Unthinkable: Is Sam Altman, the ‘father of ChatGPT’, the most important thinker in the world right now? via IrishTimesCultr
Is there a word we’re losing sight of here? Namely “artificial”. Altman is right – computers are better at doing some “thinking tasks” than humans. But are there certain forms of thinking that only humans can do? Take moral reasoning, for example, or practical wisdom – what Greek philosophers called phronesis. Or here’s another one: wonder.
In Three Roads Back, a study of bereavement and resilience, literary biographer Robert D Richardson examines that very painful but profound source of wonder: death. Examining how writers Ralph Waldo Emerson, Henry David Thoreau and William James each dealt with grief in their own lives, Richardson – who poignantly died before the book’s publication – channels collective awe at being alive.
The closest I’ve ever come to awe in a computer programme was when the arcade game Dragon’s Lair arrived at the Stillorgan Bowl in the 1980s. And then it was only in a “this is kinda’ cool” way, not the sort of spiritual high you’d get from standing on a mountaintop. Similarly, I’ve spent endless hours staring at my smartphone: I’ve been entertained, distracted and informed by many things but I can’t recall once experiencing awe.
What does this mean for our future? AI has history on its side. Because it’s convenient, people are willing to trade the real for the artificial. That goes for artificial food, artificial friendship , even artificial politics . There is no doubt AI will displace human thinking in many areas.However, if humans are hard-wired to wonder then we may have an inbuilt defence against artificiality taking over entirely. Keltner asks: what is the “unifying purpose” of awe? “Here’s my answer.
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