Some people say that the rise of AI is going to make us dumber. The narrative is when we have robots to do everything for us, we will lie idle and decay. I think these people immensely underestimate the importance of emotional intelligence.
The most difficult cognitive task is to identify how you feel, removed from the reality of the situation. How you feel does not always obviously follow from what is going on around you. Sometimes your emotions clash with others emotions and they may be inconvenient to the situation. It’s surprisingly difficult to identify, without any self illusions, the base feeling in your heart at any given moment.
This emotional frontier is an important cutting edge of reality. Humans have been developing language so we can articulate more and more complex emotions. Articulating emotions is what brings us together as a species, it allows us to form larger and larger groups through communicating shared experience and story telling. The ability to look inward and articulate what you personally are feeling is the first step to the ability to look at a group and articulate the common sentiment.
Teams are formed around common experiences. In the past these experiences were based on physical things, like living in the same region or shared food traditions. The strongest ones are based on ancient stories and regularly occurring rituals. Groups have historically been limited in scope based on some physical constraint (it’s really hard to govern a geographically massive empire).
When you look inward and really dig down really deep you realize how closely we all are tied. We all care about the same things, to be loved and safe and accepted by the group. Being social animals was programmed into us by years of evolution. What binds us together is who we are. It’s a logical paradox, we are all defined by how we relate to each other.
When you articulate how you feel, more often than not you articulate what other people are feeling around you. Deep down, we are all the same. And once you articulate what bonds you, you can begin to form a team. The deeper down you go, the more you are able to articulate, the bigger the team you can form.
Human history is an infinite game of forming bigger and bigger teams. We were hunter gatherers in small tribes, then we formed small farming villages. With some people taking care of food, other people could study and invent. New technologies ultimately made producing more food easier and the team flourished. These stronger teams got bigger, but then eventually could not remain bonded because of some physical constraints they fragmented.
Together we can accomplish more. Whether it be to increase the food supply or cure fatal diseases, we can survive more if we work together. But we can’t work together if we have nothing in common. That’s where we are today, too many disparate bands of small teams. Working class white men who voted for Trump. Trans kids who have been rejected from their homes. Elite executives trying to compete and amass capital.
These characteristics are easy to describe, but they do not describe everyone. When you look a level deeper, you see people for what they are. A man who feels less than, a kid who feels unwanted, people trying to perform for others and win respect. Everyone just wants to feel accepted by the group, and by articulating what brings us all together we become stronger.
So let’s not lament the end of the intellect quite yet. Humans probably lost strength after we first strapped a yoke to an oxen, but you don’t hear many people begging to go back. If AI takes over the jobs of today, it frees us all up to jobs of the future. There are plenty of other problems we can use our big brains on.
This is why Taylor Swift is such a phenomenon. That woman has an incredible gift for articulating nice emotions and experiences no one else had gotten to yet, and articulating common experiences in a new deeper way. Men stereotypically dismiss her because they lack awareness of this level of reality, but her fans say that Taylor could raise an army. Strong teams are built around shared stories.
This is what politicians are supposed to do, they form coalitions from different corners of society to win the vote by spinning a story they can all relate to. These days, the people who go into government seem to only seek power and influence. A stronger society would have politicians who seek to connect people across different backgrounds and show them their commonalities to do meaningful work that benefits us all.
Watch the film Idiocracy if you want a laugh on this topic.
Some people say that the rise of AI is going to make us dumber. The narrative is when we have robots to do everything for us, we will lie idle and decay. I think these people immensely underestimate the importance of emotional intelligence.
The most difficult cognitive task is to identify how you feel, removed from the reality of the situation. How you feel does not always obviously follow from what is going on around you. Sometimes your emotions clash with others emotions and they may be inconvenient to the situation. It’s surprisingly difficult to identify, without any self illusions, the base feeling in your heart at any given moment.
This emotional frontier is an important cutting edge of reality. Humans have been developing language so we can articulate more and more complex emotions. Articulating emotions is what brings us together as a species, it allows us to form larger and larger groups through communicating shared experience and story telling. The ability to look inward and articulate what you personally are feeling is the first step to the ability to look at a group and articulate the common sentiment.
Teams are formed around common experiences. In the past these experiences were based on physical things, like living in the same region or shared food traditions. The strongest ones are based on ancient stories and regularly occurring rituals. Groups have historically been limited in scope based on some physical constraint (it’s really hard to govern a geographically massive empire).
When you look inward and really dig down really deep you realize how closely we all are tied. We all care about the same things, to be loved and safe and accepted by the group. Being social animals was programmed into us by years of evolution. What binds us together is who we are. It’s a logical paradox, we are all defined by how we relate to each other.
When you articulate how you feel, more often than not you articulate what other people are feeling around you. Deep down, we are all the same. And once you articulate what bonds you, you can begin to form a team. The deeper down you go, the more you are able to articulate, the bigger the team you can form.
Human history is an infinite game of forming bigger and bigger teams. We were hunter gatherers in small tribes, then we formed small farming villages. With some people taking care of food, other people could study and invent. New technologies ultimately made producing more food easier and the team flourished. These stronger teams got bigger, but then eventually could not remain bonded because of some physical constraints they fragmented.
Together we can accomplish more. Whether it be to increase the food supply or cure fatal diseases, we can survive more if we work together. But we can’t work together if we have nothing in common. That’s where we are today, too many disparate bands of small teams. Working class white men who voted for Trump. Trans kids who have been rejected from their homes. Elite executives trying to compete and amass capital.
These characteristics are easy to describe, but they do not describe everyone. When you look a level deeper, you see people for what they are. A man who feels less than, a kid who feels unwanted, people trying to perform for others and win respect. Everyone just wants to feel accepted by the group, and by articulating what brings us all together we become stronger.
So let’s not lament the end of the intellect quite yet. Humans probably lost strength after we first strapped a yoke to an oxen, but you don’t hear many people begging to go back. If AI takes over the jobs of today, it frees us all up to jobs of the future. There are plenty of other problems we can use our big brains on.
This is why Taylor Swift is such a phenomenon. That woman has an incredible gift for articulating nice emotions and experiences no one else had gotten to yet, and articulating common experiences in a new deeper way. Men stereotypically dismiss her because they lack awareness of this level of reality, but her fans say that Taylor could raise an army. Strong teams are built around shared stories.
This is what politicians are supposed to do, they form coalitions from different corners of society to win the vote by spinning a story they can all relate to. These days, the people who go into government seem to only seek power and influence. A stronger society would have politicians who seek to connect people across different backgrounds and show them their commonalities to do meaningful work that benefits us all.
Watch the film Idiocracy if you want a laugh on this topic.
Share Dialog
Share Dialog
Subscribe to Minerva
Subscribe to Minerva
Minerva
Minerva
<100 subscribers
<100 subscribers
No activity yet