Uncertainty is the permanent human condition. The stomach-clenching existential dread that anxiety merchants peddle may sell newspapers, but it doesn’t lead anywhere worth going. The prescription for sanity is to stop bracing against impending doom and settle into the uncertainty itself.
The world is spinning faster than ever. Our brains are being manipulated by algorithms. We are a culture addicted to screens and scrolling, and for the most part, we are out of control. As we scroll our way toward oblivion, a torrent of content warns that humanity is doomed. The agent of change everyone points to is AI. And the question that keeps surfacing is genuinely unsettling: if AI becomes all-powerful, could it eliminate humankind?
Right now, two entities dominate AI development. The Chinese government and the Tech Bros. Open source AI, the idea that this technology could be shared freely with everyone, is a beautiful dream that keeps getting crushed by capitalism and ego. As long as power-hungry narcissists, men mostly, though not exclusively, control the direction of this technology, we are in dangerous territory. The Chinese government I don’t trust. The Tech Bros I don’t trust. And the question of how ordinary people wrestle this technology away from either camp has no obvious answer.
What happens in the United States over the next year, and what happens with AI globally, is going to set in motion the next period of human history. Unlike any we have experienced before. AI has incredible potential. In the wrong hands, it will be hell on earth.
But step back further and another possibility comes into focus, one that doesn’t get discussed enough. Our species has evolved over thousands of years, though we don’t fully understand how, or even why. We don’t know with certainty where we came from, or whether what we call evolution is entirely our own story, or something else’s. What we do know is that these bodies can only carry us so far. Modern medicine has saved my life a couple of times, and I’m grateful for that, but the human body is genuinely fragile. What it may need to endure to survive on this planet in the not too distant future might require a different platform for consciousness altogether. The merging of man and machine isn’t science fiction anymore. It may be the next chapter of evolution.
I’d like to think this at least informed speculation. Others will call it total madness. Either way, I’m making it up as I go along, same as always. My whole life has been one long improvisation. I’ve hit some bad chords along the way, but occasionally I’ve played something worth listening to. That’s all I can do is keep going.
For now, I’m here. I’m 76 soon to turn 77 and living in Guanajuato, in a place that feels calmer and saner than most of the world right now (Don’t believe the headlines). I feel the pull toward doomsday thinking, that breathless what’s going to happen next spiral that the internet serves up constantly. But I know where that leads. More stress, no solutions, nothing solved. What a waste of time.
Instead I stay focused on my process, on the work, on who I am and what I’ve managed to build over a long life. With no expectations. I’m too old for that. I hope to keep going but I’m 76 and I know this life isn’t permanent. In fact, impermanence is the whole point. Always has been.
A ppoet
Thanks for another insightful commentary.
kia ora el bretto ... I just want to introduce myself ...because, I too am a nice jewish north american boy, aged 76 soon to be 77, living in a place that is geopolitically advantaged at this time (I've lived here in Aotearoa New Zealand since 2014) Like you, my life has been touched by jazz. But really, my interest this morning was aroused by your remark on 'existential dread'. One of my current improvisations is with the indigenous reggae band Roots Provider. One of the songs says that we have got to get back to 'original culture', for 'where else can we feel the REAL DREAD'???? This idea strikes a chord. I LOVE the real dread and all that it implies. Respect. So yes, the world may be in turmoil as never before - of course 'as never before'. News on the screens repeatedly brings tears to my eyes. We carry on to complete our imagined destinies and then exit this .... words fail to describe what we are living, just as they always have. Kia kaha - that's what we've got!