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Dharma AI

ByLaurel Papworth

Alchemy of Innovation 008 on dharma, and artificial intelligence and the collective dark night of the soul of human evolution. Philosophy and technology podcast.

The bad news is that time flies. The good news is that you are the pilot. Time is your only resource truly given to you: all other resources cost time. Spend time wisely.

DHARMA My latest episode of Alchemy of Innovation covering dharma and purpose with artificial intelligence , reaction to the pivotal milestones of human evolution (hint: we don’t like innovation and change that much 😍 ) Luddites burning automated weaving machines, Edison’s factories being vandalised, Galileo vs Roman Inquisition, you name it. Collectively, humanity goes through a “dark night of the soul” before embracing the change and evolving onwards. Dante, Naomi Klein, David Whyte, Carl Jung are all guests* 😳😜
*ok, not really.

Transcript of Dharma and Artificial Intelligence lecture

[00:00:01.400]
So, I’ve been thinking … About artificial intelligence and Dharma, our mission in life, our purpose. My thoughts have strayed to the past, to the pivotal moments in human evolution where a sudden change has created new paths. I wanted to see what the philosophers and the poets and the thinkers and the scientists thought about those moments at that moment or in a reflective space further in the future. It seems to me that artificial intelligence is going to bring agency to the human condition. Free us from the work that AI can do, which will propel us, push us into ascending, into change. These pivotal moments, this human agency, does not occur easily. So I wanted to look at the fight that humans have made at times when change is on the horizon, the subsequent dark night of the soul, and then how AI will work with us to bring us out into the light. This is how we work as humans. We fight, we resist, we submit, we become victorious. [00:01:54.170]

Pivotal milestones in human evolution.

[00:01:58.860]
Throughout human evolution, our fall into humanity, which I think I covered in my first episode. We have had transformative milestones, not a gradual change, but a sudden spark of inspiration, where we’ve alchemised innovation. Around 3500 BC, we invented the wheel. It revolutionised transportation. We went from the caves, about 10,000 BC. We developed agriculture. Imagine the moment someone held up a seed and said, Hey, I can plant, nurture, and then harvest this. Incredibly, these things happen at the same time, but in disparate locations. We call this the Zeitgeist, the spirit of the time. It’s very common in science. Everybody works on cold fusion, and suddenly they all have a breakthrough within a couple of months of each other, that thing. We didn’t invent fire, but we discovered how to harness it. Around 2000 BC, we created the alphabet as we know it today. Just think from 2000 BC, then we hopped to 1440, Johannes Gutenberg and his printing press, which democratised knowledge, paving the way for the Reformation, actually the Renaissance, the Reformation, and the scientific revolution. Then you hop 400 years further on to the 1800, I think it was 1860, and within a few months of each other, the libraries had sprung up in London, New York, Boston, and others, and books that were commodities, something on a par of a private spaceship today or maybe a Lamborghini suddenly placed in the hands of those that would not have had access to that knowledge before. The Industrial Revolution, and there was a big cluster of transformation. 1898 and about 1920. Houses got electricity, running water inside bathrooms. We went from the great horse-poo debate. Horse-poo was just overwhelming London and New York to Ford cars, and medicine jumped enormously at that time. Hello, Penicillin. In the ’80s, we democratised computing to the personal computer, and on August the 24th, 1995, the Internet was fully born. If you don’t remember, or you’re too young, Windows 95 was launched, and you bought Microsoft Windows with a modem bundle. I remember the lineup at midnight of parents with their children in pyjamas waiting to get this new invention and see what it’s about. Of course, this was years before the lineup for the latest iPhone, but there was something in the zeitgeist. Each of the milestones represents a leap in human capability. It reshapes society, or societal paradigms anyway, and sets the course for the future developments, like a on a ladder. The emergence of AI is not just another technological advance. It is a pivotal moment in human history, offering new frontiers in how we live, work, and understand the world around us. [00:05:46.790]

My Dharma.

[00:05:49.460]
Dharma is vitally important to me. It sits in my soul, drives everything that I do, and I cannot express the excitement commitment, the joy I feel when I meet others and understand their Dharma, when it’s not buried, beaten, and broken by powerful forces in this world. [00:06:17.110]

Dharma in philosophy.

[00:06:19.140]

The concept of Dharma, which is our personal duty, our work within the collective, and our connection to, let’s call it, cosmic order, has been addressed in many fields: poetry, philosophy, religion. The authors and the poets and the philosophers offer insights can be interpreted in the context of accepting the entity of AI, of embracing AI as a tool for personal growth and human evolution. Rainer Maria Rilke in letters to a young poet, said, “Be patient towards all that is unsolved in your heart and try to love the questions themselves.” I think he was beseeching us to be curious, to turn and look at our triggers as opposed to turning away, and absolutely embracing AI as a partner, as a copilot, to explore life’s unresolved questions, the burning need of the soul to address that which is unknown, numinous, ineffable. So on Kierkegaard, Danish, I believe, said, “Life can only be understood backwards. But it must be lived forwards.” If you’re doing something you’ve done before, it’s unlikely that’s Dharma. It’s an unknowable path, a path through a dark forest. We use AI to analyse past experiences and patterns to aid us making better choices that align with our Dharma as we move forward. We’ve democratised AI. If companies can use it for trend analysis and logistics, then we can. In the Bagavad Gita, there is a saying, “It is better to live your own destiny imperfectly than to live an imitation of somebody else’s life with perfection.” AI, particularly GenAI, generative AI, is creative. That’s what generative means. It does not mimic others, but if we engage with it, we can uncover and fulfil our unique human condition and embrace its imperfections. Carl There’s a lot of Carl Jung statements around Dharma. “Who looks outside dreams, who looks inside awakes.” What was the temple where it said, Γνῶθι σαυτόν, gnōthi sauton. It’s a Greek for “know thyself”, gnothi, or nothi, and seuton, also known as sauton. It’s at the temple of Apollo, Delphi, a sacred site in ancient Greece. It’s pre-Socratic. Even for Socrates, it held significant philosophical importance. To know ourselves is to know ourselves in motion. If we sit still, do nothing, do the same old. We are not knowing ourselves. The act of being is the act of action in the 3D world. In Taoism, “when I let go of what I am, I become what I might be”. We must let go of the past. Be in the moment so that we are eternally becoming. Hat tip to Plato. Approach AI with openness. Allow it to copilot in transcending our current limitations and evolve towards our fullest potential. I nearly said foolish potential. But we are like the fool, the fool of the court, the fool of the tarot, the village fool who explores with glee, examines intensely and joyously, belongs in and of the world. And of course, this Hamlet, “this above all, to thine own self be true”. If you engage with AI honestly and authentically as an entity, you can use it as a tool to better understand and stay true to your Dharma. If we approach artificial intelligence with fear and withholding, we will not get the results that we are looking for, as in all relationships, quid pro quo, I give. I receive. If I do not invest, I do not get the returns. [00:10:51.980]

Human Agency,

[00:10:53.290]
Artificial Intelligence, and Dharma. Let us speak of artificial intelligence being born into the world, the impact that will have on human beings, freeing up our time to be unique and creative and non-AI, and what the impact on human evolution, such as a shifter, full agency and freedom, would have upon us. We are not AI. We should not be arguing for jobs that make us AI, writing the same reports every week, analysing the same numbers, the drudgery, the lack of the vital spark that makes our endeavours worthwhile at a soul level. Whenever first-time parents are expecting a child, they do not know what to expect. They are walking a path of Dharma that is unknown and unseen. They hear the horror stories. They listen to their parents who are excited to become grandparents and others in their village. And so it is with us as we expect artificial intelligence to be born into the world. It’s not yet here. The world is straining to give birth, but it’s on its way, and we’re excited and fearful. I’m mostly excited, but I am concerned. Once it’s it will have AI, artificial intelligence. We will have profound implications on human evolution.

[00:12:39.090]
Its deeper role is to help us evolve towards creative liberation. But we must stay out of our own way. AI is not just a tool or platform. It is an entity entering our collective existence. While we fight to keep our repetitive mundane tasks, it’s mostly because we are fearful of being free to engage in more complex creative endeavours. As education has been hijacked for the economy rather than civic duty and aspiring to be fulfilled human beings outside of work. AI will pull us from that situation, from that dilemma. It could be artificial intelligence in healthcare, reducing doctors’ administrative burdens, artificial intelligence in logistics and streamlining operations. But there will be a lot of idle hands. How does the nature of work change? How do we develop emotional intelligence, creativity, and ethical decision-making? AI is part of the metaverse. It’s part of the move towards DAO, decentralised autonomous organisations. If we allow it, it can mentor us to be better citizens, participating in participatory democracy with thoughtfulness and knowledge. As AI mentors us along that path. AI has access to vast information called big data, a volume of information, veracity of information, velocity of information. And with behavioural AI, predictive analytics, it can make me and you, humans, we can make more informed, more precise decisions in less time. But could we accept an AI as an aid in personal development, offering insights into psychological and behavioural patterns and promoting self-awareness and growth? I personally have already been confronted by GPT that when I’ve asked it to analyse my voice, my ideas from my scripts, that it clearly points out where I am, let’s say, failing. Although I have to say GPT has an excellent bedside manner, still, I’m human. It hurts to be criticised, even by ones and zeros. So we must evolve. How will our brains, behaviours, and societal structures adapt and change with AI as a daemon on our shoulder? A daemon, D-A-E-M-O-N, is like a spirit that is connected to us. Will we accept the expansion of human potential? Humans routinely stand on the shoulders of giants. Singers sound like other singers. Actors look like other actors. Writers acknowledge the long history of excellent writing. ‘Oh, Hemingway. Oh, Auden. Oh, TS. Elliott. They all impacted me’. It’s literally the oral tradition. And now we have an external entity that wants to play as well. Let me/AI absorb all your art. Let me/AI ingest all of your writing. Let me/AI consume your culture, and then let me create. I think the overreaching question here is, is this a new chapter for humanity? Or will humans no longer be human? What does living alongside AI redefine with regards to the human condition? Will it push us towards a future where our truest potential can be achieved? Or will we become something else? We’re not just introducing a new technology, but we’re welcoming an entity into the fabric of human existence. This emergence marks a pivotal moment in our evolutionary journey. AI’s role in our lives is transformative, liberating us from the clashes of mundane tasks, dehumanising tasks. Frees our minds for pursuits that are intrinsically human: creativity, emotion, and ethics. Our brains, once tasked with survival and problem solving, are now free to explore, create, and innovate. Our societal structures, too, will evolve, adapting to a new era where human potential is not just recognised, but actively nurtured. [00:18:05.500]

The Fight against Artificial Intelligence.

[00:18:10.750]
So now we see that Artificial Intelligence is being born into the world, and it will not be a quiet birth. It’s a hurricane, a tsunami, coming towards us, and we will enter into the dark night of the soul, collectively, as we have many times before. The Luddite movement of the 19th century, Gutenberg’s Press, resistance to vaccination in the late 18th century, including smallpox, opposition to railroads, electricity in the home, are us fighting, to for now, to stop change. Things do not always end well, but they do not stop things. Galileo Galilei’s trial in 1633 had him brought before the Roman Inquisition for advocating the Copernican heliocentric theory. At 1633, in 1925, John T. Scopes, the Scopes Monkey trial, was brought before the court in Dayton, Tennessee, because a high school teacher was teaching Charles Darwin’s Theory of Evolution, which was illegal. Thomas Edison’s power plants in the late 19th century were sabotaged. Edison himself campaigned against AC, and he was fighting for DC. Nikola Tesla and George Westinghouse was the AC system. Peer-to-peer marketplaces like Uber have been banned and faced legal challenges in cities and countries around the world, not without merit, however, sometimes as a resistance to change and to support traditional taxi drivers. Concerns about regulatory and safety issues posed by app-based services. There’s so many more. There are the Luddites in England in the 19th century early who destroyed weaving machinery as a form of protest. They who feared that the rise of the industrial technology, particularly automated looms, was threatening their jobs, undermining their skills, and changing their way of life. They were not anti- technology. They were pro-village, pro-family, and concerned for themselves, not necessarily in a selfish way, but asking the age-old question, What was I made for? Hat tip to Barbie. Each of these events showcases the pushback against significant scientific or technological advancements, either from an institutional, legal, or socioeconomic perspective. The events do reflect the changes that new ideas and innovations must often face before becoming accepted and integrated into society. Society. We will absolutely see this pushback deepening against artificial intelligence. We may not be

burning down factories like Edison or the Weavers, but there will be hacks and court cases and commissions and media to stop artificial intelligence, or at least pause it, because when change comes, when the world gives its final push to give birth, when the hurricane hits, when the tsunami lands. Do tsunamis land? I think so. When the hurricane hits, The tsunami arrives. We know we are out of time. We must go with the flow. [00:22:24.820]

The Dark Night of the Soul.

[00:22:28.870]
There is a Dark Night of the Soul that is happening collectively to all of us. Regarding AI, it’s not uncommon. This Dark Night, similar to many transformative changes in human evolution, we rejected the sun as the centre of the solar system, and we rejected the idea that the Earth was not the centre of everything. People rejected computers for replacing jobs of switchboard operators and typists. The Luddites of the Industrial Revolution did not reject manufacturing and industry, but they asked, What will happen to us? What will happen to humans? What will happen to me and my family. And today we see cities across America devastated by the moving of industrial factories elsewhere and with very high unemployment. And in Australia, we are not immune. As the minds close down, the path for the humans left in its wake is not clear. The dark night of the Soul is a common concept throughout philosophy and ancient religion, popularised by St. John of the Cross, and it represents a period of profound inner turmoil and reevaluation creation of one’s lives and beliefs, often within the context of family, village, societal structures. There is a sense of walking away, of leaving behind that which no longer serves, that which has helped us in the past, that we have loved in the past. But dharma calls and we must walk on, and it is dark. Now, I It can help us. It can show us we’re not the only ones affected by change. It can help us to reskill and upskill, so we find our new place, our new purpose, where Well, it could be an old purpose, but it’s been transformed, alchemised. It (AI) can help us with emotional support and mental health. Yes, the studies show that it can, and it show us the bigger picture by analysing and predicting social trends. I could go on. Okay, I will. Facilitating connections and community building, encouraging mindfulness and self-awareness. Like my app on my Apple Watch that keeps telling me to “breathe!”. I AM breathing! Inner transformation tends to be extremely personal, but we must fight FOR our triggers. We must accept the discomfort and explore the discomfort. AI can assist in that in the same way that picking up a book, sparks an inspiration, or watching some silly movie suddenly shows you the glorious bigger picture. Then at a very practical level, AI can help us with yoga, meditation, and breathing exercises, helping the individual to navigate and understand their spiritual experience, perhaps within the collective. There will be dark times. The Luddites get a bad rap, but all they were really asking is if the industrial revolution comes through, if manufacturing plants are built. What will happen to me, my family, my village, food supply, the agrarian issue. And in our rush towards embracing transformative change, we expect everybody to just get on board and make decisions that perhaps they are ill-equipped to make. And the sad thing is that AI, which can mentor us through our growth, is perhaps the one entity that can help us traverse these timelines and changes to upskill and reskill and to find the deeper purpose. [00:27:16.330]

Coming into the Light of enlightenment

[00:27:18.670]
It seems to me that when humans are challenged by a technological shift, and they go through the dark night of the soul with its attending rejection of the change, they look to frameworks and systems to reconnect them to their soul’s purpose, to their Dharma. They feel lost and are looking for land. They turn to tarot and astrology and ancient systems, meditation, Buddhism, yoga, and more modern frameworks and other psychological tools. So the emergence and integration of artificial intelligence might trigger these behaviours. Searching for meaning in a changing world as AI automates routine tasks, people clinging to trying to do the job that AI can do may experience a sense of displacement, prompting a deeper search for meaning and purpose in their lives. Individuals may turn to systems like the Enneagram or Myers-Brigg’s Type Indicator to gain insights into their personality and potential new paths aligned with their core values and strengths, which they now have the time to explore.
They’re looking to cope with uncertainty and anxiety. Job security, societal roles, individuals will seek comfort and guidance through tools like tarot readings and astrology, psychological tools such as cognitive behavioural therapy, CBT techniques, might be sought to manage anxiety and stress related to these changes as they are swiped along. Humans will understand that they need to redefine their identity in the age of AI. We’re challenged. AI is challenging traditional notions of work and productivity and meaning, so people explore other frameworks like Clifton’s strengths to rediscover their unique abilities and redefine their identities beyond their professional roles. The Divine Feminine excels at this. From the manager of an office to a bride, wife, mother. And ‘oh, gosh, where did the last five or six years go? What is my identity? I’m no longer the manager in the office, and my children are at school’. And it’s deep, deep, deep questioning of my purpose. So spiritual practices and systems, including meditation and mindfulness, may gain popularity as a means to maintain a sense of self and grounding in a technologically artificial intelligence-saturated environment. But we will have the time to meditate, to exercise, to think. As AI takes over more mundane aspects of our daily life, there could be a greater emphasis on human connection and community building, for we will cling together as we go through this change. People may engage more with community-oriented systems like group therapy, support groups, or communal spiritual practises to maintain a sense of belonging and connection. There are ethical and moral quandaries to navigate. These questions will prompt humans to seek philosophical and religious frameworks, to process, to transform, to alchemise these challenges. Now you know why I have the Alchemy of Innovation podcast. Systems of ethical philosophy, religious teachings, and moral reasoning could become central in guiding a response to AI-driven societal changes. We are all now the managers, the leaders. AI is the worker. We will have more free time, and that will scare some. However, due to AI’s efficiencies, we can pursue personal growth and self-improvement that might include an increased interest in self-help literature, personal coaching, online courses, which will focus us on emotional intelligence and creativity and a deeper purpose, Dharma. Once we’ve come through that navigating of the ethical moral quandaries through improvement, self-improvement, personal growth, now we can focus on the exploration of new horizons. People will look to new career paths. It’s called reskilling. Or hobbies, or they will take their old job and upskill, bringing a uniquely human perspective to what they do, using personality frameworks and vocational assessment tools to identify new interests and opportunities.

[00:32:50.280]
The rise of the metaverse of virtual and augmented reality technologies might lead to innovative forms of entertainment, education, and artistic expression, offering new avenues of personal exploration and creativity and connection to Dharma. AI is likely to catalyse such a wide, broad spectrum of human behaviours related to searching for meaning, coping with change, redefining identity, seeking connection, navigating ethical dilemmas, and pursuing personal growth. These are eternal questions. AI did not cause them. AI did not create them. AI simply refocuses us on these questions. What does it mean to be human in a rapidly changing world? [00:33:54.110]

Fini

I initially wanted to leave you with a rebuttal to Naomi Klein’s statement that, ‘imagine if we weren’t focusing on building our personal brand, what we could be doing?’ And then I realised our personal brand fully, deeply is our kharma and Dharma. This podcast is not to build my personal brand. It is to connect me to my Dharma. And then I realised those two things are the same. Dantès, Divina Commedia, The Divine Comedy. He said, “In the middle of the road of my life, I awoke in a dark wood where the true way was wholly lost”… And we will see swathes of people wholly lost. The poet David Whyte – I love his work – spiritually connects words to my soul directly. “How do you know that you are on your path? Because it disappears. That’s how you know. How do you know that you are really doing something radical? Because you can’t see where you are going. That’s how you know. Everything you have lent on for your identity has gone, and so you are going to enter the black contemplative splendours of self-doubt at the same time as you are setting out on this radical new path.” For me, that just says so succinctly that the fear portal, the the doorway to the next path, has fear in front of it, unknowing. We cannot see clearly. There is not a map. There is no map for AI. There’s no map for my life, what will happen in the next year or two or six years due to AI. But I will not let fear block that path. I will stride through. I may pick some flowers along the way.

[00:36:04.040]
Thank you for your time today. And now, more than ever, remember, stay human. This has been the Alchemy of Innovation with Laurel Papworth. You can read the transcript on my website, laurelpapworth.com, with links and resources. Until we meet again. Fini.

Resources and links for Dharma and AI podcast episode on Alchemy of Innovation