In relation to AI, there seems to be a belief in a translation of: Data --> Information --> Facts --> Knowledge --> Wisdom --> Right-Action. All these steps require a different aspect of overall cognition (which includes Intuition, Imagination, Inspiration, Personal Experience, Tacit-Knowledge etc). So perhaps this indicates the need to encourage the Arts as a way of strengthening overall intelligence as the use of AI increases. A kind of counter-balance.
Excellent point Joshua - absolutely we should be encouraging the arts. I notice an uptick of visitors to museums in my home city (confirmed by the head of the national gallery) - next is to promote it in education and lifelong learning. Not just art, but creative writing, poetry, music, so called 'cultural' activities'.
Excellent essay, Colin, thank you! Through the analogy with the 'final days of Rome' and the essential question "What happens when augmentation becomes atrophy?" you are turning the spotlight away from the bedazzlement with AI and the perennial deafening battle-cry 'technology is progress', towards real natural functions of the human intellect.
A couple of thoughts I'd like to add: the calculator is not 'just a tool'. It has already contributed to the atrophy of the human 'muscle of calculation'. I belong to the generation of humans who still learned to do multiplication and division in our heads, without a calculator. During a recent project where we helped a young couple put up a wooden cabin, I was able to quickly calculate numbers of boards in relation to distance in my head. The 'youngsters' (in their 30s) looked at me bewildered, pulled out their phones, found that my calculations were correct and stared at me in disbelief, as if I was wielding a magic wand... 😅 😰
I agree with you that when basic maths skills are already considered a human 'super power', we must ask the question, what is AI going to do to our 'critical thinking muscle'?
Another couple of things I'd like to add
~ 1st the role of emotional manipulation in this arena, where AI and technology are the current superstars, is often overlooked, or quietly ignored.
~ 2nd having just read this article by Ted Gioia: How we lost the Flow, https://substack.com/home/post/p-147534464 He reminds us of how 'appistocracy is stealing our creativity'....
This makes me think, what if it's not just critical thinking? What if it's also about being in command of emotional self-regulation [independently of virtual carrots in the form of fake promises and temptations dangled in front of surgically enhanced noses] plus the loss of our native potential of true innovation, the stealing of our inherent creative gifts... ???
Thank YOU Veronika. I was traveling last week and delighted when my daughter used her 'calculating skills' in her head on several occassions. It is unfortunate that many lose that skill. I try as much as I can to encourage it - maybe your example will empower others too, although that is wistful thinking on my behalf.
The point that you make about emotional self-regulation is very important, and often overlooked. People move into a state of anxiety with AI responses and readily accept them - this destroys the creative element of human potential. Thank you for reminding me about this. I have some old research I must dust-off and update as it I feel it is crucially important to help AI users understand what they are giving up.
As always Colin, I could restack several statements from your thoughts here, and still they would not convey how this post is made to make us think. And therein is the whole point- this thinking you want us to do. I reread, and sometimes even to make an outline of your points before I ponder how they interplay with my own knowledge, and what practical outcomes can be gained. Doing this takes processing time; it's work. Work that I enjoy. But, I've noted with my students, a lack of interest in doing this. Far easier to ask Ai to summarize and point out how it works with other known material, rather ponder it themselves . We know the brain consumes the most energy and how our bodies seek to conserve energy, hence the seduction to outsource it. But, it has been detrimental to human physical and emotional health as machines have taken over movement. A simple example of that is raking the autumn leaves, done while enjoying the autumn air, and quietly engaging with the natural elements, all while moving one's body. That holistic is missing with leaf blowers. Even more so will wholistic engagement be missing when we allow ourselves to be seduced into believing that knowledge and understanding can be gained without the cognitive effort required to achieve it.
Thank you - I am truly grateful for your feedback and insights. You are absolutely right that it takes effort to really grapple with new concepts and integrate them with our existing knowledge. It's not always easy, but as you said, it can be incredibly rewarding. While AI can be a powerful tool for learning and understanding, it's crucial that we don't let it replace our own cognitive efforts.
What a brilliant analogy about raking leaves. It perfectly captures the idea that sometimes the process of engaging with something directly, even if it's more effortful, can lead to a deeper and more meaningful experience. Doug Hofstadter once pointed me to analogies as the key to intelligence. He said something like true knowledge and understanding come from actively engaging with ideas, questioning assumptions, and making connections. Which is exactly what your analogy shows. Gosh, I will use that with students!
Analogies and metaphors are ubiquitous in our everyday language, even if they can be flawed , as I'm sure you know. What I appreciate about well-done ones is how it will take one away from the reasoning framing only to reframe the ideas into more of a holistic thought form. While pondering in that form, often enough the assumptions about the concepts become clearer, and understanding often reaches an "ah ha" moment. Great metaphors to foster that holistic transition can be challenging to create, but I've been working through a couple on these regarding the AI paradigm shift . How about you? Perhaps your students could brainstorm on them?
You are absolutely right, they can be very challenging to create but are extremely useful in helping to bring clarity to understanding. I spent some time asking pi.ai and chatGPT for some specific metaphors and analogies about a year ago, maybe 8 or 10 hours in conversation, but nothing that came out of that was especially 'outstanding'.
I also read through Metaphors to Live by and Surfaces and Essences for thoughts, but now is a great time to revisit this with students - great idea. I'll do with and without AI over several sessions.
I've also read both books. I reread Metaphors we live by about a year ago. Interesting that your experience with an Ai helping to create them was an unfruitful as mine. I found that it tended to recreate cliches in order to create outlandish ones that had zero relevance. I'd be interested in hearing what the students come up with, as I think that using metaphors to highlight issues around AI would be beneficial.
Michael Easter et aliud have well documented how this has already played out in the physical realm. The modern world and its conveniences have allowed many of our physical capabilities to atrophy. Stop taking the stairs and you stop being able to climb them. Stop lifting and carrying heavy things and you stop being able to pick them up. Elderly people who stop getting down on the floor and getting back up lose the ability to do so. The result is falls resulting in hip breakages, and complications leading to death.
The more we allow convenience to remove effort, the more our bodies break down. Our brains, being part of the body, would logically work the same way.
You can do what you make yourself do, and you stop being able to do what you stop doing.
Very good point Peter, thank you. I remember watching a Peter Attia podcast and reading about " The result is falls resulting in hip breakages, and complications leading to death." In Australia they instigated weight training for seniors. Also think of the beds in Japanese households - older people naturally get up from them.
This is so well expressed "The more we allow convenience to remove effort, the more our bodies break down. Our brains, being part of the body, would logically work the same way." I advocate a healthy body and mind consistently.
Fantastic post, Colin. It wonderfully articulates and evidences my nagging concerns about the potential future intangible costs of the 'progress' promised by the 'efficiency' of GenAI. Thank you.
Joshua mentioned the idea of "counter-balance" in a comment, and that feels right. I'd argue the concern with AI is not so much that it does the thinking, but that it does it within a velocity-oriented context.
Using the productivity gains of AI to "pay for" slowing down in other areas allows for two benefits:
1. More time inspecting AI outputs. With code, I'll routinely encounter workable-but-still-wrong suggestions that require me to push back on the AI's solution. If I'm just rushing, I'll blindly ignore these missteps, which will be problematic in the future.
2. More time pursuing "slow" virtues. Actively cultivating intellectual capabilities, like making time for deep reading, learning a mental skill (without AI), or cultivating a mindfulness habit, can ensure that the usage of AI doesn't reduce overall quality of thought (and can even enhance it).
In order to keep AI as a super-tool, and not a footgun against rationality, we have to intentionally balance it within a portfolio of different activities. Unfortunately, I don't really see that happening...
Your comment gave me a lot of food for thought Justin, which is why I noodled on it longer. I really like the way you've framed this in terms of 'counter-balance.' It's not about rejecting AI altogether, but about finding ways to integrate it thoughtfully into our lives. I completely agree that taking the time to critically evaluate AI outputs is essential. And cultivating those 'slow' virtues, like deep reading and mindfulness, can help us maintain a balanced and thoughtful approach to life in an AI-driven world - we absolutely need this counter balance.
The portfolio approach you've described is a great way to think about it. By intentionally balancing AI with other activities that promote critical thinking and well-being, we can ensure that AI remains a tool that enhances our lives rather than diminishes them.
We are not seeing enough of this intentional balancing happening, but I try to encourage it - in my view we become more anxious with the speed of AI answers, and that anxiety leads to overconfidence in the response and not taking the time to review it carefully.
As a professor this biggest challenge is how to do this. Every task can simply be turned over to AI, and I don't know how to design assignments that cultivate thinking without the students falling back on Al. And they all think it's just a calculator
In relation to AI, there seems to be a belief in a translation of: Data --> Information --> Facts --> Knowledge --> Wisdom --> Right-Action. All these steps require a different aspect of overall cognition (which includes Intuition, Imagination, Inspiration, Personal Experience, Tacit-Knowledge etc). So perhaps this indicates the need to encourage the Arts as a way of strengthening overall intelligence as the use of AI increases. A kind of counter-balance.
Excellent point Joshua - absolutely we should be encouraging the arts. I notice an uptick of visitors to museums in my home city (confirmed by the head of the national gallery) - next is to promote it in education and lifelong learning. Not just art, but creative writing, poetry, music, so called 'cultural' activities'.
https://onepercentrule.substack.com/p/the-importance-of-art-and-play
Excellent essay, Colin, thank you! Through the analogy with the 'final days of Rome' and the essential question "What happens when augmentation becomes atrophy?" you are turning the spotlight away from the bedazzlement with AI and the perennial deafening battle-cry 'technology is progress', towards real natural functions of the human intellect.
A couple of thoughts I'd like to add: the calculator is not 'just a tool'. It has already contributed to the atrophy of the human 'muscle of calculation'. I belong to the generation of humans who still learned to do multiplication and division in our heads, without a calculator. During a recent project where we helped a young couple put up a wooden cabin, I was able to quickly calculate numbers of boards in relation to distance in my head. The 'youngsters' (in their 30s) looked at me bewildered, pulled out their phones, found that my calculations were correct and stared at me in disbelief, as if I was wielding a magic wand... 😅 😰
I agree with you that when basic maths skills are already considered a human 'super power', we must ask the question, what is AI going to do to our 'critical thinking muscle'?
Another couple of things I'd like to add
~ 1st the role of emotional manipulation in this arena, where AI and technology are the current superstars, is often overlooked, or quietly ignored.
~ 2nd having just read this article by Ted Gioia: How we lost the Flow, https://substack.com/home/post/p-147534464 He reminds us of how 'appistocracy is stealing our creativity'....
This makes me think, what if it's not just critical thinking? What if it's also about being in command of emotional self-regulation [independently of virtual carrots in the form of fake promises and temptations dangled in front of surgically enhanced noses] plus the loss of our native potential of true innovation, the stealing of our inherent creative gifts... ???
Thank YOU Veronika. I was traveling last week and delighted when my daughter used her 'calculating skills' in her head on several occassions. It is unfortunate that many lose that skill. I try as much as I can to encourage it - maybe your example will empower others too, although that is wistful thinking on my behalf.
The point that you make about emotional self-regulation is very important, and often overlooked. People move into a state of anxiety with AI responses and readily accept them - this destroys the creative element of human potential. Thank you for reminding me about this. I have some old research I must dust-off and update as it I feel it is crucially important to help AI users understand what they are giving up.
As always Colin, I could restack several statements from your thoughts here, and still they would not convey how this post is made to make us think. And therein is the whole point- this thinking you want us to do. I reread, and sometimes even to make an outline of your points before I ponder how they interplay with my own knowledge, and what practical outcomes can be gained. Doing this takes processing time; it's work. Work that I enjoy. But, I've noted with my students, a lack of interest in doing this. Far easier to ask Ai to summarize and point out how it works with other known material, rather ponder it themselves . We know the brain consumes the most energy and how our bodies seek to conserve energy, hence the seduction to outsource it. But, it has been detrimental to human physical and emotional health as machines have taken over movement. A simple example of that is raking the autumn leaves, done while enjoying the autumn air, and quietly engaging with the natural elements, all while moving one's body. That holistic is missing with leaf blowers. Even more so will wholistic engagement be missing when we allow ourselves to be seduced into believing that knowledge and understanding can be gained without the cognitive effort required to achieve it.
Thank you - I am truly grateful for your feedback and insights. You are absolutely right that it takes effort to really grapple with new concepts and integrate them with our existing knowledge. It's not always easy, but as you said, it can be incredibly rewarding. While AI can be a powerful tool for learning and understanding, it's crucial that we don't let it replace our own cognitive efforts.
What a brilliant analogy about raking leaves. It perfectly captures the idea that sometimes the process of engaging with something directly, even if it's more effortful, can lead to a deeper and more meaningful experience. Doug Hofstadter once pointed me to analogies as the key to intelligence. He said something like true knowledge and understanding come from actively engaging with ideas, questioning assumptions, and making connections. Which is exactly what your analogy shows. Gosh, I will use that with students!
Analogies and metaphors are ubiquitous in our everyday language, even if they can be flawed , as I'm sure you know. What I appreciate about well-done ones is how it will take one away from the reasoning framing only to reframe the ideas into more of a holistic thought form. While pondering in that form, often enough the assumptions about the concepts become clearer, and understanding often reaches an "ah ha" moment. Great metaphors to foster that holistic transition can be challenging to create, but I've been working through a couple on these regarding the AI paradigm shift . How about you? Perhaps your students could brainstorm on them?
You are absolutely right, they can be very challenging to create but are extremely useful in helping to bring clarity to understanding. I spent some time asking pi.ai and chatGPT for some specific metaphors and analogies about a year ago, maybe 8 or 10 hours in conversation, but nothing that came out of that was especially 'outstanding'.
I also read through Metaphors to Live by and Surfaces and Essences for thoughts, but now is a great time to revisit this with students - great idea. I'll do with and without AI over several sessions.
I've also read both books. I reread Metaphors we live by about a year ago. Interesting that your experience with an Ai helping to create them was an unfruitful as mine. I found that it tended to recreate cliches in order to create outlandish ones that had zero relevance. I'd be interested in hearing what the students come up with, as I think that using metaphors to highlight issues around AI would be beneficial.
I will share them :-) and write a post.
Michael Easter et aliud have well documented how this has already played out in the physical realm. The modern world and its conveniences have allowed many of our physical capabilities to atrophy. Stop taking the stairs and you stop being able to climb them. Stop lifting and carrying heavy things and you stop being able to pick them up. Elderly people who stop getting down on the floor and getting back up lose the ability to do so. The result is falls resulting in hip breakages, and complications leading to death.
The more we allow convenience to remove effort, the more our bodies break down. Our brains, being part of the body, would logically work the same way.
You can do what you make yourself do, and you stop being able to do what you stop doing.
So do. Move, think, and live.
Very good point Peter, thank you. I remember watching a Peter Attia podcast and reading about " The result is falls resulting in hip breakages, and complications leading to death." In Australia they instigated weight training for seniors. Also think of the beds in Japanese households - older people naturally get up from them.
This is so well expressed "The more we allow convenience to remove effort, the more our bodies break down. Our brains, being part of the body, would logically work the same way." I advocate a healthy body and mind consistently.
Fantastic post, Colin. It wonderfully articulates and evidences my nagging concerns about the potential future intangible costs of the 'progress' promised by the 'efficiency' of GenAI. Thank you.
Thank you Ross - I appreciate that a lot. Those nagging concerns are very much justified.
Joshua mentioned the idea of "counter-balance" in a comment, and that feels right. I'd argue the concern with AI is not so much that it does the thinking, but that it does it within a velocity-oriented context.
Using the productivity gains of AI to "pay for" slowing down in other areas allows for two benefits:
1. More time inspecting AI outputs. With code, I'll routinely encounter workable-but-still-wrong suggestions that require me to push back on the AI's solution. If I'm just rushing, I'll blindly ignore these missteps, which will be problematic in the future.
2. More time pursuing "slow" virtues. Actively cultivating intellectual capabilities, like making time for deep reading, learning a mental skill (without AI), or cultivating a mindfulness habit, can ensure that the usage of AI doesn't reduce overall quality of thought (and can even enhance it).
In order to keep AI as a super-tool, and not a footgun against rationality, we have to intentionally balance it within a portfolio of different activities. Unfortunately, I don't really see that happening...
Hi Justin - I am at the tail end of a vacation in the mountains, let me reply more thoroughly when I get back please. Colin
Have a great vacation!
Your comment gave me a lot of food for thought Justin, which is why I noodled on it longer. I really like the way you've framed this in terms of 'counter-balance.' It's not about rejecting AI altogether, but about finding ways to integrate it thoughtfully into our lives. I completely agree that taking the time to critically evaluate AI outputs is essential. And cultivating those 'slow' virtues, like deep reading and mindfulness, can help us maintain a balanced and thoughtful approach to life in an AI-driven world - we absolutely need this counter balance.
The portfolio approach you've described is a great way to think about it. By intentionally balancing AI with other activities that promote critical thinking and well-being, we can ensure that AI remains a tool that enhances our lives rather than diminishes them.
We are not seeing enough of this intentional balancing happening, but I try to encourage it - in my view we become more anxious with the speed of AI answers, and that anxiety leads to overconfidence in the response and not taking the time to review it carefully.
Great points - we need to be very mindful.
As a professor this biggest challenge is how to do this. Every task can simply be turned over to AI, and I don't know how to design assignments that cultivate thinking without the students falling back on Al. And they all think it's just a calculator