It anticipates a dystopic future in which human beings will be measured by their talents in order to predict their future and reproduction of the human species will be controlled on the basis of each human being's DNA potential. The picture shows what we fail to grasp if we try to measure reality and anticipate what individuals can do, achieve, and strive for.
This book-length essay comes at AI technology through a compelling examination of the author's own history of faith, crisis of faith, and her ongoing project to understand the human in relation to the three other positions in her title. It's a remarkably clear-headed appreciation of our cultural moment, free of both hype and moral panic.
Ravaged by war and the collapse of previous norms, peacetime Germans struggled to understand a world that was turning West and embracing industry. Many believed consumerism and a bourgeois lifestyle could offer a path to national progress. Philosopher Josef Pieper believed otherwise, insisting that we work so as to have the restful freedom to dream, create, and connect spiritually with the world. Pieper's elegant answer to alienation then has so much to say in an era when technology is again promising liberation - but somehow, will end up again leaving us doing to dishes while it writes ever cheaper poetry.
In times like these, we must not forget that human flourishing can occur not only alongside the growth of artificial intelligence, but also amid suffering and destitution. Frankl reminds us in his book how resilient the human spirit is in literally willing meaning in places where one may suspect it to be most elusive. In Man’s Search for Meaning, I hope the reader realizes the inspirational infinity that is ingrained in every human which, by all comparison, makes even artificial intelligence inconsequential.
The text shows what has been lost: The assumption written words are of human origin. Yet it also shows how this might be a chance to return to a reading without regard to origin.
Early but convincing example of bias built into the fashioning of algorithms that exclude people of color. Human flourishing remains a challenge because AI will never be context independent no matter how extensive the LLM. Social bias remains so our participation must include an intentional focus on people on the margins.
The importance of human articulation face to face in language in light of the philosophical history of Alan Turing and early sociological study of mobile technology
Shop Class as Soulcraft argues that manual, skilled work (like fixing motorcycles) is intellectually rich and essential to human flourishing. Crawford is critical of the shift in modern work toward abstraction, and the separation of thinking from doing. In his view, deep satisfaction and important forms of knowledge come from engaging with the material world, exercising judgment, and seeing the tangible results of one’s labor.
This perspective is increasingly relevant in the context of AI, which accelerates the delegation of both white- and blue-collar tasks to inscrutable software systems. As AI takes over more cognitive work (analysis, writing, creativity, decision-making) as well as physical tasks, human beings are distanced not only from the work itself but from the embodied knowledge that such work develops and sustains. In other words, AI makes us dumber the more we use it.
Crawford’s emphasis on the unity of mind and body in skilled labor challenges the idea that intelligence can be cleanly separated from action. When AI assumes more of our planning, problem-solving, and perception, we risk dislocating ourselves from the very processes that build competence and agency. The more we outsource, the less we engage in feedback loops between thinking and doing. This atrophy of judgment, attention, and intuition may erode our sense of identity, responsibility, and satisfaction in work.
Estes is one of the few theologians with optimism for AI. This book emphasizes how technologically enhancements can benefit even the church. This work was recently cited in an article in The Atlantic for pioneering engagement among evangelicals.
