You ought to be having the time of your lives...
Stillness offers perspective on whatever else might be going on in our lives.
I was about to write something provocative about AI. You know, about the looming youth unemployment crisis, or maybe what to do about it. Or, maybe about the virgin PFAS, forever chemicals, that all the new AI data centres will require. After all, these are real problems (and fear and outrage drive clicks and subscriptions).
But at this moment I’m on a meditation retreat, having written this post the night before leaving three days ago.
It’s led by meditation teacher Burgs. You might have heard a song called Burgs by Mt Wolf because it racked up nearly 10 million streams on Spotify alone, so probably several times that across all platforms.
It’s exquisitely beautiful once you start actually listening, because Burgs means what he says.
Having spent a decade attending meditation retreats, I’m quite convinced that to understand AI, our relationship with it and its impact on us, we need to know what it’s like to be without it.
It’s not just about spending a week or whatever without your smartphone in silence and meditation. It’s about something deeper. As Burgs says in this track,
Our mind is so messy
We don't keep it simple
And we end up making the life that we are living so inordinately complicated
Completely unnecessarily, and it's such a shame to end up feeling in a real muddle
When actually, you ought to be having the time of your lives
AI is powerful. AI is going to change everything. I know; I’m working nearly daily to understand it and use it in my best interests. But then how can I know what my best interests are if I’m constantly talking to AI, probably feeling FOMO because some imaginary others are using AI 10 times more productively than I do?
That’s when I notice that my mind is so messy and I don’t keep it simple. That my life is more complicated than it needs to be — completely unnecessarily. And I — and you — ought to be having the time of our lives.
I know it’s not always possible. I personally know at least two subscribers who are affected by the genocide in Gaza and several affected by the war in Ukraine; I’m sure there are many more. And there is plenty of other unnecessary suffering other than wars.
We can’t and shouldn’t meditate away some of the very real and practical challenges. Plus, sometimes slowing down and leaning into our experience brings us face to face with more suffering than we can bear. The point is not to bypass the pain but to feel it more clearly.
And yet, retreating into the stillness of the meditation practice allows us to find the perspective on both unimaginable suffering and on the role of technology and our relationship to it. Silence and stillness opens up a new perspective on these topics.
So nothing provocative about AI this week. But if you’re in a mood for something provocative, check this out:
