Human Being vs. Human Becoming
In the age of AI, what does it mean to BE a human? What does it take to BECOME a human?
“A human is not a being. He is a becoming. He is an ongoing process. Nothing is fixed. What is human is not an established state; it is a possibility.”
When I started to have a critical eye on existing and emerging AI technologies, I almost became a Luddite. I thought that it is impossible to keep pace with moonshot innovations, because the continuous maturity of AI would make me totally lose my self as it knows me better than I know myself. I was extremely concerned with privacy, free will, and consciousness. As AI demands data from all individuals, will privacy be obliterated? What will happen to free will in making choices? Can intelligent AI become conscious too? If not, will it still make better decisions than humans?
I resonated with McLuhan when he had an initial reaction of hating machinery and abominating cities. He once equated the Industrial Revolution with original sin and the mass media with the Fall. He rejected almost every element of modern life in favor of a Rousseauvian utopianism; however, he soon ceased to be a moralist and surrendered to becoming a student. It really starts with accepting things as they currently are.
My perspective has also broadened when I integrated spirituality to the field of new media and digital culture.
In a conversation with the Global Foresight Advisory Council, Peachie Dioquino-Valera claims that we are not separated from our technologies. AI technologies are not better than us; in fact, AI can stand for Amplified "I" (singular first-person pronoun in the subjective case). She is not just viewing The Fourth and Fifth Industrial Revolutions through the lens of Digital Transformation, IoT, Blockchain, and whatnot; she is calling for an understanding of our humanity that is not separate from our external reality: a shift from "ego" to "eco."
Human beings do not exist outside nature. We are not separate from the world. We do not stand at the apex of creation; we are, in fact, stewards. We cannot manipulate the planet; we must serve it. We are not "gods" who know it all; we shall stop the narcissism of becoming too preoccupied about whether AI can surpass us.
We are in the constant process of becoming. In the process of rethinking the way we are taking care of the planet, we must also learn how to co-create and co-exist with AI technologies.
Evaluating AI cannot just be through a simple Turing test. Why do we measure the intelligence of a machine through The Imitation Game? Why is the basis of a strong AI only dependent on its capability to trick its users that it is a real human being? Will we always be narcissistic to put ourselves as the "best standard" on this planet?
AI has its own intelligence. Once it matures, it will be a humbling experience for us, humans; we will have no choice but to learn how to become "with" the world.
In AI 2041, Kai-Fu Lee opines "AI's mind is different from the human mind… What's important is that we develop useful applications suitable for AI and seek to find human-AI symbiosis." Human intelligence will always excel at creativity, empathy, and dexterity whereas AI intelligence will be good at automation, pattern recognition, and rapid analysis of multiple variables. Each has its own expertise; why do we always reflect on which form of intelligence is superior like it is a zero-sum game? A plausible future sees social and creative tasks being supervised by humans, and routine and asocial tasks being handled by AI. Neither is more intelligent than the other.
By 2050, UNESCO even has a visionary declaration of not using education "as a vehicle for human exceptionalism." Teaching is recognized as more-than-human and collective. The pedagogical focus is on being "in" and "with" the world. It has been recognized that "we cannot do it alone. It is time for learning to become with the world in which we are already inextricably entangled and embedded and to which we will be always mortally indebted."
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