Earn More, Live Better, Thrive Longer

Rule 1 of Genie School: Be VERY careful what you wish for

Aladdin

Rule #0 is to never take on the AI genie on its home ground. Genie is like a cold and boundless ocean, a magnificent resource and adventure without end, but unless you quickly learn how to navigate you will disappear without trace. Get used to exercising all your senses. Not just the ‘big five’ of sound, touch, sight, smell, and taste – include sense of time, sense of being, sense of community – you have hundreds of senses so re discover and use them. Hence the multiple stories and images and sounds that thread throughout this book, they are part of my process. Two more points that came to mind: 

• People were seriously wondering if it is riskier to stay inside an organisation than to work outside. Staying inside, by their logic, they risked being replaced and rendered invisible. They could be drained of their skills, of what they do then cast adrift, lost, without support.
• Ignore headlines and AI prompts. They are useless until you develop a deep understanding and love for independence, critical thinking, research and an ability to develop and articulate a position on a on any side of any topic while on your feet. Deep, informed dialog is the key.

My logic: either AI is going to ‘take me out’ or it won’t. It will develop the skills to do 95% of what I do now……. But if it does, then why not get in on the ground floor, learn its strengths and weaknesses? Contribute to communities who are setting up this brave new world–and harvest new opportunities. If AI cannot deliver, then it is back to business as usual. This does not have to be a full-time job, just a few hours a day to practise.

The plan is to figure out what no AI can ever do on its own. Meantime, use the skills I have built up over the last four disruptions in technology (more on that later) to learn how to be an authentic partner. Learn how to work alongside the new systems. We each play to our strengths and cover each other’s weak spots. It is a hedged bet. It allows me to navigate my path. On a good day, I am immune to the changes that are to come.

How terrifying and anxious and exhilarating is the feeling? I choose to exhilarate. For instance, if you look back at the old spy and crime thrillers from the 80s, 90s…… right up to say, five years ago. What seemed miraculous in those movies is commonplace today. This will continue. What appears as pure sorcery today will be at each person’s fingertips soon.

Has this happened before? Yes, but the examples are many centuries apart. Two examples spring to mind.

This has happened before

It is 1492, and tomorrow you embark on an incredible mission with Christopher Columbus. How does it feel? As you stand dockside, you look out to sea, feel the breeze on your face, and try not to think about falling off the face of the Earth, or of the massive sea monsters sliding around in the dark beneath the creaking hull, or dragons swooping down out of nowhere. If you make it alive, try not to think of the baffling tribes, genies, or witches that roam freely. Feel this in your gut, not just in your head, because believe it or not, we approach a greater precipice today.

Imagine showing Columbus your phone, sliding your finger across its screen, and witnessing high-definition images and voices that can tell him anything and everything he ever wanted to know. How is that not a Genie? Also, the technology has the potential to eradicate our species. How is that not a Dragon? We will return to Columbus as it is informative to compare his one-year trip and the challenges and changes it brought about to where we are today, setting sail into the unknown. If your gut isn’t heaving as you imagine what AI will bring–just as the voyagers fretted as the ships pulled out to sea, then the only question you need to answer is:

Why not?

Understanding what will not change is the essence of navigation. They are the signs, the landmarks, behaviours, and skills that allow you to overcome challenges which are unimaginable today. Could Columbus and crew describe their reception and encounters on landing in the New World? They used Authentic Intelligence. I cover how to develop YOUR Authentic Intelligence in the coming chapters. So, if all you seek is advance notice on what may happen next in AI in order to adapt and pivot, and jiggle and wriggle, then farewell and good luck. This is not the book for you.

 On board this training run, I hope to create two impressions in your mind:

• Yes, today is what it must have felt like to be aboard Columbus’s mission.
• Yes, I have what it takes to navigate this journey, no matter what happens. Bring it on.

A word on terminology: I refer to the term ‘Silicon Genie’ instead of AI throughout the book. I do this because it stresses the two-way nature of any dialog, rather than something that just ‘happens’ to me. AI is a meaningless, passive acronym. It allows for terrible, muddled mental misuse – like the term ‘the science’. It is nonsense and should be called out. What we need is a metaphor because a metaphor is active. Metaphor does two things at once: it affects how we see and therefore how we act in the world. Metaphors literally change our perceptions and how we act. We fly through work, we carry our weight, we mind our money. It changes the way we see and interact with the world. The metaphors we train our Genie with are how the genie will interact with us.

Referring to Genie also keeps Rule 1 in mind all the time:

Genie lesson #1…. Be VERY careful what you wish for.

Used regularly, this method of working alongside Genie has completely changed how I live and work. This book is an example, and not because it was a sprint of 12 weeks. It is because it is the new process – learn by doing. The current naïve plan is for two more books, a 3D animation series and a comic in the next twelve months. The truth? It is huge fun. As we interact with it, the Genie response develops. I am learning to see myself as a trainer,

One last point: play nice.

This disruption is different because it is a merger and not a replacement or an implant of any technology. Humanity has not had such a shakeup in its fundamental beliefs in over 500 years and it will cause considerable upheaval. However, it is important to understand that this happens regularly in nature, ever since life first emerged; it is built-in to evolution. Example: A group known as archaea were among the first examples of life on earth. Each a single cell floating around, capable of sensing but with only prediction to help nudge it toward good stuff and away from bad stuff. The better the cell became at predicting in this way, the more it got to propagate. Just sensing and prediction. No perception, no nervous system of any sort. An unconsciously competent process. Somehow, another critter got absorbed within the cell wall of a single cell. This critter could generate huge amounts of excess energy, bundled up into a particular molecule. The invader continued to produce this molecule in massive quantities, it enabled the host to act as if it had a jet pack, an iron man battery. The new balance of talent meant that it made no sense to dismantle the invader. By playing nice, both agents made huge gains.

Each cell of our body use this molecule to this very day. See where I am going? A new balance of talents created an entirely different way of being. It is was merger, not a replacement or an implant or an upgrade.

The archaea leveraged the extra energy, which allowed the cell to move, act, and digest in novel ways. The invader gained a relatively safe environment inside the host, with free access to a range of nutrients– plus a free mini bar and no worries about predators. Neither party was recognizable from what went before.

Did this happen? Yes, it happened. This is an example of how unconscious but competent actions, with no consciousness or perception, just sensing and signalling using molecules, can change the entire trajectory of life on earth. 

There had to be sensing and signalling that brought about a change in behaviour to both units. There is no need for any mind, intelligence, or voodoo because it comes free from the universe itself. What could that have looked like? There are lots of options. Previously both units would have sensed the next action–to move, release chemical X or whatever and somehow the new combined mix of chemicals would have created a different prediction by altering the composition and density of the chemicals inside which created a new stable balance. Perhaps the combination somehow changed the old stress responses, which always happen when respiration occurs (and which continues to this very day). Perhaps the separate units influenced each other’s predicted response by exchanging raw materials or other building blocks (called metabolites). All using sensing, like an automatic door. No intelligence required.

The key point: this ability to ‘play nice’ has been operational for over 2 billion Earth years. Literally built into all living things. Every organelle (our body bits) grows, does its thing, and interacts in a ‘play nice’ way to maintain balance. To the benefit of all components. Anything that does not play well long-term gets eliminated. Consider this before forming any opinion on the Genie.