Serendipity

In sum, no amount of analysis, criticism, cynicism, and politicking can change the often-overlooked reality which surrounds both the meaning of life and life in general which William James highlighted in “The Varieties of Religious Experience”: “Whatever of value, interest, or meaning our respective worlds may appear endued with are thus pure gifts of the spectator’s mind. The passion of love is the most familiar and extreme example of this fact. If it comes, it comes; if it does not come, no process of reasoning can force it.”

Not to mention the comprehensive and transformative effect of love when it does miraculously and serendipitously come, for it largely comes out of nowhere, out of the blue, and often when you least expect it. As James added: “Yet it transforms the value of the creature loved as utterly as the sunrise transforms Mont Blanc from a corpse-like gray to a rosy enchantment; and it sets the whole world to a new tune for the love and gives a new issue to his life. So with fear, with indignation, jealousy, ambition, worship. If they are there, life changes. And whether they shall be there or not depends almost always upon non-logical, often on organic conditions.”

And as mentioned before, despite the blatant and obvious changes to our physical and social world as a result of AI and global warming – which one must note will be the two most important and significant challenges and issues that international society will have to cope with in the years to come – the basics and the fundamentals about life and its general meaning have not changed. Yet, there is a basic economic and social concept which even AI cannot escape, and that is the fact that even though AI will loom larger over international society than any other issue down the road, the thing to keep in mind is that between human beings and AI, there will always be comparative advantages. Human beings will always have the ability to acquire a kind of “Generalized Intelligence” which AI will not possess, whereas AI will have a kind of computing, processing, and storing capacity that a human being might not have. 

And is AI really a “threat” as some megalomaniacal and sensationalist tech leaders have been suggesting in recent days? I would argue that these individuals such as Elon Musk and Bill Gates are a bigger threat to humanity than AI, given their egos and personalities and given the wealth and power they wield. There is no need to be fearful or paranoid regarding AI itself, but there is cause for fearing and being paranoid about the egos and personalities who will manage AI. Ultimately, AI can serve as a partner or a tool for the actualization and fulfillment of mankind’s basic aspirations and potential, namely, the perfection and progress of the overall human condition. And even if there is a threat which AI might pose, that threat can be diminished if human beings cultivate and develop an ethos, etiquette, and ultimately a culture in terms of dealing with AI as it evolves over the years. Thus, AI automatically prompts a complementary and parallel track with itself, namely, life-long and universal education, given that both tracks are tailored towards the achievement and realization of the basic goal of perfection and progress of the overall human condition through the course of time.