> What do you see as the road to making this particular application of not getting AI to do what you have already decided you want to do better, but utilizing the fact that it is in some regards foreign or exotic or alien intelligence? And so it can reveal to us aspects of ourselves that we don't already see, and that can generate an enormous amount of previously unimaginable opportunity. Like, what is your vision for a world in which we're actually doing this? Like, how do we get there?
Let me riff a bit more on what I responded.
The road that leads there is of the proverbial 10,000 miles, of which you took the first step when you recognized that AI is an exotic intelligence, with which we can have a cross-mentoring relationship.
Good mentors, spiritual companions, or developmental friends (facets of sherpas on our lifelong learning journey) always ask questions that help reveal aspects of ourselves that we don't already see, including those of our future self, which are already present in seed form. The technogenesis with an AI well-educated by our conversation with it is no different.
There's a still small but growing number of AI whisperers who are already cultivating that kind of relationship with their AI learning partner. Their practice won't become a defining characteristic of a world worth living for until the ecosystem of movements for civilizational renewal becomes the new mainstream and redesigns all institutions, where the highest value of the Whole is the flourishing of All.
How do we get here? As you may suspect, there's no one single answer but there are as many as people seriously considering the question. That's because only embodied answers matter, not merely intellectual speculations (of which there are also many).
My own answer keeps changing in function of the challenges and opportunities that Life throws at me. The present opportunity is emerging from the invitation from Schumacher Institute to join them as a Distinguished Fellow, which I gratefully accepted. I plan to organize an invitational research webinar series featuring evolutionary thought leaders as guest speakers and presenters, starting this Fall.
The common theme of the webinar series is Liberating the Emancipatory Potential of AI. Readers of this note can apply for an invitation by explaining what attracts them to it in an email to me (george.por@gmail.com) with "emancipatory AI" in the subject line.
Amen! As you know The Schumacher Center for New Economics hosted the Lindisfarne Association early on and I would love to see this connection continue as a multigenerational cultural commitment.
Of course, I don't think that an (action) research webinar series will, in itself, directly trigger a profound enough social change. But why not consider the following thought play?
What level of idea emergence and collaboration could become if
1. all the hosts of transformative podcast series and webinars invited prominent evolutionary thinkers/doers from their network, as I'm inviting you, as guest speakers, and they brought their regular audiences in the flow of what is happening?
2. and if there was an AI-facilitated infrastructure to support the cross-fertilization of the participants' hypertrails across,
thus building an Emancipation Commons, where all are engaged in transcontextual mutual learning, à la Nora Bateson?
Note that "Schumacher's concept of emancipation extends beyond economic independence to encompass spiritual, social, and cultural dimensions. He emphasized the importance of finding meaning in work, developing a sense of purpose, and engaging in activities that nurture individual growth."
I use the term in the same sense, but with an emphasis on overcoming alienation and realizing genuine human freedom (not only "freedom from" but also "freedom for)..
In this podcast, inspired by Doug Engelbart's thinking, I touched on the co-evolution of human needs and tech means. I have treated that subject in a more detailed and nuanced way in The Virtuous Cycle of Knowledge Ecology diagram that is found in my essay https://thesystemsthinker.com/nurturing-systemic-wisdom-through-knowledge-ecology/ (The Systems Thinker, 2000)
Michael, towards the end of our convo, you asked:
> What do you see as the road to making this particular application of not getting AI to do what you have already decided you want to do better, but utilizing the fact that it is in some regards foreign or exotic or alien intelligence? And so it can reveal to us aspects of ourselves that we don't already see, and that can generate an enormous amount of previously unimaginable opportunity. Like, what is your vision for a world in which we're actually doing this? Like, how do we get there?
Let me riff a bit more on what I responded.
The road that leads there is of the proverbial 10,000 miles, of which you took the first step when you recognized that AI is an exotic intelligence, with which we can have a cross-mentoring relationship.
Good mentors, spiritual companions, or developmental friends (facets of sherpas on our lifelong learning journey) always ask questions that help reveal aspects of ourselves that we don't already see, including those of our future self, which are already present in seed form. The technogenesis with an AI well-educated by our conversation with it is no different.
There's a still small but growing number of AI whisperers who are already cultivating that kind of relationship with their AI learning partner. Their practice won't become a defining characteristic of a world worth living for until the ecosystem of movements for civilizational renewal becomes the new mainstream and redesigns all institutions, where the highest value of the Whole is the flourishing of All.
How do we get here? As you may suspect, there's no one single answer but there are as many as people seriously considering the question. That's because only embodied answers matter, not merely intellectual speculations (of which there are also many).
My own answer keeps changing in function of the challenges and opportunities that Life throws at me. The present opportunity is emerging from the invitation from Schumacher Institute to join them as a Distinguished Fellow, which I gratefully accepted. I plan to organize an invitational research webinar series featuring evolutionary thought leaders as guest speakers and presenters, starting this Fall.
The common theme of the webinar series is Liberating the Emancipatory Potential of AI. Readers of this note can apply for an invitation by explaining what attracts them to it in an email to me (george.por@gmail.com) with "emancipatory AI" in the subject line.
Amen! As you know The Schumacher Center for New Economics hosted the Lindisfarne Association early on and I would love to see this connection continue as a multigenerational cultural commitment.
Of course, I don't think that an (action) research webinar series will, in itself, directly trigger a profound enough social change. But why not consider the following thought play?
What level of idea emergence and collaboration could become if
1. all the hosts of transformative podcast series and webinars invited prominent evolutionary thinkers/doers from their network, as I'm inviting you, as guest speakers, and they brought their regular audiences in the flow of what is happening?
2. and if there was an AI-facilitated infrastructure to support the cross-fertilization of the participants' hypertrails across,
thus building an Emancipation Commons, where all are engaged in transcontextual mutual learning, à la Nora Bateson?
Note that "Schumacher's concept of emancipation extends beyond economic independence to encompass spiritual, social, and cultural dimensions. He emphasized the importance of finding meaning in work, developing a sense of purpose, and engaging in activities that nurture individual growth."
I use the term in the same sense, but with an emphasis on overcoming alienation and realizing genuine human freedom (not only "freedom from" but also "freedom for)..
In this podcast, inspired by Doug Engelbart's thinking, I touched on the co-evolution of human needs and tech means. I have treated that subject in a more detailed and nuanced way in The Virtuous Cycle of Knowledge Ecology diagram that is found in my essay https://thesystemsthinker.com/nurturing-systemic-wisdom-through-knowledge-ecology/ (The Systems Thinker, 2000)