Thank you for this Lexi - I wasn't aware of Jacques Ellul's work. I think Neil Postman developed this idea later on with the Technological Society. Gibran of course is always an inspiration.
I think some of our fear of AI is rooted in this 'robotization'. We are afraid of being replaced by better robots because we have lost the sense of our own humanity.
Our World Philosophy Day talk this year was exactly about that - I wrote an approximate transcript in my own Substack:
Thank you. If efficiency leads to demeaning humans there's always another way of looking at things. Let's be efficient yet remember that we have a soul. Efficiency does not have to be vilified in the quest of restoring the dignity of humans. Efficiency is what gets things done. But when we give due place to efficiency while at the same time recognizing every person's achievement no matter how small human dignity is not compromised. And when we acknowledge the least we can easily give due credit to the best on the basis of his efficiency. No one loses and everyone is happy. Thank you, Alexandra
Thanks, Lexi, for once again illuminating our world through the minds of great thinkers. This topic made me recall a great Ted Talk by Iain McGilchrist, an expert on left- and right-brained thinking. The left brain is more "technological"--detail-oriented and narrow--while the right brain thinks more broadly and intuitively. The right brain is supposed to be the "master" of the left brain, according to McGilchrist--but in our technological society, left-brained thinking is taking over and leading us astray. McGilchrist's paradigm seems like just a slightly different angle on what you've said in this post. Here's the Ted Talk: https://youtu.be/DiPrM0DNI8w?si=j_9xNi0lw_8hsRcD
Thank you for this Lexi - I wasn't aware of Jacques Ellul's work. I think Neil Postman developed this idea later on with the Technological Society. Gibran of course is always an inspiration.
I think some of our fear of AI is rooted in this 'robotization'. We are afraid of being replaced by better robots because we have lost the sense of our own humanity.
Our World Philosophy Day talk this year was exactly about that - I wrote an approximate transcript in my own Substack:
https://artistoflife.substack.com/p/being-human-in-an-artificial-age
Cheers
Gilad
Efficiency should have a soul
Curious what you mean by this, Orville. Say more!
Thank you. If efficiency leads to demeaning humans there's always another way of looking at things. Let's be efficient yet remember that we have a soul. Efficiency does not have to be vilified in the quest of restoring the dignity of humans. Efficiency is what gets things done. But when we give due place to efficiency while at the same time recognizing every person's achievement no matter how small human dignity is not compromised. And when we acknowledge the least we can easily give due credit to the best on the basis of his efficiency. No one loses and everyone is happy. Thank you, Alexandra
Thanks, Lexi, for once again illuminating our world through the minds of great thinkers. This topic made me recall a great Ted Talk by Iain McGilchrist, an expert on left- and right-brained thinking. The left brain is more "technological"--detail-oriented and narrow--while the right brain thinks more broadly and intuitively. The right brain is supposed to be the "master" of the left brain, according to McGilchrist--but in our technological society, left-brained thinking is taking over and leading us astray. McGilchrist's paradigm seems like just a slightly different angle on what you've said in this post. Here's the Ted Talk: https://youtu.be/DiPrM0DNI8w?si=j_9xNi0lw_8hsRcD
Happy New Year, Lexi!
Here are some related thoughts from me, about how technology threatens to lessen our humanity, inspired by the ideas of Renaissance humanism.
The two pieces go well together!
https://davidfideler.substack.com/p/how-losing-our-humanity-came-to-haunt-the-modern-mind
Thanks for reading and for sharing, David! Thankful for your important work.