Human Essentials in times of AI

As AI is finding its way into our lives, it bears the question of what is essentially human and are we properly nurturing these human traits while we are feeding AI with all kinds of prompts and projects.

While chewing on this, I met two remarkable individuals who had been working on these questions for quite some time and developed both knowledge and mastery to address them. Kenneth Mikkelsen is a Danish philosopher, a writer, an existential coach, about to publish an oeuvre on “Das Eigentliche”. Gianni Giacomelli is an Italian expert in collective intelligence, who has turned into AI investor, advisor and innovator.

Over the last months we have developed a play in 5 acts that came to live last week at the Sum Summit in Guarda Val. With this newsletter, I wanted to share some of the insights of this experience.

Prologue

The prework for the session consisted of a first dive into what AI can offer us. Gianni provided us with some briefing documents that we uploaded into a new project: “Das Eigentliche”. Claude guided us through a journey to identify our personal values and find voices (philosophers, thinkers, sages) who could represent these values.

This process turned out to be both challenging and insightful. I got repeatedly reminded that my statements were contradictory, or that my definition of values like freedom was inconsistent. At first, I was surprised by the challenges from the machine but since they came without judgment, I started to appreciate the quality of interaction.  After 90 minutes of work, I had done my homework and created a council of elders consisting of a core group (Socrates, Meister Eckhart, Hippocratic regimen, Arne Næss, Elif Shafak) and a wider group (Epictetus, Plato, CG Jung, Ayn Rand, Hannah Arendt, Bhagavad Gita, Confucius, Nelson Mandela). Gianni had also added the voice of the Mountain, the Bench and the Advocatus diaboli. My council of elders was established, and I could start working with them on existential questions.

Act 1: what events have shaped me?

This first act was strictly analog. We all had prepared three important events that have shaped our lives: one from the natural world, one from the social world, and one from the individual world. Kenneth referred to them as Umwelt, Mitwelt and Eigenwelt (as identified by Martin Heidegger).

In the typical Mountain Wisdom format, we gathered in groups of three and shared our stories. Colleagues would ask questions and help each other distilling the essence of the learning. The safe space allowed for vulnerability and for untold stories to come up. The participants shared very personal experiences and connected with one another, preparing the ground for the following co-creative acts.

Act 2: das Eigentliche - what is essentially human?

Still analog, we could tap into Kenneth’s deep knowledge of philosophy and the essentially human questions. Individually and then in small groups, we explored existential phenomena like love, hope, grief, fear, joy, longing, loneliness, anxiety, shame, guilt, belonging and death. These powers of existence take hold of our lives and shape our lives. The way we experience them and learn to live with them is what makes us human. AI does not experience them. AI can describe these concepts based on patterns captured by LLMs, but it cannot feel them. Whenever we experience these phenomena, or when we share them with other human beings, we get a glimpse of “Das Eigentliche”. Some have described the interaction as magical, an encounter of souls or a spiritual experience. This is when life is happening; this is what makes us human.

In my case, I have been chewing my whole life on the theme of belonging. Growing up in post-war Germany came with a heavy dose of guilt and shame about German history. I traveled the world in search of a place where I could belong. All so often I found places and tribes with strong identities and, at the same time, was frustrated seeing them foster their own identity by segregating from others.

Exploring these essentially human questions is often uncomfortable; it requires vulnerability and a safe space where people can trust and feel really listened. And when it happens, it can be liberating, and it helps us connect with other humans.

Act 3: what can AI question in my life?

Like in a Greek tragedy, Act 3 brings the disruption, the drama. AI is entering the scene. Gianni shared recent experiences of AI growth and impact on organizations and individuals. Inspired by scenarios about life and the world in 2032, we all developed scenarios.

Our wall 2032 had some of the following posts:

• Two healthy decades
  AI-driven medicine adds two healthy decades to my life expectancy.
• The body knows better
  Continuous monitoring knows the state of my health better than I do, and advises on every choice.
• Your role is to sign
  Decisions are prepared, and effectively made, by AI. Your role is to sign.
• The future of board work
  If machines provide the answers, what will be the distinctive value of a board? Thinking together, productive dissent, intellectual courage, connection.
• Expertise loses its scarcity
  Credibility shifts to something you have not yet built.
• The companion
  The people closest to you confide more in an AI companion than in you.
• Your double
  AI reproduces your voice, judgment and style so well that people who know you can't tell.
• The return of the atelier
  Creative professions are transformed. The human need to create things gives birth to new spaces: shared ateliers for pottery, printing, gardening and fermentation. People gather to take part, rather than consume.

Act 4: what is life asking from me?

After an inspiring Walk & Talk where we explored the tensions arising in the new world scenarios, we once again searched for guidance in philosophy: what makes a good life? Kenneth introduced us to Eudaimonia, not happiness, but a flourishing life. It comes from the Greek eu and daimon: the good spirit. It is not a fixed state or an arrival, but an aspiration. It is a living aim that requires active participation. And we never finish the work of learning how to live well. 

Each participant developed a proposition of how to live well in these new times and checked the proposition with their council of Elders. Our workshop had moved into a different space, a dialogue with the elders, through the machine. 

What struck me most during my dialogue with the machine was how I was able to tap into a huge body of knowledge channeled through my council of elders. And all feedback they offered came without attachment or judgment. Their responses were free of a personal agenda; many points challenged me in my aspiration; they pointed to a lack of consistency in my proposition and suggested specific ways to address the shortcomings. Very different from statements in a typical board meeting, where I often notice a judgmental, ironic or sarcastic tone, all the AI responses were brought in a constructive way that allowed me to take them in, without feeling patronized, ridiculed or judged. I was in awe of the wealth of knowledge at my fingertips and the productive coexistence of different points of view. It helped me sharpen further Sum’s proposition to create spaces for the relevant conversations.

The day in the mountains ended with a shared meal along a big table. Every participant had prepared a toast for another participant. We call this dinner exercise “the secret admirer”. Some had written a poem, some just stood up and spoke, others had consulted AI to come up with a rhymed version. All toasts came from a good place; we celebrated other fellow humans with encouraging words and created a beautiful space of human connection.

Act 5: how shall I live?

The last morning, it was time to prepare our departure back down to the valley. We started the day with yoga and saluted the sun rising behind the mountains. With calm minds, Kenneth and Oliver prepared us with both wisdom and embodiment to write a poem on I&AI, a personal testament answering four questions:

• Experience: what has shaped me?
• The Essential: what matters now?
• I&AI: what might AI challenge and support in my life?
• Becoming: how shall I live?

We all started with an analog text version; many of us used Claude to further develop the poem. The creativity, clarity, variety, and power of the individual poems that people shared were mind-blowing. And the commitment of each of the participants to take these manifestations down to the valley was real and tangible. And so, we left the space, went our ways, inspired by the human connection and the shared search for human essentials in times of AI.

Now, here are a couple of questions for you to consider:

• How clear are you on the existential values that have been guiding your life?
• Who would sit on your council of elders?
• What proposition would you want to check with such a council?
• When you think of your company, who should sit on its council of elders?
• Would you dare suggest to your board of directors or executive board to get some input from an AI-created council of elders?
• Can you create the spaces for the relevant conversations informed by an AI council?

Cheers,

ekki