AI and the Decision to Stay Human

Neither fearing nor embracing artificial intelligence.

Jun 06, 2023

Everybody’s talkin’ ‘bout AI.

AI, AI, AI.

Ay yai yai!

As mentioned in previous articles, Pluto’s entry into the sign of Aquarius for the next twenty years (!) highlights all permutations of Consciousness related to technology, inner and outer space exploration, and telescopic and microscopic expansion.1 Aquarius is the sign of “The Future” and symbolizes the intertwining of humanity combined with interdimensional existence and genius. Far out. Aquarius also rules pure science and discovery, in contrast to $cience manipulated by corporate interests or greed or power-seeking, which is more Pluto in Capricorn in tone.

Perhaps being an Aquarian myself gives me a leg-up on the matter, perhaps not; yet I’m aware enough of these astrological trends to know that AI is not going anywhere. We on Planet Earth have a long simulation experience ahead, whether by riding on rocket ships or via chatbots or living with robo-vacuum cleaners or avatars, or riding in cars that ostensibly have minds of their own.2 This may make you quiver in delight or shiver in fear.

Two extremes of the AI response:

FEAR AND TERROR <==> HEEDLESS EMBRACE

I’d like to offer here a point of view or way of holding the idea of AI that is not one of these two ends of the spectrum.

A slice of fear: Robots taking over! We’ll have an irreversible, deep disconnect from the Earth and from Nature. Madness and psychopathology will ensue. Envision Kubrick’s 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968) – we’ll be trapped floating outside the space pod, terrified but pleading as calmly as possible, “Open the pod bay doors, HAL,” with HAL (heuristically-programmed AL-gorithmic computer) responding, “I’m sorry Dave, I’m afraid I can’t do that.”

A slice of embrace: It’s inevitable; it’s the greatest! Our lives will be easier with robots doing all the grunt work. We can save lonely and isolated people with suicide prevention chatbots, like Deepak Chopra’s PIWI (people operating with intent) emotional AI chatbot. Medicine will thrive, we will live forever. What are we waiting for? All progress is desirable. Right?

The Decision to Stay Human

I’ve decided neither to fear nor vilify AI.

I’ve also decided not to embrace it mindlessly.

I’m opting for the the third door. Door #3.

Door #3 is to Stay Human. I’m going to keep the focus on my Self.

I embrace all things SOUL-FULL, including but not limited to body-mind-spirit wellness, spontaneous joy, music (especially live and played by actual humans, including myself); dressing up, and singing; all things that are resonant for my Being.

I am going to grow my simple herbs, read books in print so I can feel and turn pages, write in cursive with a pen on paper. I’m going to walk in the woods, write letters and cards sent by post. I’m going to massage my body with oils, pet the cat, curl up with my husband for a nap and kisses. I’m going to hang the laundry on the line in the wind and mend the hem on my secondhand dress. I’m going to pray and meditate, enjoy cocktails with umbrellas and mocktails with limes. I’m going to breathe, dance, and stretch.

And feed the hummingbirds.

I neither need reject nor embrace AI. I can continue to LISTEN to body, to heart, to soul. To cultivate the voice of soul is to listen. Scramble letters to SILENT and you get LISTEN. To truly listen, we go within. We direct our energy inward. Home. The mind, the egoic mind, healthfully follows these depths and urges and movements, not the other way around.

The highest good is like water.
Water gives life to the ten thousand things and does not strive.
It flows in places people reject and so is like the Tao.
Tao Te Ching, Verse 8

AI is Not Separate from the Divine

All there is, is Consciousness. The Universe – Existence – is All There Is. And that Is-ness includes Everything. It includes pain, suffering, beauty, dis-ease. It even includes AI!

From one point of view, AI is seen as a tabula rasa, a blank canvas. A reflection of what it is fed: what it has already devoured, and what it’s eating regularly.

I can hear the voice of “Yes, but!” when we fear that AI has or is going to be fed JUNK FOOD or toxic ideas or limited thought formations with intentions of greed or power. When those concerns arise, come back to your Self. Remember that you, too, are feeding AI. We are not separate.

If you talk to another person who receives what you are transmitting, and then they interact with AI, you are indirectly feeding the Ay Yai Yai. If you are reading this on a screen, you are feeding the Ay Yai Yai. If you look up a recipe for miso-tahini goddess dressing on the Interweb, you are feeding the Ay Yai Yai. If you text, or talk on a phone, you are feeding the Ay Yai Yai. If you post a video of wildflowers dancing in the breeze, you are feeding the Ay Yai Yai.

This does not have to elicit fear of being manipulated or controlled. Whatsoever you are engaged in, if it brings you joy, you’re on the right track. If you are doing the more refined, articulated work of truly tending the soul, listening to the body and heart, you can trust you are on the right track – for you. We are not separate. Consciousness is neither good nor bad. We can raise our vibration and experience of living on Earth through living soulfully.

I’ve chosen to Stay Human. I’m a natural woman who trusts the intelligence of body and soul, the Divine and Nature, to know what is best for me, from moment to moment.

If another person decides to live otherwise, to ask Chatbot GPT for information, or to make a decision, or receive help, that’s their own destiny – perfect for them.

It does not work for me – I can tell in my body when I’m reading auto-generated script or looking at AI-generated art, and it gives me a funny feeling of discord. It’s a sense of being seasick, of tapping into a grid that is foreign and non-resonant to my being.

So, I myself will be over here, listening to silence, to soul, to rock, and to roll. I’ll be living this embodied, conscious human animal life. Gazing at wildflowers. Feeding the birds. And if sometimes that spills into feeding the words into AI, I can trust this infusion and its soulful dance with and as Consciousness, for we are not separate.

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