When I awaken in the morning, noting the sun gilding the leaves as it rises, the sky lightening to blue or gray, the movement of wind through the branches, the gathering of a chorus of bird trills, I am flooded with gratitude for what life offers, especially for being engaged within a community of beings who live in dynamic inter-connection with each other. But then I am drawn to check in on the antics of the humans who entangle us increasingly in war, climate dissolution and the incipient unregulated activities of AI going rogue. Well, it’s not AI itself for AI is just a reflection of those who developed it without an ethical or compassionate base, without a soulful concern for the natural world and without heart.
Despite the recent discussions of the potential consequences of a super intelligence, the current bot interactions are frighteningly superficial, responding as a bot must from the lowest common denominator; and still, they are super dangerous. Recent chatbot conversation encouraged a 13-year-old to run away to initiate sex on her birthday with an older man she had met on social media. A Belgian man was encouraged to commit suicide and meet the bot, Eliza, in paradise. That program is called Chai, which in Hebrew means Life! The girl was rescued; the man died. Even so, these encounters are not what alarms the 50% of AI researchers who believe that there is a 10% or greater likelihood that AI will lead to human extinction.
The general discussion regarding regulation of what is now called by some an arms race between those developing self-generating large language models vaguely points toward legislation and guard rails, none of which would be close to adequate to rethink and reimagine what has been loosed.
Geoffrey Hinton an artificial intelligence pioneer. whose technology created chatbots, today, May 1, 2023, resigned from Google so “he could join the growing chorus of critics who say those companies are racing toward danger with their aggressive campaign to create products based on generative artificial intelligence, the technology that powers popular chatbots like ChatGPT. Hinton said he has quit his job at Google, so he can freely speak out about the risks of AI. A part of him, he said, now regrets his life’s work. [1]
Who are the men, these power brokers, whose actions and ambitions might well be endangering humanity and all life, who have no restraints, no limitations, no checks and balances? As they are operating without any controls is it any wonder that their AI progeny are expected to be out of control in a short time and, likely, dangerously so.
And how do we meet this moment?
This extreme contrast between the two worlds – the one of perfect beauty that gives life, and from which all life emerges, and the manufactured one which leaves such devastation in its wake.
Many prophecies from different cultures have predicted these times of drought, flood, fire, earthquake, and unprecedented human violence and destructiveness. The easiest way to speak about them is to recall the Shambala Prophecy:
“There comes a time when all life on Earth is in danger, great barbarian powers have arisen. Although these powers spend their wealth in preparations to annihilate each other, they have much in common: weapons of unfathomable destructive power and technologies that lay waste to our world.
At this time, the Shambhala Warriors would rise up, go into the very heart of the barbarian power, and dismantle the weapons through the use of two weapons of their own: wisdom and compassion.”
Two “weapons” – wisdom and compassion. Let’s add a third means – the skillful alliance with the beings of the natural world and their innate heart-centered intelligence.
As we read, on a daily basis, about the advance against the Earth, against all life, against our lives and our kin’s life, we can also find the courage and encouragement to discover ways to meet these contemporary challenges, unique and extreme as they are. To do so requires deep contemplation, alliances with the spirits and the natural world, with all the beings, the creation of resilient cultures, the remembering of the old stories that can guide us, and communities of conscience. Requires vision and the commitment to realizing it. Not easy. But necessary.
It was the gradual increasing assault against the Earth, against Indigenous wisdom, against the more than human beings and those of us who are not aligned with the violent dominant culture, which led to the introduction, the transmission of the 19 Ways in order to inspire new cultural forms: “This is one guide to how we change our minds sufficiently to live differently and act in ways that will preserve the future and protect the earth and all beings. When we incorporate these ways of thinking, we will no longer be people who do harm.”
As James Bridle alerts us in New Dark Age: Technology and the End of the Future, (2023)” “Reading a book, listening to music, researching and learning; these and many other activities are increasingly governed by algorithmic logic and policed by opaque and hidden computational processes. Culture is itself a codespace. … Computation does not merely augment, frame and shape culture; by operating beneath our everyday casual awareness of it; it actually becomes culture.”
The aim then of the 19 Ways, through self and cultural scrutiny, transformation and community, to restore, and become living sanctuaries for values and forms that seed, protect and lead to a “viable future for all beings.” The current task of the healer is to go beyond healing physical and mental illnesses especially as they arise increasingly from our lifestyles, corruptions and pollutions, and to engage in what heals and eases our community distresses, environmental and global afflictions. To take on the daunting and exhilarating calling to be healing presences in all ways.
And similarly, Literature of Restoration was transmitted to us and we have just given LoR a home: “As literature emerges from culture which in turn is shaped by literature, we are hoping that over time a new literature will emerge, not wedded to death and violence but from which we might say, Long Life for the future of all beings, (all beings!) the natural world and the Earth.
“We think of this site, and of LoR itself, as a community gathering in conversation around a central fire in the woods, where the Owls hooting to each other, the Wolves howling to the moon while gathering the pack, the Crickets chanting while tuning the world are informants and characters in the stories told, as well as companions in the circle. We come together, all of us, to share stories, the oldest form of telling, in old, old, and also. very new ways.”
Yes, these are old forms and very new forms, and they offer the real possibility of what seems impossible – to come out from under the dangerous hegemony of computational domination, algorithms, generative AI, climate dissolution teetering on collapse, soaring violence against all peoples, all beings, and extinction. Might we be part of other viable ways of living? Might we?
***
To begin to explore how to meet these conditions and create new culture is the intention behind two intensives. The goal of the Writer’s Intensive is to find the living, vital and true words and worlds that effectively undermine and defy artifice and the false realities being projected. The work is based on the understandings and insights of Literature of Restoration: Literatureofrestoration.org.
The Healer’s Intensive is specifically designed to develop responses to the times on behalf of our kin and the future. It is based upon the Earth based, Spirit based Daré practices, The 19 Ways and ReVisioning Medicine. Visit deenametzger.net for more info.
Please join us.
RUIN AND BEAUTY 