Mind & Machine
Are we here - at this moment - to work with the machines?
Our relationship to computers has always fascinated me. My fascination developed as I developed.
Growing up in the 90s, computers were mostly in business and creeped into schools during middle my school years. Then, all of a sudden in the late-90s, computers were at home and came with internet. At the same time.
To me, computers (and now devices) are synonymous with internet, and in a way they’re one. And now, they’re both associated with apps, Ai, and all the things they can do for you. The end result is infinite information, available always. In all ways.
Think about it: computers (or any device) without internet, and internet without a device to access it? And now, internet without apps, platforms, or services? A world without information-on-demand? Pas possible! (as the French say)
Fast-forward to college, where I studied communication. I studied the relationship between information, design, digital platforms, marketing, and media.
One of my favorite topics was (and still is) the idea of how information is accessed and processed. In grad school, I studied how information would be transformed “online,” and how it would one-day replace “traditional” media like physical newspapers and magazines.
What’s the difference between engaging something interactive online, versus holding a piece of paper? The possibilities were endless.
As students, it was our job to think critically about what that meant for the way information was distributed, written, and consumed. The systems of information were changing, and we had to understand how it all worked: for manufacturers of information, and for those consuming it.
For one of my thesis projects, I dug into the way our relationship with information and technology changes, as information and technology constantly change.
Let’s over-simplify a few major shifts in accessing information:
With encyclopedias, we had to find and remember information. We had to know where to look, and had to remember it, or write it down with references for others about where to find it.
Enter Google and search engines, we became good at searching for information. We could just search for it. It’s always there. Just a click away, using just a few words. Why remember it when anyone can just find it? But, we still had to do something with the information once we found it.
Now with Ai, we prompt for solutions. We don’t even need to know what we’re looking for, or what to do with it. With one prompt, we find the data and the machine does the crunching for us. Voilà!
With the machine doing all the hard work now, what does that mean for our minds? Instead of remembering information and exercising our brain muscle, are we only prompt-monkeys?
In the absence of having to critically think about information and its meaning, what are we even doing here?
Finding balance between mind and machine is my new obsession: The physical systems of technology, and the emotional (and cultural) systems of the people using it.
If the masses are using these tools, and the way the machines guide our information becomes social and intellectual currency, you better start understanding those conversions, or you’ll be left behind.
Back to the big question: if information and intellectual systems are changing at light-speed, what does that mean for us?
“The machine” isn’t going away. It’s here to stay, and yes, it’s going to make a lot of things easier, but we have to be diligent and vigilant about our place in it. If we’re saving so much time and effort, what do we do with it?
For example, me. I love sharing ideas, but sometimes the struggle to get them out is real. ChatGPT can give me a marketing plan, make content right-sized for social media, and quickly create a business plan in an instant. How easy was that?
So now, I get to focus on what I love, and what I’m here for: big ideas, connecting with people, and the spiritual layer around us. The machine can’t do that for me.
We’re not against the machines, but we do have to evolve with them. We need to use them for what they’re good for, and use that free space to focus on our own algorithm: being human, enjoying the human experience, and connecting with our soul’s expression.
We’re all here—at this very moment in time—for this reason. I believe we all are here to adapt and work with this technology, in this way, to get the absolute-most out of lives. We chose this time and space to get exactly this experience. But we need to realize we’re working with the machine, never for it, and ideally it-for-us.
Now that the technology systems find, remember, and crunch infinite information so we don’t have to, we’re on the hook for doing what the machines can’t: living, enjoying, and feeling.
Are you inside the machine, or does it work for you?
💬 If this sparked something in you—don’t let it sit in your head.
Tell me what landed. Tell me what cracked open.
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I work with creative leaders and soulful professionals ready to jump out of the system — and into something more human, more powerful, more you.