Future Dissonance: Integrating AI and Small Farm Futures with Stephen Reid

This video is part of a series of discussions carried out within the Life Itself community. To get involved please join the Life Itself Whatsapp Chat

Increasingly it feels like the future is pulling in (at least) two very different directions.

On one hand, we are witnessing incredible advancements in artificial intelligence and machine learning presenting what some see as an opportunity "to reframe the whole concept of work, liberate people to find a true purpose (or at least something that doesn’t crush their soul), and eradicate the psychological trauma that comes with pointless jobs".

On the other, writers like Vanessa Machado De Oliveira (Hospicing Modernity), Dougald Hine (At Work in the Ruins) and Chris Smaje (A Small Farm Future) are warning of a breakdown of our modern way of life and preparing us for a lower-power, lower-tech, and more labour-intensive society "built around local economies and self-provisioning".

In this community discussion hosted by Stephen Reid we dig into these visions of the future; whether we're more likely heading towards one rather than the other; and what a superposition of the two could look like.

Stephen Reid is a facilitator, coach and Ruby/Python developer devoted to the flourishing of Life on Earth who has trained in the fields of complexity science, physics, transformative coaching, meditation and plant medicine. Current projects include working with Supermodular on the meta crisis, hosting the upcoming Futurecraft Residency, and studying for the UC Berkeley Professional Certificate in Machine Learning and Artificial Intelligence. You can learn more about Stephen on his website: https://stephenreid.net

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The Presentation

The world as we know it is changing in magnificent ways. People are awakening to a world where the economic and ecological systems are no more working. Some of the amazing books explain this shift in more detail and give an overview of what the future should encompass in terms of society, economy and nature. 

A common theme among these books is that ‘modernity’, civilization and capitalism are coming to an end. We are reaching a tipping point such that life is going to change dramatically towards low-power and low-tech societies that are living closer to nature. This pattern of lifestyle is already being practised by indigenous people in what the author of “Post Capitalist Philanthropy” call a post capitalist society. As we move past the fragmentations of our current lifestyles, we will need to pay attention to the lifestyle of these indigenous people and learn new ways of living, being, working and loving.

The second thought-provoking book is Dauglag Hine’s “At Work in the Ruins” which explores the current state of the world and the challenges we face as a society, including climate change, pandemics, and other emergencies. 

He talks about the ‘motorway of progress’ that is driven on the backs of fossil fuels and neoliberal capitalism. The rhetoric behind the ‘motorway of progress’ has shifted towards the green revolution and the green new deal. The talks about solar panels and electric cars are based on the same monolithic view of progress. Dauglag Hine suggests we need to take various paths towards the future instead of the motorway. This means, there can be many solutions to our climate and ecological crisis instead of the vision put forward by global organisations. The 10-20 year targets are barely realistic when we are facing the effects of the changing climate right now. As pessimistic as it sounds, there can be a lot of opportunities in thinking this way and I agree with this perception and the hope that it provides. 

‘Post Capitalist Philanthropy’ by Alnoor Ladha, Lynn Murphy, and Vandana Shiva examines the role of philanthropy in creating a more just and equitable world. The authors argue that traditional models of philanthropy are not effective in addressing the root causes of social and economic inequality. Instead, they propose a post-capitalist approach to giving that is based on principles of solidarity, cooperation, and shared ownership.

These books offer a powerful critique of the status quo and a bold vision for a more just and sustainable future. They challenge us to rethink our assumptions about community building, philanthropy, and social activism, and to embrace new ways of being and working that are more collaborative, empathetic, and transformative. The future demands that we move beyond individualism, competition, and consumerism, and embrace a more collective and compassionate vision of society.

The breakdown of the economy, society and ecology is happening at a time when we are seeing astronomical progress in the technological space. For instance, we are starting to realize the potential of AI but we are still uncertain whether the effects of this new technology will be positive or negative. We have seen the advancement between GPT 3.5 and GPT 4, and Midjourney’s V5 and we are yet to see this innovation in the video space. 

The possibilities that have opened up through these technologies are such that, we can now insert a summary of a plot line for a movie into an application and its language learning model will convert it into a full movie script and another AI application will render the whole movie script. This is diminishing the barriers for people interested in storytelling and narrative. 

In the next few months, AI ‘autonomous agents’ will be introduced which will be integrated with many of our everyday applications such as Google, and Zapier allowing AI to carry out many of the assistant roles of finding and booking the best flights or making reservations at our favourite restaurant. 

The self-improving aspect of AI can have worrying consequences for humanity and many people disapprove of the technology and the scale of its growth at this stage stating we might not be ready to give it a direction that is best for humanity. The alternative thought in favour of AI imagines a future where monotonous and mundane tasks are carried out by AI, leaving humans the freedom to engage in more meaningful activities around health, creativity and relationships. 

Both these experiences of the decaying fabric of society and the rise in technology make us wonder how these two spheres connect and what future we imagine going forward.

It can be argued that the picture painted by authors such as Vanessa Oleveria and Duaglag Hine is correct about the trajectory of the world and AI alone wouldn't make any impact towards our future. And we would also find people who are super optimistic about the technology calling the authors doomers who aren’t aware of the dramatic effect that AI already has on our lives. 

This conversation leads to a lot of important questions;

1.  How would we choose to live in a world where we know it's going to change dramatically but with no clarity in which direction? 

2.  Which lifestyle would people choose if they have two extremes, one where people can go back to living in small communities close to nature versus a highly globalized world where all the work is done by AI while people live a life of leisure?