Category: Creativity

What Is Legitimate Use Of Artificial Intelligence?

There are many pros and cons in the emerging field of artificial intelligence.  How should the technology be used in the most ethical way?

The potential benefits of artificial intelligence, or AI, are enormous. In theory, it could be a tool used by people across the world to enhance their own talents and abilities.

At the same time, there also some real concerns. Transformative technology, like AI, can be incredibly disruptive. While it could add value to some human work, it may very well replace others. There could be massive job loss, leaving millions of people with no obvious prospects.

Making that problem even worse, it may be that using artificial intelligence will negatively impact the intellectual development of the next generation. Thinking skills are never fully realized, the theory goes, when entire assignments can be completed with the click of a mouse.

And then there is the environmental impact. AI agents are powered by massive data centers, which use a disproportionate amount of energy and water resources, and may well divert those same resources from human communities in regions of scarcity.

There are additional worries as well. For example, some people are already displaying an unhealthy attachment to AI chatbots. Also, how should we compensate the writers and artists whose work is used to train AI? Should the use of AI in the creative process be disclosed?

With all these concerns, there is a question of exactly how artificial intelligence can be used to minimize these concerns or risks. How can AI be incorporated into everyday life while maintaining intellectual honesty, and supporting our economy rather than destroying it?

Related questions: What do you think about artificial intelligence? Is technology neutral? What role does technology play in your life? What skills have you lost due to technology?

What Does It Mean To Be Productive?

In our society, a lot of emphasis is placed on being productive.

For example, in the economy, there are metrics for how productive the average worker is. In our private lives as well, people who feel overwhelmed with all they have to do may wonder, “How can I get more done?”

There have been many technological efforts to solve this problem. Labor-saving devices, like the dishwasher or vacuum cleaner, have been introduced as a method of doing in minutes what previously had taken hours.

Perhaps more than any other invention, the computer increased productivity. As computers have gotten faster and smaller, we can do more with them than ever before.

There is a question of how much labor these devices are actually saving, though. Despite using dozens, or even hundreds, of these, we feel busier than ever. They haven’t saved labor, really, but allowed more labor, of various kinds, to get done. They have allowed us to be more efficient.

Is that productivity, then? Being more efficient with our time and other resources?

Being the most efficient, however, is not always the best way to get the most done. Some people, for example, meditate regularly. Benefits to meditation vary from person to person, but often it allows calm, ordered thoughts. Which in turn allows for greater concentration, which can lead to getting more done. Sitting and being completely unproductive can lead to greater productivity later on.

Creativity is similar — letting your mind wander can help you to see things in a new way. But “letting your mind wander” is not obviously productive.

So what, exactly, is productivity? And can we increase it without exhausting our nervous system?

Related questions: How can we be more productive? Are we too busy? What do you think about when your mind is not preoccupied?

What Have You Started That Didn’t Exist Before?

A plan, a business, a drawing, a person: what have you started that didn’t exist? When have you made something new?

Creation is a funny thing. Often, you start with nothing — a blank page, for example. And then an idea comes, you put that idea down on the page, and suddenly something exists that didn’t exist before. It’s like magic! You created something from nothing, conjured something from thin air.

Another example seems almost miraculous, but in fact is incredibly common: the act of giving birth. A man and a woman, together, create an entire human being who didn’t exist before. While the resulting baby can’t do much on their own at first, eventually they are a self-sufficient adult. It’s the way of the world, but it doesn’t make it any less remarkable.

Intellectual Roundtable is another example. Back in 2016 it started as a simple idea, and after some fine-tuning and some back and forth between Michael and me, in 2017 we debuted our first question, Why do we like what we like? Before we had the idea, registered the domain name, rented some server space, thought of some questions, and then published the first one, Intellectual Roundtable simply didn’t exist. Now, years later, not only does it exist, we’ve published more than 1300 distinct questions.

Indeed, the world is full of things — chairs, books, songs, spatulas, equations — that someone had to think up and turn into something to share with other humans. None of those things existed before, at least not in their current form.

So what about you? What is an example of something that you made, that you brought into being from nothingness? It might be something as simple as a doodle, or as complicated as a building. Because of you, what exists that didn’t exist before?

Related questions: Where do shared ideas exist? Create or consume? What art do you make?

 

How Do You Support Others?

Helping to support people in need is one of the most fundamental of human traits. How might you go about it?

Supporting others is something we are called upon to do at various times in our lives.

From a strictly transactional point of view, it makes sense to do this. After all, there will no doubt be times in your own life when you will need to rely on others. To make sure that help is there when you need it, it makes sense to provide your own support when you are able.

It’s also true that helping others simply feels good. Even when it might be difficult or cause some hardship for you, the happiness or relief that you might bring to someone going through a difficult time can be worth it.

Moreover, you probably want the best for your friends and loved ones. You want to ease their struggle, if you can. Not because you expect something in return, but you want someone you love to have a better life.

So assisting in providing a framework to assist people makes sense. How might you do that?

It might be difficult to provide a simple answer. After all, the ways in which people need support can vary almost infinitely. It might be difficult to list all possibilities.

One way to help is to imagine you were in their shoes. What kind of support would you need in that situation? Is that something you can do, or you can mobilize others to do? You might also ask what help is needed, if you’re unsure.

Can you think of other ways? Are you attuned to who in your orbit needs your support?

Related questions: How can you help? When have you asked for help? What are our responsibilities to others?

What Is Efficiency?

The word “efficiency” has seen an increase in use lately. But what exactly is it, and is it always a good thing?

While the term efficiency has been in the news recently, it is hardly a new phenomenon. When you were a student, you may have been encouraged to study more efficiently. At work, you may have been praised for being efficient as an employee.

The general idea is that you should get from point A to point B in as few steps as possible. If you can do it in, say, three steps, then doing in five steps is less desirable. Steps 4 and 5, then, are wasteful and unnecessary. Three steps is optimal, the most efficient route.

Of course, this is an overly simplified example, and real life tends to be more more complicated.

For example, let’s pretend that the project can be done in three steps, but you are more likely to make mistakes than if you were to do it in five. If you need to do the entire project over again regularly, then is three steps really more efficient than five?

Some endeavors are independent from the normal rules of efficiency. Let’s consider creative or artistic expressions. Is it possible or even desirable to write a poem more efficiently? Can creativity be regulated in some way? When brainstorming, might it not be more helpful to think in unconventional ways, even if they happen to be conventionally inefficient?

In other cases, a certain amount of inefficiency is fundamental to the process. In science, it is regularly impossible to predict how an experiment will unfold. A scientist might have to try dozens or even hundreds of approaches to problem solving before finding the right one. Each invalid attempt is not a waste, as it may very well illuminate a rule or behavior that was previously unknown, which obviously has value.

Doing things quickly is the right thing to do in some cases. But not all. Can you think of examples from your life where being inefficient was better? And if so, isn’t that approach more efficient after all?

Related questions: What is the value of inefficiency? How can we be more productive? What is waste?