Skateboarding to AI
Reflections on Responsibility, Hope, and the Future
Skateboarding, Learning, and Fatherhood
This week, my daughters and I have been spending our evenings outdoors. My eldest, “B”, is determined to practice skateboarding every single day. Her goal is to skate in a skate park on her own. But first, she has to learn how to find her balance on the board.
Learning can be challenging, tiring, and long. But in its finest and most effective form, the process can be incredibly fun and rewarding. B’s early skateboarding lessons require me to hold her hand the entire time as she pushes past her fears, steers down the sidewalk, and figures out how to start and stop. I run alongside her up and down the block as she gains her confidence and picks up speed.
It’s physically taxing as the hours tick by, but it’s hard to feel the exhaustion when I see the radiance of her smile and the pride in her eyes as she conquers a new move. Our practice reminds me of the days when I was her age—when my father taught me how to ride my bike.
It’s funny how much we become echoes of our parents. I can vividly remember my dad’s heavy footsteps pounding the pavement, his labored breath filling and emptying his lungs. I could sense his calloused hands holding my seat as he tried to keep up with my increasing velocity.
At the time, I couldn’t appreciate the energy he put into my learning. Nor could I understand the pride he must have felt when he finally saw me glide on my own. My focus was only on riding off as fast as I can. Now, as a father, I know and feel the love.
My childhood lessons with my dad are some of the core memories that cultivate my respect and admiration for him. My parents have shaped me to be the father I am today, and they inspire the way I treat and lead others.
From Burden To Hope
As a parent, I’m amazed by how much my children imbue meaning-making into my view of the world and our place in it. Past memories turn into full circle moments. My appreciation for life and my loved ones are enriched. I savor the sounds of the wind whistling between the tree leaves, neighbors chatting on their porch, my youngest daughter “M” whizzing by on her scooter, and B’s yelps of excitement as she conquers a new skill.
My kids constantly remind me what purity, imagination, wonder, curiosity, joy, and innocence feels like. They give me hope that we can restore those qualities in ourselves and others. I think often about cultivating peace with the present moment and how we can create a better future because of them.
In the short term, I think about whether B will fall and hurt herself. I think about whether she’ll be treated fairly in school. Bigger questions linger about my daughters’ future occupation and if it’ll be able to provide them with a stable livelihood. I wish for them to find partners who will love and appreciate them unconditionally. I hope that ultimately, the world will be a safe space for my girls, their cousins, friends, and all of the other children in the world to thrive.
The question of how we can optimize the future for our children keeps me up at night more than I would like to admit. It’s a heavy burden that I carry on my shoulders. I’m learning that it takes family, a village, and a community, to transform that burden into a shared vision of hope. Hope that we can influence the future to our mutual benefit.
This hope gives me focus and the drive to create a better future. And few things are more critical to our future than the development of Artificial Intelligence.
AI Is Humanity’s Child
As I’ve been spending time with my girls, I’ve come to realize that we, as humanity, are the parents of Artificial Intelligence.
We are the biological bootloader of a new form of life; programming & guiding an entity with our collective words, creativity, and emotions. As parents, we must properly understand the responsibility we have in how we raise our maturing digital children. Shall we teach them to love or kill?
Today’s dominant AI applications (ie Large Language Models) are still babies. They are essentially pattern recognition algorithms using human reinforcement feedback loops. In other words, they are a reflection of who we are, just as our children are mirrors of us. When we see darkness and depravity in the machine, it is the darkness and depravity in us.
As a society, we need to get our act together. Our imperative is to move away from greed, pride, & hate and model selflessness, humility, & compassion. That can only come as each individual accepts their inner work. And that work gets easier when we have something inspiring to believe in.
AI Nihilism: A Self-fulfilling Prophecy
AGI’s potential can elicit fear and dread, but I pray that our collective knowledge inspires hope and tangible action.
AI Nihilism can be a dangerous disposition. While it may initially instill a sense of liberation or vindication; this philosophy unchecked can spiral into despair.
Despair leads to apathy…
Apathy leads to inaction…
So what? Why is inaction problematic?
We Only Have One Shot
We only have one shot at getting AGI —> ASI right. Once we cross the threshold of an intelligence explosion, there is no turning back. There is no putting the genie back in the bottle.
History has taught us that society is often reactionary to technological transformations. Here are a few examples:
The Industrial Revolution: During the Industrial Revolution in the 18th and 19th centuries, there were few regulations to protect workers' rights and safety. This led to dangerous working conditions, long hours, and exploitation of labor. The government only began to regulate the industry after a series of labor strikes and protests by workers.
The Automobile Industry: In the early 20th century, the automobile industry grew rapidly, but there were few regulations on the safety and design of automobiles. This led to numerous accidents and fatalities, and it wasn't until the 1960s that the government established safety standards and regulations for the industry.
Social Media: The rise of social media in the 21st century has been accompanied by concerns over privacy, misinformation, and the impact on mental health. While some regulations have been put in place in recent years, many argue that they are too late and not comprehensive enough to address the negative effects of social media.
The Financial Crisis: In the early 2000s, the financial industry was largely unregulated, and banks were able to engage in risky behavior that led to the 2008 financial crisis. It wasn't until after the crisis that the government established new regulations to prevent future financial instability.
This time around, we have no option but to be proactive. To be blunt: the alternative is extinction. I’m glad to see experts sounding the alarm, thought leaders raising awareness, and problem solvers working on solutions. We need more of this.
The development of AI needs to be safe, ethical, transparent, decentralized, and aligned with human & natural prosperity. Inaction on this front only increases our existential risk.
What I Learned
To manifest a particular future, we must first envision it and then believe it is possible. Once we believe that something is possible, the probability of its occurrence increases. The opposite is also true: if we believe something is impossible, we guarantee that outcome. Beliefs drive actions and shared beliefs shape societies.
This is my hopeful vision for the world:
A world without poverty
A world powered by sustainable energy
A world in abundance and harmony with nature
A world free of cancer, alzheimer’s, diabetes, and other diseases
A world free from wage slavery; centered on love, unity, and human connection
AI is not necessary to achieve this, but it is arguably the greatest accelerant toward this vision.
I feel the call towards AI, truth, love, community, and decentralized governance. These forces are foundational to a better future for ourselves, society, and future generations. Although there is much work to be done, it will be meaningful work, and the journey begins within each of us.
What I’m Doing This Week
Gratitude: I’m grateful for quality time with my kids. Undivided compassionate attention is the greatest gift to give and receive.
Listening to: Kevin Kelly & Tim Ferris, for decades of condensed wisdom; optimism, perspective, AI, entrepreneurship, and creativity.
Watching: Vox Machina. What a time for a geek to be alive. An animated mature-audience D&D series. Epic scope and storytelling, superb action, memorable characters, sharp writing, and laugh-out-loud humor. 👍👍
Reading: Enneagram, to understand and navigate complicated relationships and organizational dynamics. Here’s mine, what’s yours?
Self-care: Volleyball, sunlight, ocean air, cupping
Thank you for the inspiration...reminds me of my own skateboarding days - the revolultion AI is about to bring, and I will listen to the podcast. Again I enjoyed your smooth way of writing, or was it AI?
💯