Manufactured Intimacy
Pope Leo XIV took direct aim at the power of Big Tech in his first encyclical on Monday (May 25), warning that artificial intelligence risks widening inequality, weakening democracy and undermining what it means to be human (NPR). In this fourth industrial revolution, the priority must be “the protection of employment opportunities and the irreplaceable role of the individual,” Leo wrote. “…we must remember that humanity flourishes not despite limitations, but often through them,” adding that a life without limitations would ultimately mean not being human.
Amen.
We should all be horrified by the future impact of AI on our worldly concerns of economics and democracy, but we should be truly terrified by its impact on our humanity. Leo’s line about “life without limitations” reminded me of a recent podcast episode (The Myth of Absolute Freedom) where Gray Area host Sean Illing talks with writer David Epstein about why unlimited freedom and endless choice often make us less creative, less focused, and less fulfilled. In another episode (Talk To Strangers) Sean talks with University of Chicago psychologist Nicholas Epley about the strange gap between our need to be social and how social we choose to be. Tech leadership long ago lost the guiding light of progress which should be to promote human flourishing and instead devotes itself to profiting from human division.
This is a long way round to share two invitations to write recently offered at the Sawstone Writer’s Guild:
- Capture an intimate moment with another human (I wrote about my grandmother but others wrote about children, spouses, friends)
- Describe a personal landmark where your life changed and then write what message you need to hear (today) about that moment
For my monthly Poetry Gauntlet meeting we are reading Frederico Garcia Lorca and I want to offer up two poems that connect with this loose theme of intimacy:
Today more than ever we need to focus on intimacy and social interaction to promote human flourishing. If that is not a reason to write poetry then I do not know what is. Have you signed up for LexPoMo yet?
Write about what you think it means to be human. Write about what it means to be intimate. Write about your personal landmarks. Write your own personal encyclical.
Final note: I chose the featured image because it spoke to me about technology’s impact on our humanity. I worry all the time about technology swallowing our humanity. However, I was also drawn to this image of gears because too often I feel like a cog in the machine or that the gears will just grind us all up. How do you picture the impact of technology on our humanity?
Deanna,
Really nice entry, well-thought.
Jess