The ancient Hindu texts of the Vedas allude to a strange phenomenon when studying their contents. Up to the point of their transcription, the mysterious creators (of which origins are sketchy) speak of how if one is truly committed to learning and practicing the arts and teachings of the Vedas that one will eventually develop a spectacular and practically supernatural memory. Therefore, there was no need to have these teachings in writing. (When the teachings of the Vedas were created, these were not transcribed until much later, in fact, it is also doubted whether the creators of the Vedas possessed any form of written language. Reasons for their transcriptions vary, however, it is believed to be rooted in an ancient cataclysm that threatened to wipe out most of humanity along with these teachings and writing them down was the only way to preserve it.)
Progress and the Paradox of Convenience
What the written language did for us as species is indeed phenomenal… as times and technology advanced, this platform remains a great development in history of humanity! What it took away from us, namely our ability as humans to retain our learnings via Oral Tradition i.e. that Supernatural Memory, becomes somewhat of a paradox.
From Memory to Dependency
Take the widely used grocery list; a few years ago committing this to memory with our already stretched minds was… “just too much.” So we took down little notes on little pieces of paper… When this became too much messy, we moved to text message via cellphones, when typing these out became too inconvenient, we switched to the powerful Voice Note. Even the written language itself is now seemingly redundant … why bother spelling that word correctly… Auto-corrects’ got your back! Grammer, punctuation, reminders… no problem… the answer to everything is in the palm of your hand! Really, when last did you use a dictionary? Do you even know how?
Then… enter Ai.
The Cost of Outsourcing Thought
Computers are now being tasked to take over our thinking! Bright minds with potential fresh ideas are being replaced by templates, originality replaced with predictability and heart-felt messages replaced by words you know your best friend cannot put together… no thought, no imagination, just lazy thinkers trying to impress by capitalizing on sketchy plagiarism laws. But where/when do we draw the line?
A Familiar Fear of Change
Didn’t we say the same thing about the Television vs Books? Online vs print? Radio vs TV? I believe that this riddle has the same answer as the debate of the world wide web… its about how we CHOOSE to use it. As we enter this new era, let’s make the conscious decision to use Ai to enhance our thinking, gain ideas and make positive changes to our environments. As we enter this new domain with global political uncertainty, a looming threat of nuclear war, its scary to think that we might be living the plot of The Terminator franchise.
The fact’s… Ai is here, we cannot stand in the way of progress, even if we know that we are bound to pay a hefty price for it down the line. Like TV, like the internet, everything in moderation and to be used responsibly, we have to first understand the complexities of these advancements and then lean to navigate them.
A Closing Reflection
In the words of Bob Dylan “…Come mothers and fathers, Throughout the land, And don’t criticize, What you can’t understand, Your sons and your daughters, Are beyond your command…”
