I just watched a short video on Youtube where a man had a "discussion" with ChatGPT about, essentially, how to keep AI from overtaking our lives. ChatGPT suggested that people should "do the hard thing." Write the first draft themselves. Take the less optimal path. Stop correcting and feeding AI, because when we do those things, the quicker it will replace us. It said AI is sold to us as a convenience, but the goal of it is compliance, complacency, acquiescence. Mediocrity. (my words. I can't recall the exact ones, but that's the gist). It summarized by saying the system's route is the path of least resistance. Don't walk it.
This rang true to me, to tell the truth. AI may be developing rapidly, but it's human choice to use it. If it replaces us, it's because employers choose to let it. Because consumers support it with their purchasing power or by giving it attention.
That phrase "Don't walk it" excites me. I seem to be all about resistance these days. I want to live differently, authentically. Up close and personal, with my hands in the middle of it. To weave, to sew, to garden, to have tactile experiences, to grow food and cook it, to walk instead of drive, to let technology into my life only so far and not past that. It just feels better to me, lighter, happier. I think it's important to see the tangible produce of your own hands, to have a part (even if just a small one) in providing the essentials for your life. A nicely-woven towel or a hand-carved wooden crochet hook gives me so much more pleasure than purchased plastic or random 1s and 0s on a computer. I want to revive the Arts and Crafts movement, the Slow Food movement.
I guess it's what Thoreau had in mind when he said he wanted to live life deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life. It's to peel things down to the basic core, with nothing extraneous, to get to the real value inherent in them. If, as he says, the price of anything is the amount of life you exchange for it, then the slow-crafted things are of great value.
This year is going to be about seeking light, fresh air, and authenticity. To let go of the goals and just focus on a joyful journey.
