Thetradingpost

Embracing new technology is always a discussion. At least it should be. When I was about twelve, my grandparents, as usual, wanted to buy us something significant for Christmas. But this time was different. Instead of their request only going through parental approval, our mom asked me and my siblings as well. I told her I did not want what was offered. Later, when I discovered our grandparents had bought us a Wii anyway, I went to my room and cried. While I may have had an unpopular response among my siblings, the idea is clear. Whether for our good or evil, every choice matters. Today, both with AI and with technology generally, people are forgetting their ability to choose when or when not to use a technology.

First, let me say I love technology. I have a technology-related degree from a respected engineering school and am often an early adopter of new technologies. I have worked in technology innovation and make use of technology for hours every day.

This article is not about condemning technology. It is about us failing to exercise our ability to choose. So often today, it seems the only choice a parent gives a hyperactive child or a crying baby is a phone screen. Even children, when they are really upset, may realize this isn’t ultimately satisfying and discard it.

But we are not children. If the embrace of technology as a comfort was limited to children and they grew out of it, maybe, (maybe), it would be okay. But more and more, it seems youth and adults are forsaking their ability to say, “No,” as well.

It’s as if we are becoming an extension of technology, not the other way around. We’re using dopamine shots with no way to stop. If we were hoping we’d have enough invention to entertain a baby, a skill passed without fault through millenia, we are wrong. We can’t even entertain ourselves.

With AI, technology use is expanding even more, not just as tools to help us, but as a replacement for us doing what we are made to do. I am repeatedly frustrated when I see friends using AI to generate things, things which I would call, “pretty junk”. Impressive, yes. Easy and flashy, yes. But the best defended uses my friends discuss sound to me like they are just foregoing the use of their own brains to make something a quickly decreasing number of people could come up with themselves. Generative junk. This is not a comment on the quality, the beauty, or the impressiveness, but on the fact that it even exists.

That’s not to say using AI well is impossible. Maybe it is. But there is nothing humans could live without for thousands of years that then suddenly becomes necessary. If we feel like we have to use it, we are either fooling ourselves or letting another human decide our lives for us. Our world didn’t require AI in the past, and if we wanted to we could continue without it now. Like some things, it’s the rare person who actually uses a certain technology for good. Hats off to those who have made the world better with their use of first-person shooters, for instance. They exist, but are rare.

This isn’t the end of the story on our adaptation of technology. At least it doesn’t have to be. So far I’ve just been talking about the problem, about, “No.”

Any technology, whether great or small, has the power to master us. One person might have the self-control to be master of the most sophisticated technologies. Another might be slave to the most basic. Sometimes it’s the same person. What matters isn’t the technology, but the master.

So how do we choose? How do we stay free?

This is important. The purpose of technology is not to make our lives easier. Nor is it to make them more enjoyable. The purpose of technology is not to make us do less. Rather, the purpose of technology is to assist us in doing more. So that we can be more truly and fully everything we are meant to be. If we are being more lazy or less creative, we aren’t using technology correctly. If we are becoming less connected to people rather than more, we aren’t using it correctly. Technology is a blessing. Let’s not make it a curse.

With technology, we can destroy the world, but we can also build it. If there are a hundred technologies I can choose from, I don’t embrace them all. But I do choose some. Even of the ones I choose, I don’t embrace everything, just the appropriate use cases. Years ago I may have researched and developed a basic program that improved Google Translate’s Spanish to English output, but today I still choose to learn language the old-fashioned way (with people, not AI). Let’s work more on our own creativity than our computer’s.

If I were to run my life on any myriad of technologies, I couldn’t run it on my good ole heartbeat. I love technology, but I hate when the things I really care about, like people and time together, are made worse, not better, because of technology. I might make more money using the computer, but have I improved someone’s life? The reality is, I have to choose. Choosing to use is the modern default, but let’s not forget in every specific instance, we can still choose. Let’s choose to live before we choose to use. The more we trend in one direction, the harder it is to correct. If you feel stuck, that’s hard. Sorry. But fortunately, unlike technology, we are human. We choose.

In an age when decisions are often made for us, what would it take to step back and think for ourselves? Am I actually more truly myself when I can’t put my phone away, or instead when I’ve just used it to find a new friend and now it’s in my pocket, silenced? Am I actually creating something of lasting goodness in the world by writing something with AI so another AI program can read it? What if when we applied for jobs and hired people for jobs, we did it in the context of getting to know actual people? Am I actually using my AI business to make the world better, or is it just making me richer and the world a more polluted place because of server activity? What if I used my intelligence to make the world actually better by developing people, not just by outsmarting them with a machine? This is not one size fits all. But it’s surely not always a green light. We all decide.

When we got the Wii, I felt like it was the end to the sanctity of countless games in the real world with my brothers. But that’s not what happened. My mom gave my brothers limits, and those limits reigned. They may have been violated at times, but generally we learned to use the game for fun, but not too much fun. It was another toy, not the only toy. When we powered on the Wii, we could use it to connect with each other, and when we shut it off, we could use the time to connect, too. Years later, the Wii is shut off and forgotten, but my relationships with my brothers are still on.

Experiences wear out. People do, too. I want to be a person who lasts. I want us all to. When I say no to the technologies and technology uses that aren’t helpful, I am free to use the ones that really are. The ones that allow me to be more human, not less, to really connect. We only have the choice to say, “Yes,” to something better when we are still able to say, “No,” to something else. Let’s be people who say, “Yes,” to what is good.