If AI is ultimately capable of doing everything we as humans are capable of doing, does this increase or decrease the meaning of the things we choose to do?
It increases the meaning, because we choose to do it despite AI and robots capable of doing the same thing for no cost. It increases it, because we will do whatever we will still be doing out of inner inspiration and deep purpose.
The fear that AI will create a meaning crisis would mean that AI can ‘take away our meaning’, but meaning is not the result of outer validation or economic value. Meaning arrives when we unite what our heart is longing for – our inner calling or ‘purpose’ – and start acting on it with clear intention. Meaning is when we do something for the sake of doing it, not for the sake of accomplishing it.
If technology allows us to accomplish without doing, it creates a vacuum. This vacuum is neutral. It is neither good nor bad, it simply exposes us. It reveals whether we were living an authentic life from inner purpose – or one that was shaped by external forces. How we will react to this vacuum is going to be everything. Either you numb this vacuum with endless stimulation. Or you move beyond it. Moving beyond the vacuum means starting to live. It means rediscovering action as a creative expression of love. We will start creating for the sake of inspiration, exploring for the sake of curiosity, caring for the sake of love. We will stop doing something because the world demands it, and we will start doing things because something in us demands it from us.
Technology that is capable of doing what we are capable of doing is not the threat, the threat is technology designed to replace living: technology that is designed to capture our attention at any time, to manipulate our reward systems, technology designed to fill any silent moment of our life. And this technology is not coming, but already in our hands. And perhaps the real crisis is that many humans do not yet know what they would be doing without necessity forcing them and technology distracting them.
Leave a Reply