The Future is Happening

There is a lot of conversation around artificial intelligence these days. It was once thought that art making or creativity in general was something that AI could not emulate, something uniquely human. Sure, it could solve technical problems with speed, but a drawing or music? That was the domain of the creative human. However, the work coming from projects like DALL•E and others begs to differ. Even robots have the ability to dance.

With the amount of innovation (a lot) and the rate of it (very quick), we are finding ourselves in a new world. Notably not on the precipice of, but in. The technology is here, available for use, and people are using it.

We are in the future

I remember watching the 2002 movie Minority Report in the theaters. The Spielberg film was an interesting imagination of what the not-so-distant future might look like. The thing I remember most about the film is creative team’s intentional collaboration with real life futurists to create the world the film would take place in. Actual ideas that were being tinkered with in labs in real life made it into the film. These included self driving cars, novel non-lethal weapons, the pervasive use of biometrics for security and personal advertising, and a legal system that attempted to prevent crime by arresting perpetrators before they did anything. It’s amazing to see how many of these ideas have since come to be a reality.

We live in a world that generally loves new things. Retailers come out with new product every season. Car manufacturers update their vehicles every 2-3 years. Even people change their jobs more regularly now than before. Of course, there are underlying reasons that may explored for each of the phenomena, but the phenomena remains. Change happens more frequently today, in very real ways.

A Different Paradigm

I was presenting a talk at the Chapel at Yale Divinity School when I was asked about what I thought about innovation. I responded, to the surprise of the audience, that I didn’t think innovation was inherently good. I still don’t. This disposition sets me against many in the technology and arts world. The disruptors of industry and culture feel like the most noble thing someone can do is find a place where industry or culture has remained the same for a long time and disrupt it – design, present, even impose a change – because innovation itself is good. Notably, I don’t think innovation is inherently evil, either. This disposition sets me against the traditionalists that strive for sameness in the face of change. They fight the momentum, battle for “values,” and often end up embittered, for the sake of standing up for something, because anything new, itself, is evil.

Instead of holding an inherent value for innovation, and by extension change, I have an axiom that I like to use when confronting a proposition of change. It has helped me to focus on what I think is the more important thing – that is, people. It is simply this:

It is a variation on the Butterfly effect, a way of expressing the interconnected nature of all things. However, it is not so much an existential idea (although it is also that), as much as a physical reality. My sense of myself is brought into clear relief in the way I interact with my surroundings and other people. Even deeper, my understanding of who I am is illuminated by how I interact with the challenges and dreams, and thoughts and emotions, that make up my inner life. The old idea that we should love our neighbor as ourselves reflects the truth of our relational context and honors both the relationship we have with ourselves and the one we have with others.

Relationship is even a requirement for transformation. Curt Thompson, in his recent book, Anatomy of the Soul, shares the recent discovery in neurobiology that fundamental transformation only occurs when one brain meets another. Everything happens in the context of relationship.

Some Shifts

This axiom presses against other deeply held beliefs. Our ideas of the preeminence of individualism, or the inherent goodness or evil of innovation, for example, may begin to loosen and shift.

The idea of individualism must stand in relief of the fact that every individual lives in relationship to themselves and their surroundings (including the people in their surroundings). Of course, some people lead more isolated lives than others. Notably, solitude as a spiritual discipline has had a history of being used to amplify certain relationships (to the self or to God) by minimizing others, rather than minimizing relationship altogether. People are also affected differently by the relationships they are in – some are highly affected by the words, emotions, and actions of others, while others are not. Regardless of how we live and relate or are affected by our relationships, the idea that any person is an island, somehow disconnected from the things and people around them (even themselves) is not true. Much to the contrary.

Secondly, the idea of innovation as somehow inherently good or evil must stand in relief to the potential ramifications of that innovation to the relationships it will affect. In the documentary, The Social Dilemma, a former product designer for Facebook described the proposition of culling and selling user data for the sake of generating advertising dollars as the most beautiful solution to the business model problem Facebook was facing. In isolation, that is within the walls of Facebook now Meta, Inc., the beauty of the solution may be true. However, thought of in relationship to larger dynamics – how that solution translates into desired user actions, incentives, and Facebook’s design, the way people will engage with their devices, relate to each other on the platform, and relate to media in general on account of their experience on the platform, for example – the solution may be judged differently. The value of every innovation, whether it is good or not, is measured not by the innovation itself, but rather its affect on the relationships it intersects.

Lastly, as we work through such ideas, how we see the world begins to hold a more prominent place. The ideas we hold here are what mediate our relationships. Do we believe that the strong should dominate the weak? Or do we believe that those that have (strength, provision, position), should be willing and ready to serve those that don’t have? Do we believe that you should use everything you have to get what you want? Or do we believe that everything that you have is a gift to be used for the sake of propagating a community of love? With these kinds of questions (all designed to bring to light deeply held beliefs) we can begin to see how what we believe will mediate our relationship to ourselves, our families and communities, our work and industries, even our environment. Without thoughtful inquiry into our own views, we will continue along, habituated as it were to ideas that are hidden within ourselves, but that we are acting upon. Ideas that may not lead to the goodness we say we want. Ideas that elevate innovation to the position of a virtue, for instance.

Everything is Possible

In the world of oral traditions things move slowly. They do so on purpose, on account of their deep connection to the life blood of a community, its identity. The communities that engage in oral traditions as a key element of individual and communal formation recognize the fragility of life – their own sense of who they are individually and together – and hold their traditions’ role in that formation tightly. If these communities are right, it is not difficult to see why the traditions are slow to change. Even as an environment may change, how often will the values of a people – the ideas that mediate how they relate – need to change? This, especially if these values have come to be over years of interaction with members of the community within themselves, between each other, and with the environment around them.

Then again, change can and often should be initiated, but the change must be weighed. It should come on account of its exceptional goodness. There should be a possibility of something better than what is currently being experienced, within an acknowledgement of reality. After all, how many of us have heard a proposition that we deem to be too good to be true? No, change that requires a death to the old ways (and all change does this), must offer a way that is better – in the transcendent sense, more good than evil, more true to reality, and more beautiful and inspiring – than the experience of life that is currently being had.

This is the continual rub. Without a tested frame for goodness, truth, or beauty in the transcendent sense, we will be poor judges of the propositions we encounter on a daily basis – and there are many. Every statement we encounter sits in front of a particular view of what is good, true, and beautiful. Whether from ourselves, a friend, stranger, advertiser, designer, celebrity, or news anchor we sift through a multitude of statements. This commentary on reality is made and received through a lens of perception that includes our own ideas of how the world is, and how we think the world should be. It is the primary lens through which we judge other’s statements and make our own. This lens becomes exceptionally important to explore.

To bring us back to the initial thought that began this note – AI’s recent ascension – I like the words of Paul documented in his letter to a group of Corinthians. In attempting to affect the formation of a group he has been communicating with, he offers the following framework for how to think through the power and responsibility that comes with freedom – essentially the idea of choice. He says,

“I have the right to do anything,” you say—but not everything is beneficial.
“I have the right to do anything"—but not everything is constructive.

Beneficial to who you may ask? Beneficial to all those who may be affected by the choice. Constructive in what way? Constructive towards the formation of the individuals and communities in which the choices are being made. Can you imagine a world in which choices at every level of society are made with this frame? With a clear idea of what is beneficial and constructive? With thoughtful consideration of all those affected? Can you imagine the output of such a world? Even taken from where we are – this is no magic wand – can you imagine how the world, even your own world, may begin to change?

Imagine the slow pace of life that would accommodate such thoughtfulness. Imagine the quality of relationship that would be required to think about the benefit and constructiveness of a particular choice for others. Imagine the response from others when they realize they have been thought of when a choice was being made. Even further, imagine a world in which others are brought into the choice making process. Imagine a place where their requests are respected, even honored, even when they aren’t able to be met.

Now that is a future I would want to work towards, and live in.