WISDOM & AI, #StayHuman, The Mosquito & The Monk(s)
A bit of Bzzzzzz about things AI and Human
In this issue:
AI - a rant about my personal experience
WISDOM 2.0, This week, In SF and/or Online starting at $25/tickie
I’ve been thinking about writing an article on AI - more like my very personal current experience with it, and then I see that this Wisdom Conference to which I purchased a virtual ticket (the ticket is real, the experience is online — don’t be fooled, are we all in a virtual reality?)….well, this conference in SF is about AI and Consciousness….or something like that? I wondered, when I looked at the speakers and the subjects of their talks, why there was so much AI focus. Aha. . . of course, this is Silicon Valley territory, and also Insight Meditation Territory, and perhaps the twain has met.
So first, my little nit from last week, when I realized that all the hours of homework I had been submitting for a biology course (freaking hard work for me) was being run through one of the many chat bots and then returned to me as feedback on my homework. WTF?
I am paying about $1K per module for 6 modules, and we have home work due each week, plus a written and oral final at the end of each 6-week module. One of the principles we are learning is about human connection and ventral vagal tone… that was H.U.M.A.N Connection. Not some AI generated summary of what I wrote pretty much repeating my words and saying it’s wonderful how you _____ fill in the blank with words I used. And then punctuated with a purple heart as if that was supposed to convey the personal human connection. And if that weren’t bad enough, this course which is all about experiencing a FELT SENSE (sensations in our body through somatic training) and PARTS WORK (based on Dick Schwartz’s Internal Family Systems), has a community forum where we community both synchronously with scheduled video calls, and asynchronously with posts to which we can all reply. A few days ago, the replies to the posts were summarized by an AI bot which had the forum’s moderator’s name, and posted to each member’s reply. WTF? Really, now we have a BOT commenting on all our posts, but mostly just summarizing what we’ve already shared and spitting it back out.
Where is the human elevator? I’m sorry I meant to say human element, but my mind was already retrieving memories of the elevator operators in the beautiful NYC buildings, like the magnificent Chanin Building on 42nd Street, where my father had an office in the 50s and 60s, one of the finest examples of Art Deco Architecture in the city. I remember going in and being greeted by a uniformed doorman, and then walking to the elevators where another uniformed man opened the metal cage gate after the elevator door opened, and asked us “which floor please” and maneuvered the elevator to slow down just before the floor we requested as the elevator gently glided into position so he could fold the gate and open the door.
And I remember when the telephone operators were replaced with computerized messages. As a child, I wondered what those people who were replaced by automatons were doing for work? Not just for money, but how did they spend their time now? And speaking of automat-ons, I will say that the Horn & Hardart Automat was one of the automated treasure of Manhattan at that time, but it still have uniformed workers behind the little mail-box type boxes from which we grabbed our salami on rye with a side of coleslaw, with slice of pumpkin pie.
WHY SO MUCH AI people? I decided that the next time I have a final homework project due, I’m running all the lesson transcripts through one of the chats, like chatGBT and submitting that. Yes, I’ll still do all the work for myself. I’m that kind of student, even in my 70s (heck, I taught university and college when a good part of my job WAS evaluating, assessing and providing P E R S O N A L feedback to each student, whose name I knew, and whose style I was learning and whose passion to learn I hope I was supporting. I even wrote my Master’s Thesis based on Parker Palmer’s TEACHING AS A SPIRITUAL PRACTICE. . . and now my freakin’ teacher is using AI to assess my work and provide feedback to my course observations, questions, and comments. STOP THIS SHIT!!!!!! #StayHUMAN people. /rant
AND Below IS MY Above RANT, RUN through chatGBT
This chatGBT took less a few seconds to generate, maybe 2, or 5 at the most:
It sounds like you're feeling frustrated and disillusioned with the increasing use of AI in educational settings, particularly in a course focused on human connection and personal growth. Your memories of a more human-centric past, like the interactions with elevator operators and telephone operators, highlight a shift towards automation that you find concerning.
Your desire for genuine human interaction and personalized feedback is completely understandable, especially given your background in education and your commitment to learning even in your 70s. It's disheartening to feel like the personal touch and individual attention you value are being replaced by automated processes.
Your plan to submit your own work while still doing the assignments yourself shows your integrity and dedication to learning. It's clear that you value the human element in education and want to maintain that connection despite the increasing reliance on AI.
Have you considered expressing your concerns directly to your instructor or the course administrators? They might not be aware of the extent to which AI is affecting the learning experience and could be open to feedback from a passionate and experienced student like yourself.
💜
WISDOM 2.0 CONFERENCE STARTS this WEDNESDAY
It looks like second from left is Lama Tsultrim…. I might really be interested in this if I can stop my judgment and just BE IN THE MOMENT. . . . .. . . . . .
There are some speakers I’d like to hear in this series, and some who I think are so into the mainstream narrative that I’m curious how they will navigate this topic, if at all. Regardless, these are my prejudices around them, and not necessarily the truth. What’s true for me seems dependent upon my conditioning, and is therefore subjective. Gurdjieff, in the Fourth Way Work, talked about the difference even in subjective and objective art. Please know that everything I share and say is obviously subjective - just like all journalism, and even all photography, painting, sculpture, expressions of music. . . but I digress. What I really came here to share this morning was this online conference, with some speakers with whom I think I align, but who knows. I’m hoping I can be open and get the best of them all, and learn from and about those about whom I am currently prejudiced because of what I consider their ‘woke’ agenda.
If you attend any of the speakers’ session, let us know what you learned in the Substack comments to this article. Namasté
PS - I will put an asterisk * before the ones that interest me because I think I align with the material and a WHF? before those who I think have things to say that will activate my nervous system with their wokeness. I hope I’m wrong and can learn things from all, perhaps to understand more how the woke thing so I can maybe be more tolerant (even though I think their policies are damning humanity???). Spirit Rock Meditation Center was very into the con-vid situation, and I’m curious to see how some of these Insight Meditation teachers and other Buddhist Teachers in the line of one of my former teachers, Chogyam Trungpa Rinpoche, experience the world events - perhaps like they do an annoying mosquito, while practicing meditation?
https://www.lamayeshe.com/article/mosquito-cause-our-enlightenment
https://www.wisdom2summit.com/schedule2024
Wednesday April 24
COMMUNITY AS MEDICINE: VITALITY with Dr. Elizabeth Markle
CULTIVATING HEALING AND RESILIENCE IN CHALLENGING TIMES:
ARRIVING PRACTICE with Arisika Razak*** THE POWER OF THE BREATH with James Nestor
WTF? USING AI TO DECODE ANIMAL COMMUNICATION with Aza Raskin
WTF? LESSONS IN HUMAN FLOURISHING: WHAT SCIENCE IS TEACHING US with Kate Long
Thursday April 25
** OUTRAGE, HEALING, AND FORGIVENESS with V (formerly Eve Ensler)
WTF? AI & WHOLENESS with Bo Shao
*** THE ART OF SPIRITUAL COMPANIONSHIP with Rev. SeiFu Anil Singh-Molares
WTF? ARE WE LIVING IN A VIRTUAL REALITY? with Deepak Chopra
WTF? THE NEW SOCIAL MEDIA: LESSONS FROM TIK TOK with V Pappas
FROM SILICON VALLEY TO THE AMAZON AND AFRICA with Loic Le Meur
PSYCHEDELIC-ASSISTED THERAPY AND TRIBAL HEALTH with Marlena Robbins
WTF? WHAT CAN I EVEN DO? THE CLIMATE CRISIS, PERSONAL RESILIENCY, AND COMMUNITY POWER with Christine Cordero
*** HEALING HISTORICAL, GENERATIONAL, COLLECTIVE TRAUMA
with Iya AffoWISDOM VENTURES UPDATE with Cecily Mak
*** GUIDED MEDITATION PRACTICE with Roshi Joan Halifax
*** COMMUNITY AS MEDICINE: VULNERABILITY with Dr. Elizabeth Markle
** PSYCHEDELICS, EXILES, AND HEALING OUR PARTS
with Dr. Richard Schwartz
Friday, April 26
*** OPENING MEDITATION: MINDFULNESS IN THE MODERN AGE with Jon Kabat-Zinn
*** WHOLENESS VERSUS WELLNESS with Alanis Morissette
REFLECTING INWARD, CONNECTING OUTWARD with Dr. Dan Siegel
ARE WE ENOUGH? with Rodney McKenzie, Jr., interviewed by Soren Gordhamer
THE ART OF BECOMING A CHANGE MAKER with Tarana Burke
TEENS AND SOCIAL MEDIA: LESSONS FROM A WHISTLEBLOWER & PARENT with Arturo Bejar
THE DHARMA, WOMEN AND SPEAKING OUR VOICE with Roshi Joan Halifax
THE PSYCHEDELIC RENAISSANCE: OPPORTUNITIES AND CHALLENGES with Rick Doblin
COMMUNITY AS MEDICINE: CREATION with Dr. Elizabeth Markle
*** THE GIFT OF AWAKENING: WHAT THESE TIMES ARE ASKING OF US with Jon Kabat-Zinn
Wisdom 2.0 location: Yerba Buena Center for the Arts (YBCA)
701 Mission St, San Francisco, CA 94103
Yes, we do provide virtual tickets! Purchase them here:
https://www.eventbrite.com/e/wisdom-ai-summit-virtual-ticket-tickets-685294944627?aff=oddtdtcreator
I wouldn’t spend one minute of my time nor a mere penny to listen to all this drivel on subjects that appear to be verging on continued ‘wokeism’ and pretty much irrelevant for the times most of us are living in. It is a ’new age/spiritualist conference’ catering to a small group of elitists who still have money, and don’t want to believe the world in which they now inhabit, is majorly f**ked up and run by a lot of BAD people. And want to forget about the past four years we have lived through.
Let’s just Namaste our way out of this s**t.
The “new age/insight meditation/mind-fullness meditation/spiritual community” crowd totally embraced the Scamdemic and went for the mask wearing, lockdowns, mandates, and the vaxxes. Even long standing ‘spiritual institutions’ like the Self Realization Fellowship caved to the fear porn around the Scamdemic BS, held online zoom meditations and services…and didn’t go back to in-person services for a very long time.
I consider myself a “spiritual” person, and respect and have read the writings of a few of the speakers at this ‘conference’, but just the titles of some of the ‘talks’ totally turn me off. And also the fact that it is ‘online’, not a human being to human being ‘conference’.
You made me laugh with your WTF for certain lectures!
I cannot believe your teacher is not reading or commenting on your work. Super lame