27 years ago I left university as a languages (humanities as some like to refer to it) graduate and went straight into a job I was offered in London, to work as an IT consultant. It started with my being taught to computer programme in many different languages. It was fascinating. These were just more languages, with more patterns and rules which I found it easy to get my head around. The only difference, I discovered over the years to come, is that communicating in ‘human’ languages gives me the opportunity to communicate with humans. it allows me to share my thoughts, feelings and ideas with them. Communicating in ‘computer’ or ‘machine’ languages, give me the opportunity to communicate with computers and machines. And it really only enables me to share my factual ideas with them, phrased in languages based on binary logic. For computers and machines are not brilliant at understanding my thoughts and feelings. They are not sentient beings. They do not possess a heart or a soul. And so they work, ultimately, based on a series of ‘1’s and ‘0’s. Still fascinating, I feel.
In a very short space of time, after moving to another company to try a different form of computing known as database management, I resigned late one Christmas Eve Eve. I was sat in a cellar-like office, alone and supporting machines around the world – more specifically the people in charge of them – in case any of them shouldn’t work. Because if they didn’t, the company I worked for wouldn’t be able to provide insurance for the people who were trying to purchase it. I sat that evening and pondered a while before I resigned. All I knew was that spending time with my loved ones seemed a lot more important than sitting in front of a screen in a windowless room where no-one really seemed that interested in either my presence, or my well-being.
Over the following decades, being very competent technologically owing to my training, I have followed developments in the world of technology – and more recently AI – with much interest. Where would they lead? Would it be a good or a bad thing for our world? And how could any one person – myself included – ultimately judge whether or not these developments would be a positive or a negative for Planet Earth?
I remain today where I have always been on the issue of technology. My aim in life is to be happy rather than to be right. I wish to live in joy and peace, rather than to decide that I must have an opinion – or, if I do, share it with others. Opinions shared so very often provide an opportunity for others to disagree. And disagreement can result, inadvertently, in conflict – energetically-speaking, at the very least. At the most fundamental level of my being, I keep coming back to the question “Is more conflict, of any kind whatsoever, needed in our world, no matter how small, or relatively trivial?” Do I wish to perpetuate a world in which conflict already has a significant presence? Or do I wish to create a world without conflict? Disagreement need not, of course, result in conflict. But as someone who works with energy every day, I understand the principles of it very well. For every type of energy there is an equal and opposite force. I therefore choose to emit happiness, positivity and love energy. I already appreciate these will always come up against the opposing forces, but it feels better than using my precious energy for opinions. Any ‘opinions’ I do have change regularly as I obtain more new information about the world. I therefore enjoy being an observer, reaching my own personal conclusions, and using those to inform my own life and decisions.
And so it is with AI. I have had many differing thoughts about it over time. At a very personal level, I am a highly sentient being. Consequently, I very much enjoy interacting with other highly sentient beings, most of which are created by nature – other humans, animals, flowers, plants, oceans, air – rather than by humans themselves. Does this mean that I must therefore have a singular opinion with regard to AI because it has been created by humans? Do I, indeed, need to have a singular opinion on any topic at all? No. I really do not. I can simply choose to engage with what makes me happy each day, vibrating energetically as highly as I am able to, and leaving the need to have opinions, or to express them openly, to others.
The only opinion I am ever really interested in is the one my heart has each day about what will make it feel full of joy and peace in this moment. So far, for the majority of my life, that has led me to the most serene and contented existence. For me, therefore, that feels the most wonderful way to continue. 💜