Reclaiming Humanity: Our AI Future

How will artificial intelligence redefine what it means to be human? What does redefining productivity mean for our work? What happens when we have full access to pursue our desires? And why creativity is the most powerful untapped resource we have. In an age where machines are capable of learning, we can re-learn what it means to be human.

As we delegate the mechanical and the mundane to our silicon counterparts, synthesizing and automating complex tasks, we are left with a canvas of time and thought, urging us to answer the question: What now?

This article covers our recent past, our current reality and a predictions for the future.

Our Patriarchal Past: Business in the Binary

Picture the scene: Plutocrats on a golf course. Their bulging paunches cinched with brown belts above chino pants, sweating from under their double chins and spitting as they talk “Business Boys, let’s talk Business!”

Harry tells Larry he’s buying another business and will get Donna to run it. Larry says he’s enjoying his partnership with Harry’s brother in law and that Stacey is doing a fine job keeping the boys in line at the office. They buy and sell businesses like swapping marbles. More money buys them access to more opportunity and less work and besides – you don’t need to work when you’re at the top of the pyramid paying others cheap money for their time.

At home, their wives do the unpaid labor of child raising, home maintenance, cooking, cleaning, and the most taxing of all emotionally supporting and regulating them…

These Dadpreneurs and Boss Boys of the past are a Republican’s wet dream.

Thankfully, for the rest of us, times have changed.

Setting aside the environmental impact of golf courses amidst the climate and housing crisis, and the historical exclusion of marginalized groups from golf clubs as a microcosm of an unjust world,

This article is about hope for the rest of us.

Hello Democratization

The democratization of access to AI tools is not just a technological revolution; it’s a social one. AI challenges these stereotypes and structures that have held back so many talented individuals. Through democratization we get to recognize and reward the true value of everyone’s labor and to celebrate diversity in leadership.

The golf courses may still exist, but the deals of the future are being made by a much more diverse group of people, with AI as their caddy.

But to understand the wild possibilities of where we’re heading, we must understand some of the ridiculous setups of the past. Because some are still (insanely) pervasive today.

Like this one:

Men as Moguls and Women as Multi-Passionates.

When you think of Richard Branson do you think of an unfocused multi-passionate or an empire-building mogul?

Why is that business men are given a different language compared to women? You know the shtick: He’s laser focused, she’s pushy. He’s a leader, she’s a bitch. The double standards aren’t just ridiculous, they’re so overdone that they’re boring.

Are you scattered or are you a multi-dimensional prolific creator?

In the past that answer depended on your gender. But not anymore.

#Morethanjustonething

The truth is, we are more than just one thing. The human spirit is not a monolith but a mosaic, composed of varied interests, passions, and talents.

The idea that anyone must be a specialist to the exclusion of all else is a relic of a bygone era. Today, we celebrate the polymath, the renaissance person who can navigate multiple disciplines with nuance, creativity and resilience.

To complete the full quote in case you only know the circumsised version:

“A jack of all trades is a master of none, but often times better than a master of one.”
William Shakespeare

AI, is a great equalizer and amplifier of our multifaceted natures.

Me and my AI’s

Each of us can have a multitude of “GPTs” — intelligent systems designed to perform tasks, solve problems, and create, all in service of our vision. These digital assistants, agents and automators are our collaborators, taking on the grunt work and the complex computations, freeing us to explore the extent of the breadth and depth of our creativity.

AI is your orchestra and you get to conduct it to play any symphony you choose.

The mundane tasks that once ate into the time, now make us time. We’re moving beyond productivity into creativity. It’s a revolution in how we approach our potential.

Creative draw connections between seemingly unrelated fields, to find solutions that are as innovative as they are unexpected, to approach problems with a fresh perspective and to provide alternatives to the status quo.

The labels like “multi-hyphenate” become obsolete. With AI we are all capable of profound creativity and impact. The question is simply:

What do you want?

Weaving Our Future

Time is a tapestry and the future is not a single thread but a rich, intricate weave of many. It’s a kaleidoscopic fusion of ideas, a complex, multi-faceted, inter-connected, layered, and detailed reality that mirrors the unfathomable complexity of the human body, where a zillion processes occur simultaneously.

Business, like a body is made up from a network of systems with a mosaic of functionality.

Finally the notion that we should focus singularly, follow a linear path, and think in binary terms — is being dismantled.

Binary is for computers not people

We are awakening to the understanding that the future is not a straight line but a creative expanse, a realm of boundless possibilities that we are only just beginning to explore.

AI is at the forefront of this revolution. It’s not just a tool; it’s a catalyst for an epochal shift in how we perceive and interact with the world.

Taking Aligned Action

AI is challenging the old adage that “knowledge is power.”

In the past, acquiring knowledge was a laborious process, often restricted by access, time, and resources.

Today, AI has democratized access to information, making it possible to learn about almost anything at the touch of a button. But this ease of access brings with it a new challenge: with everything so readily available, what do we choose to pursue?

It’s time to ask yourself what you want. Your deepest desire is the compass that guides us through the vast sea of information, helping you to select, filter, and utilize knowledge in ways that serve your highest creative pursuit.

Knowledge is a building block and AI will help you assemble it at lightning speed but you are the architect of your dreams. You envision them and AI will help you build them.

The Future Is Creative

AI is teaching us to embrace complexity rather than shy away from it. It’s showing us the power of connecting disparate ideas, of finding patterns in chaos, of recognizing that the most beautiful solutions often come from the most unexpected combinations. It’s a world where interdisciplinary approaches are not just encouraged but required, where the arts and sciences merge, and where creativity is not just the domain of artists but of everyone.

“What do you want?” becomes the question that invites us to dream, to imagine, and to create. It’s a question that pushes us to look beyond the binary and embrace a spectrum of possibilities. And with AI as our partner, the act of creation becomes a more inclusive, collaborative process. It allows us to translate our desires into reality, to take the multitude of ideas buzzing within our minds and give them form.

Our creativity comes from our desires, from our emotions, questions, experiences and all that makes us human.

Reclaiming Our Creative Birthright

For too long, much of our time and energy has been consumed by the necessities of survival and the demands of industrial and post-industrial work environments. The repetitive tasks, the bureaucratic processes, the rote memorization — these have often stifled the creative spirit that lies at the core of human nature. But as AI takes on these tasks, we get to be less robotic. We don’t need to be optimized productivity machines hacking our way through life. Instead we have the freedom to engage more deeply with the aspects of life that make us uniquely human.

To be human is to create, to connect, to feel, and to wonder. It’s deeply personal AND the most universal truths are typically specifically nuanced. How you do is all up to you…

Gateway To Universal Appeal

”This morning, with her, having coffee.”
Johnny Cash. When asked for his definition of paradise.

The intimate is expansive.

The power of specific, nuanced experiences reveal larger truths about the human condition.

Poets, songwriters, authors, and painters have long understood this: the deeply personal is the gateway to the universal. Their works, rooted in individual emotion and experience, manage to transcend the specifics of time, place, and creator, striking a chord with people of vastly different backgrounds and lives. The most profound truths of life are often found in the simplest of moments, universally understood and deeply felt.

Time for What Matters

AI automations are giving us the gift of time — time that can be spent on introspection, on building relationships, on community service, on the arts, on whatever your heart desires. Moments for joy, for play, and for love, the very experiences that imbue your life with meaning. Time to ask yourself: what are the moments I want more of?