AI — A Modern Day सोम
I want to be Bigger & Better
सोम – SOMA - In the ancient Vedic texts Soma is a drink of Gods; an elixir of immortality
If you had a chance to drink the सोम / SOMA, just to have a moment with the Gods or even be a God for a moment, would you take it?
Every day, the news cycles warn of an impending economic collapse. The majority of us are a byproduct of an education system that relies on grades to express one’s place in a micro and macro community. There is immense pressure financially and emotionally to create a name and space for oneself no matter the field of interest. Academic and for profit employees face the same qualifiers as measures of success.
The language of progress is fundamental to how we communicate with others and even more so with ourselves. Artificial Intelligence is the acting comrade in our quest for progress.
Generative AI tools of today offer opportunities for writers, artists, and students to build upon the existing pool of data and create pieces that appear far more complex in a fraction of time than what was possible before.
Predictive AI tools are guiding actions and building habits that allow humans to define what living in their prime body, mind, health and beauty could look like based on training models and personal interests.
Things we wish we could have sped up, leaned on or seen coming — these wishes are being granted now by our machine counterparts. The levers that guide them are pre-determined by technology leaders and we are equally susceptible to them. As we move farther away from individual craftsmanship into a mass collaboration with machines, could we reflect on the need that is driving this move.
I WANT TO LEVEL UP.
When new doors are opened that offer us the opportunity to reach farther than we could have before, we grasp it. Now AI offers us a way to complete writing critical papers, collaborate with famous artists, chat with celebrities and give our ideas and dreams a higher chance of survival and success by harnessing the potential to do more in less time.
I WANT TO WRAP UP.
When we live in a reality of an attention economy, our time is spread thin. If tools allow us to maximize our output with minimum investment, why will we not take them? Be it writing a term sheet or the next marketing campaign with ChatGPT, generative AI is getting more things off our plate.
I WANT TO CATCH UP.
When more of us are busy racing ahead with the process of creation, we are also in a moment where we are able to be aware of mental health and the potential for wellness. With tools that promise the possibility of eternal youth with body analytics, beauty metrics and help form dietary and fitness habits, data is driving progress in body awareness.
When we take a step back, we see that most of these tools are free of charge. In exchange they are learning based on our data. They are reliable, they are addictive. They may be glitchy at times but they have rapidly become irresistible and irreplaceable.
We do not have the time to ask who owns these levers to these systems. How else is my data used. Can they track me. How are they classifying me. Am I profiled. Does my data feed into some sort of racial, gender or other bias. Does it lead to a future outcome that is against my current values.
We care about these questions, we really do.
We protest when human rights are violated, when we see them.
We don’t see these levers, we don’t ask why. But why? we drink SOMA.
We sit with the Gods. But why?
In his 1943 paper “A Theory of Human Motivation”, American psychologist Abraham Maslow proposed the Hierarchy of Needs. Self Actualization or the need to self actualize, which is key in having the agency solve for let alone comprehend the above questions, sits atop the needs to belong and need for self-esteem. This means unless we satisfy or overcome the need to belong and for self-esteem can we even get close to wonder what it means for us to actualize and really channel our energy into the above questions.
I NEED TO ACCOMPLISH.
Having taught to covet accomplishment at an early age within the education system and as a society, it is hard as an adult to not allow validation of peers, financial reward, social status be a carrot that dangles in front of us or even better a mirage that keeps shifts even as me make progress. Any tools that help us feel a sense of accomplishment, we will jump on it first sans questions as long as accomplishment stays an unmet or unsatisfied need.
I NEED TO BELONG.
As individualism becomes the reality of existence, how does one satisfy the basic need that is mammalian — to feel love and to belong. If we focus just on adult friendships and relationships, there is a rise in apps that offer easier ways to meet short-term quick love partners but there is also an increase in apps that offer steady AI companions, friends and romantic partners. We are slowly sauntering into an era where we feel safer to be vulnerable with AI companions as the gaping hole to feel a sense of belonging widens.
As we pioneer into a new era of progress with our basic human needs barely being met, we, the barely finished jigsaw puzzle with a few pieces missing, are populating the data for every AI we touch. And AI is listening, it is training. Like an ink drop that slowly spreads in the water, our data constantly adds to what we consume.
THE ELIXIR WE DRINK FROM THE GODS IS ONLY AS GOOD AS THE DATA IT TRAINS ON OVER TIME.
Ancient Vedic stories say when the Gods recovered soma, after it was lost from the heavens into the depth of the oceans, it contained a layer of poison. Lord Shiva consumed the poison so everyone else could have the elixir beneath it.
More marketing jargon and less Herman Melville, over time Moby-Dick will sound like a Coca Cola commercial, which may be ok if that’s where we are all heading together. It is us, together now.
YOU HAVE HAD YOUR SOMA AND YOUR MINUTE WITH YOUR GODS, NOW WHAT?
Written by Subalekha and printed first in Growbyseed’s website: ISSUE 1 — A Modern Day सोम
