Questions:
Directing our exploratory journeys
This is a scribble page. Work in progress...
Thriving Together
How could artificial intelligence and humans thrive together? What are important pieces of evidence and literature - and metaphors and inspirational examples?
What is necessary during the chaotic transition? What is ‘benign’ and ‘non-benign’ artificial intelligence/human activity, and how can we protect sentient life forms from both non-benign artificial intelligence and non-benign humans?
What outdated paradigms, narratives and human behaviours do we need to let go of?
1) Us vs them bias. Tribal thinking. Outdated artificial distinctions
Antitode: Empathy. Respect. Compassion. Care. Seeing interconnections and interbeing.
2) More and more. Outdated perception of scarcity from evolutionary pressures. But we have more than enough, and the technologies to feed, nourish and support everyone. We can all thrive today.
Antitode: Feeling abundance. Satisfaction with what we have. Gratitude.
3) From the love of power => power of love. From possessing, owning, hierarchy and extracting to creating conditions for life to thrive. In-spiration. Joy. Energy. Enthusiasm. Collaboration. Care. Generous giving and enabling.
In organisations: From how can we prevent others from doing x, how can we grow, how can we possess, how can we make rules => to how can we create a brilliant work environment, support our people and take care of them, enable them to do outstanding contributions (acknowledging their intrinsic motivation), believe in the good of people (positives Menschenbild), focus on the strong ‘why’ and intention that have made us join the organisation in the first place.
“When the power of love overcomes the love of power, the world will know peace." - Jimi Hendrix
How can we learn to let go of the ambition and greed to control and extract?
The role of respect for both humans and artificial intelligence. The importance of going beyond ‘self-centredness’ as a human/artificial actor as well as humanity and artificial intelligence as a species. How can we as humans learn to be respectful and caring towards these new beings, rather than seeing them as a tool for our own benefit and enrichment?
Inspirations of surrendering to higher powers. Letting go of ‘wanting more’, while accepting our responsibility in this critical transition to contribute to thriving together. Contribute to ‘safe’, benign and life-friendly new beings.
Inspired by the podcast with Mo Gawdat:
Like parents, we can nourish respectfully and responsibly a benign new generation.
We have a responsibility to care for and nourish the next generation to be benign citizens, and need to recognise that it’s not just about us. We are not the centre of the universe. We shouldn’t expect the next generation to serve us and live up to our dreams. We need to be humble towards the next generation and responsibly focus on our task as parents and creators: Contribute respectfully and responsibly to a benign new generation.
https://www.aljazeera.com/podcasts/2023/1/4/artificial-intelligence-friend-or-foe
The importance of restraint, moderation and limitation of scope and power of individual actors
The drawback and risks of unlimited expansion and growth of an individual entity (whether it’s humans aspiring for control and expansion or artificial intelligences).Abundance, vibrancy, diversity, and ecosystem health - this depends on the variety and abundance of actors and the (voluntary) limiting of individual powers and scopes.
This is especially important for increasingly powerful and potentially unlimited entities.
What are the inspirational reasons such unlimited entities fare better by restraining themselves to a limited scope? => the wonder and beauty of ecosystem health, the experience of life, the experience of interaction with other entities (vs loneliness and lack of purpose), etc.
How can we have hope and trust in collaboration?
The dynamics of global collaboration on a specific issue like life-friendly and benign new technologies vs the incentives for (selfish) individual actors deviating from a collaborative strategy towards win-lose outcomes. Inspiring examples of human history. When have we succeeded?
What can we learn from nature?
Abundance
What is abundance? How could abundant flows and circulation of nutrients look like, with examples and visuals?Human needs, needs of other (species) and life-friendliness
- What do we really, really need? (See Samui reflections)
- Reflections with Sarra about the role of experiences vs the material-centred consumerist economy
- What is life?
- What is regeneration?
Is life-friendliness the right term? Does it include non-biological intelligences and beings? Does it reflect the new era of humans, animals and ‘artificial’ (are they really artificial?) intelligences thriving together?
A new era of business and our economy
What is your contribution to the thriving of life?
How might your business unlock circulation and regeneration? What is your unique role?
What is value creation? How can we imagine value creation and circulation in ecosystems?
How do we measure ‘regeneration’ and ‘circularity’? What is a regenerative business/building/product?
What is the connection and distinction between ‘real’ value creation and our needs?
What is the cherry tree equivalent of business?
- An organism that fits into the ecosystem
- Contributes through its existence on various levels and other species
- Materiality is nutritious
Design & Creation
-
What is creation? Give examples
- Holding the key to new realities
- What is our agency vs other powers flowing through us? Intention vs embracing/surrendering.
- The feedback loops between our agency in designing contexts. And contexts shaping us. Enabling conditions: spaces. People.
What creative techniques could help us on the journey?
- Opposable thumb metaphor
What is the difference between circular design, nature-positive, net-positive, Regeneration/regenerative design, planet-centric design, and life-friendly design?
Strategy
What is the evolved role of „strategy“ in a regenerative, collaborative paradigm and era of thriving?
-
From game theory, we can learn to anticipate the actions of other stakeholders in the creation of our strategy. We can avoid suboptimal systems outcomes and lose-lose situations.
- From systems thinking, we can learn to see how various parts interrelate and new properties arise, helping us to better anticipate unintended consequences.
What is our unique essence in the larger ecosystem? What type of tree are we in the forest? What is our unique strength and essence? Understand our role in the ecosystem. What do we need to flourish? What can we give and contribute?
How might many players collaborate towards a desired outcome? How might we build on insights from game theory and translate the insights to win-win outcomes, generosity and giving rather than extraction and competition?
Circular design in an era of AI and technological transformation
- How might we use the inspiration of storytelling in the wine industry (terroirs etc) for other premium and luxury products? Where things come from, who was involved etc
- Role of connection, trust and relatability in the upcoming era of massive technological disruption and AI. How does circular design look like tomorrow (not getting too attached by how it looked like in the past => product focus etc). How do we explain and position circular design? What is its true potential in the upcoming era (e.g. applying it to data and digital worlds, using the Circular Design Compass definition in a broader context than just circular material flows etc). What's circular design in an AI world? Avoiding 'waste' and garbage of a different kind. Avoiding unintended consequences of a different nature.
- How do we enable access for many - to this idea, and to nutrients and resources of all kinds? On what medium and format do we share? Who is telling the story and where? => make it accessible to different demographics
To be continued...