What Will We Do For Meaning In The Age Of A.I.?

The Question of Meaning

I was at a talk the other day, and a question came from the audience: “What will we do for meaning in the age of AI?”

I’d never been asked that question before, but what came out of me was: “Do you think you have meaning right now? Do you think that the education that you’ve gotten, the system that you had to follow, the position you have at your work at the moment, is your meaning?”

It might be something for you to do, but truth be told, it’s really not your meaning.

The System We Were Shaped By

At school, we were never really celebrated for our curiosity, our purpose, or our genius. We were celebrated for fitting into the system. And I don’t think it was a malicious process. It was the best that we could do for the time.

From Agriculture to Industry

If you think about it in the agricultural era, we didn’t have any of the sort of needs for intelligence or process-driven thinking.

We were just there to be obedient to our forefathers, understand the seasons, work the fields, add value to our community, our family, and our village.

That was kind of it. When that got sort of replaced by the Industrial Revolution, we became these intelligent beings, and this intelligence that we had to start to formulate in order to be able to fit into the system gave us a sense of purpose, but truly it wasn’t meaningful in any terms.

How Will AI Impact Human Meaning?

As AI starts to take away all the rudimentary, process-driven things we have found meaning in, I think, for the very first time, we will begin to have the luxury of space to look for real meaning.

Because meaning doesn’t come from our muscles, and meaning doesn’t come from the way we think. It comes from who we are. It comes from our emotional states.

I don’t think it was a malicious process where anybody sat out there and thought, ‘ Well, how do we get people to fit into a system? ‘

The system was the extent of what we understood of ourselves as human beings to fit into that cock of a system.

Now that the system is becoming democratised, demonetised, and disrupted right before our eyes, what’s left? Our genius, our purpose, and our meaning.

The Future of Human Meaning

If you’re worried about what’s going to happen in the age of AI, realize that we aren’t exactly peaking as humans at the moment.

We have reached a level of intelligence that allows us to add value in a very specific, specialised way.

But the future will have us all be polymaths, will have us all be lateral in our creativity, expressing it in multiple ways with thousands of tools around us, AI helping us bring those ideas to fruition.

So if anything, we’re only arriving at the point of finding meaning for the very first time.

FAQ:

Q: What will we do for meaning in the age of AI?

A: As AI takes over more routine tasks, we will have the opportunity to explore our true purpose, genius, and emotional meaning as human beings, rather than just fitting into predefined systems.

Q: How has the system we were shaped by impacted our sense of meaning?

A: The systems and structures we’ve been shaped by, from education to work, have not celebrated our true curiosity, purpose, and individuality. Instead, we were rewarded for conforming and fitting into the system.

Q: How will AI change the way we find meaning as human beings?

With AI handling more rudimentary, process-driven tasks, we will have the space to truly look inward and discover our deeper meaning, which comes from our emotional states, creativity, and unique genius, not just from performing specialised functions.

Q: What is the future of human meaning in the age of AI?

A: The future will see us become more well-rounded, creative, and expressive as we leverage AI to help us find and actualise our deeper meaning.

We will transition from narrow specialisation to becoming polymaths, able to explore meaning in diverse ways.

Key Takeaways:

1. 1. The systems and structures we’ve been shaped by have not celebrated our true purpose, genius, and meaning.

2. 2. As AI takes over more rudimentary tasks, we will have the opportunity to truly explore our emotional, creative, and purposeful meaning as human beings.

3. 3. The future will see us become more well-rounded, creative, and expressive as we leverage AI to help us find and actualise our deeper meaning.

Note: This blog post is an adaptation of the transcript from the video below.