The Existential Risk of AI
My 31 years on this planet has humble beginnings. I played outside, got my hands dirty, and learned how to plant trees and flowers. I went to school and learned how to paint, use pastels and write.
My dream to be a writer led me to journalism school – years of research and understanding how to fact-check, with my hands and mind, always knowing the internet is not a truthful outlet.
I started working on this piece because I noticed what I was really feeling – it wasn’t the unrealistic pressures of the “real” world, but it was the dehumanizing of society under technology.
My focus in this piece is to examine what it is to be human in the 21st century, and what happens when we put out faith in technology, not each other.
Dataism – An Ideology For The New World
I came across a post talking about Dataism, reducing all human life to data. God is the algorithm. Emotions have no intrinsic value – data is power and holds all meaning to life.
Technology seems to be on a mission to dehumanize our experience in the cosmos.
How does that make you feel?
How does it make you feel that data and surveillance capitalism have more power than your ability to create, think, choose, and feel?
Our physical reality is being manipulated by corporations and political leaders. Look at the Facebook–Cambridge Analytica data scandal where leaders used profile data to build specific psychological profiles, “A team of data analysts reproduced the AI technology developed by Cambridge Analytica around Facebook's data and was able to define the following rules: 10 likes enables a machine to know a person like a coworker, 70 likes like a friend would, 150 likes like a parent would, 300 likes like a lover would, and beyond it may be possible to know a people better than they know themselves.“
We are a product in tech, not a contributing member to waking life. What happens when we are so plugged into virtual spaces that we lose the need to live in unity with nature? Everything we deem desirable is being displayed in our every eye movement, why look outside?
“This trending ideology believes that liberating the flow of data is the supreme value of the universe, and that it could be the key to unleashing the greatest scientific revolution in the history of humanity.” How Dataism is Revolutionizing the Idea of the Individual
Technology is fuelling individualization – apps want us to have curated, individual experiences when we are online. This doesn’t make us more whole; it divides us from new ideas, opinions and biased research. It also creates a false sense of community since we are all grouped together with people who automatically have the same interests. That post did not find you because it was something you needed to hear, it was created by an algorithm.
Oneness is not created on a screen.
It is a network of roots, entangled between soil and water. Between each of us, and the dust of stars. We are not here by chance or created by a computer to keep our heads down.
“Humans and their galaxy have about 97 percent of the same kind of atoms, and the elements of life appear to be more prevalent toward the galaxy's center, the research found. The crucial elements for life on Earth, often called the building blocks of life, can be abbreviated as CHNOPS: carbon, hydrogen, nitrogen, oxygen, phosphorus and sulfur.” Space.com
There has become too much focus on instant access to information and connection. This individualization of society has an impact on a larger scale and the greater good. The rise of data and AI is challenging what it means to be human and what our purpose is on this planet.
Pluto in Aquarius: The Loss of Our Roots?
On March 23, 2023, Pluto will ingress into Aquarius, embarking on a 20-year journey of demolition and discovery. Through a series of retrogrades back into Capricorn, Pluto will enter Aquarius for good in November 2024.
Pluto in Capricorn has taught us a long lesson in the cruelty of capitalism and how systems and institutions to fuel greed. Pluto is a collective planet, but you can’t escape the lessons that its transit has been fueling Capricorn houses since 2008. If we look at the creation of technology, it has not been used for the greater good in many cases, but it has lined the pockets of corporations and the rich.
"We are organisms, not algorithms." DataEthics
As Pluto enters Aquarius, I see this sign as the innovator - the seeker of a better humanity and re-creating of the human experience. But there is a clear divide on what the human experience is.
Is it technology driven, our days fueled by big data and disconnection from our emotional and physical bodies?
Or will we be reminded about the natural connectedness of earth and the cosmos, and that the more we buy, we cannot replace this yearning to be whole?
Technology offers us instant answers, but doesn’t this mean less thinking for ourselves?
What happens to art and poetry when it is generated by AI?
What happens to the freedom of thinking and forming ideas?
What happens to the touch of a human body?
What happens to our anger and sadness?
Chiron will return to its natal 3 ° of Taurus on June 6th, 2027 at 5:30 pm EST. I ponder the significance of healing the earth and less reliance on tech.
I feel as though the earth is yearning for us to savour its sweetness and go back to staring at the clouds, planting gardens, and experiencing reality unfiltered.
Tech Is A Tool, Not A Livelihood
My normal drive to create educational content is becoming harder than before. The pressure to outrank AI and data-driven numbers are proving to be problematic.
Tech is not the #1 enemy. It’s who is in control of tech and data, and how we choose to use it. Technology can support us in healing the earth and streamlining processes, but not when it is focused on financial gain and degrading our experience or talents.
Marketing seemed like the best avenue for my writing skills – to make money, and be successful, I studied journalism, and started in digital marketing and website design – it built the foundation of my life.
But I’m exhausted by trying to out-compete big data, tech, and unattainable standards lacking heart and emotion. Stop making the world more productive. It’s no longer about education, it’s about sales, funnels, clicks, and ads. Using AI to write my content takes the human out of the experience, and I don’t know if I can keep doing it.
Will Pluto in Aquarius will accelerate technology or if it will awaken our spirits to the earth? This element of change will be different for everyone, but we cannot forget each other, nor can we seclude ourselves. We have 20 years with this transit, and it’s equally important to explore what aspects and houses will be activated in our charts, which can illuminate our role in the process.
To be human is to not fight time with robotics and automated data.
Will we choose oneness to be controlled by technology, or will we choose, earth and each other?
