this about AI, but to be fair, all of the above also well describes a sub-species of human beings known as Republicans. (Go through the list again and imagine each.) So maybe it’s not a question of machine vs. human, given the pitiful versions of ourselves so many are proving to be. But theoretically at least, the humans have a chance of changing themselves in ways that the machines never can and never will. So instead of investing all our “curiosity, inventiveness, relentlessness and ingenuity” (see E.B. White in the last post) on building the next machines, let’s invest it in our human potential. Starting with growing better children.

 

While writing this at a break in the school where I’m teaching, a child comes in and poses a riddle: “What can be stolen but never taken?” A pause and then the intriguing answer; “Identity.” BOOM! There you go. AI and its extended family are doing their damn best to steal our identity, but the core of our humanity can never wholly be taken from us. However deep in the recesses it may be hidden from those who armor themselves against independent thought, sincere feeling, joy and sorrow, there is at least a flicker of humanity still sparkling in even the worst of us. It is said that Hitler was kind to his dog.

(Though frankly, haven’t seen that flicker yet in our own neo-power-mad version.) 

 

To preserve our identity gifted to us when we chose a human incarnation, there must be some semblance of our mammalian instinct to nurture and protect, our neo-cortic capacity to think logically and rationally, our mythological ability to imagine and dream. When we outsource it all to the machines of our own creation, we are participating in the theft of who we are at our core. 

 

Our human qualities—again, curiosity, inventiveness, relentlessness and ingenuity— can be used, even without our intention, for both good and evil. The choice is where to aim them. Let me suggest we put them in service of our highest capacities, the things that not only are essential to survive but are equally necessary for us to thrive. To live lightly and lovingly and laughingly on this great, green, grand and glorious earth.