Artificial Relationships

It feels at 5:50 a.m. that the sun might break through this day.  Maybe.  The temperature sits at 59 degrees fahrenheit and there is a very slight breeze that is being revealed by the leaves in the cypress outside.  Today is Friday.

Somehow, the moment has come to the month of June and the past five months have flown by, filled with life and living.  In just the past seven days, this body has traveled across country twice, and up and down the state of California - ferried by cars, trains, planes.  Not long ago, it was unimaginable.  But today, it is done a lot: travel through space/time is not unusual anymore.  Indeed, a day ago a musician zoomed in from Istanbul, Turkey to California to share her expression of love and creativity with over a hundred people, gathered to celebrate Asian American heritage.

Reading about and listening to the stories of what is commonly called "AI" has made an impact on the question of where humanity fits into the picture.  As these morning essays emerge out of nowhere, the question emerges, "Where are the words coming from?"  And beyond that, "Is this what I would be doing more of – if all the mundane tasks of life were to be taken up by AI?"  It seems the invitation is wide open to begin imagining possibilities and shifts in reality in the very near future.

But isn't there already a myriad of possibilities and shifts taking place in all of our lives?  It seems AI won't be able to alter the fact that humans need a safe place to rest, or nourishment to keep the body going.  It might be a great tool for offering options, but the actual experience doesn't appear to be available through AI.  Yet, many very intelligent people are already expressing both hope and concern about where this emergent partner in life will take humanity.

Will there be something we can really identify as "humanity" or will there be something else that we cannot yet name or imagine that will take the place of this part of our experience?  What will "lived experience" mean in the future?

Decades ago it would have been unimaginable for the kind of travel that just took place last week - moving across the continent and time zones with such ease.  The purpose was to engage with others - in talks, in celebrations, in doing work in service of organizations.  Yet, today the fact of advances in technology, travel options, and the way society imagines time - has made it possible, without much thought as to how we got here.

One thing that has not changed:  relationships - intimate and vast, individual and communal, existing and potentialities of connecting.  

AI is introducing another possible relationship and it too will take time for people to understand, to build trust, and to fully recognize whether there can be a relationship worth pursuing.  

For now, thinking about relationships and how human beings make and tend to them seems to sit at the center of our notions of purpose and desire to become the best person one can be in this lifetime.  After all, the energy of moving through space/time this week was all about relationships, and the desire to connect to other humans.