After a joyous week in London, I returned home to the peace and quiet of my little mountain life. But to get there I had to go through so-called airport x-ray screening, where artificial intelligence is being used to flag suspect objects. Some people say AI (like the dark foreigner who lands upon lily white shores) is going to take people’s jobs away. Well, all the security workers I witnessed on this journey were run off their feet. It appears to me much of the modern world, dominated by artificial intelligence, has gone a new kind of Banana Republic.
The Airport Scanner
After walking through the body scanner, I had to be “patted down”. AI spotted something suspicious in the right pocket of my cargo trousers. Well done. I thought I had completely emptied my pockets. No. AI scrutinised me and identified my flaw, which lead to the stop and search moment. A nice lady’s hands moved lightly and smoothly across my body until she found the innocent trigger. What remained had eluded by my hand and judgement. The machine and she found a tiny crinkled up chocolate rapper. Once removed, she released me.
Then, I looked to see how well my backpack on the conveyor belt had done in comparison to my body. What I saw was like a 100 car pile-up of bags and suitcases. It looked as though 70% of all luggage that went through the x-ray machine was flagged and corralled down the dreaded righthand lane to be inspected by human hand. My bag was one of them. Having been working hard not to be a member of a complaining class. I just stood, watched, tracked, listened and prepared.
After about 15 minutes, my bag was picked up and its rightful owner called for like a lost child in Banksy’s dystopian bemusement park, Dismaland. I raised my hand and my voice to call attention to myself.
The Contraband
Gently he opened my backpack. He asked if I had a piece of paper laid against my laptop. Maybe. I had no idea. And even if I did, how is that a security issue? He reached into the darkened crevice of my bag and fumbled around until he touched the contraband. My transgression? A concealed bar of chocolate, the larger culprit connected to the rapper that just had me body-checked.
“A chocolate bar? Really?” I said out loud to him. “Well, you’ll never be out of a job if the machine is making decisions like this.” I continued. The security guard (today we call such a worker a ‘Human-in-the Loop’) showed a calm, resigned knowingness of the absurdity. He showed a soft acceptance of an omnipotent, omnipresent and flawed AI system, as he went through the motions of his task.
That is when he told me the machine flags all sorts of objects. Bananas. Books. Chocolate bars. Magazines. Children’s toys. It felt like the machine had been programmed literally to take so much of our joy and fun out of life, not to identify security threats. Still, I was comforted by the Human-in-the-Loop interaction between the security guard and me.
Peaceful Coexistence
This is not a denigration of artificial intelligence. To the contrary. I am a fan of its power, and what it can do to help, not to hinder human society. I am a fan as to what it can do to make us smarter not dumber and number (Wait! And heaven help me as I write this blog. I just realised that word “number”…in terms of feeling nothing, is spelled the same was as the word number…in terms of an individual having no identity, just digits 0100100100101000. Are we all at risk of becoming number numbers? Ha! This is not the way I expected to end this post. But there we go. Another epiphany at 7am).
Artificial intelligence is here to stay. Here are two important questions we must ask: “Is AI really simply a harmless tool to improve efficiency and to reduce cost?”. “Is AI be a powerful solider of our modern Banana Republic era?”. I mean, it is extracting our human intelligence for its own good, which it says (0r those who control it say) is for our own good. But, part of me has a deep sense of being ‘gaslighted’. We can see that it is bringing with it real threats to the arts & humanities. Like a hostile and friendly alien being, how do we live peacefully with and within it? We must move to preserve the beauty of what it means to be human, the good, the bad and the ugly.
Embrace Curiosity and Act Diplomatically
Many of us, I know, feel disturbed, ill-at-ease, resistant, suspicious about and uncomfortable with AI culture. A counterculture to AI is dawning and deeply desired. But here’s the thing. Humans were here first. Officially, AI has created a counterculture to human intelligence.
It is time to refocus on the original loop….the human loop. This is a big test of of how well we can all work together to protect our humanity. By shifting back to a culture defined first and foremost by humans, inviting AI into the loop, we can take back our agency, our autonomy, our sovereignty. Slow down, weigh up the good, the bad and the unknowns, and find ways to work together rather than using AI as the next battleground for human division. Remember the age old adage “Divide and Conquer”? Be careful. Avoid the split. Engage in civil dialogue with your opponents; be diplomatic. Find ways to work together, and to turn this Age of AI to the good. None of us can afford to sit on the sidelines, particularly if we are committed to the wellbeing of humanity.
Human Flourishing
Human Flourishing that is part of the work of The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development. These competencies are for people of all ages:
- Adaptive Problem-Solving involves varying behaviours and understanding to address novel, complex challenges where routine solutions fail. It combines problem-solving processes (identifying problems, searching information, exploring solutions, implementing actions) with self-regulated learning (planning, adapting to feedback, maintaining engagement). This competency is essential for designing and building future societies, economies, and organisations.
- Ethical Competence equips individuals to evaluate and respond to others’ claims, combat prejudice, and balance needs with the rights of other species and the planet. The curriculum model distinguishes five sub-competencies: perceiving situations ethically, reasoning ethically, making ethical judgments, making ethical decisions, and acting ethically. This competency combines intellectual humility, the ability to balance diverse viewpoints, and orientation toward the common good.
- Understanding the World builds on global competence frameworks but goes deeper, proposing that young people must synthesise four major worldviews: indigenous (tribe, myth, integration with nature), pre-modern (religious and community norms), modern (science, democracy, individual-society balance), and post-modern (critique without replacement). This synthesis, termed “meta-modernity,” helps young people navigate complexity and restore meaning by reconciling competing perspectives.
- Appreciating the World relates to aesthetic perception and the experience of beauty in nature and the arts. The provision of experiences that are interesting, memorable, and worthy of revisiting are thus important. The Framework highlights aesthetic appreciation beyond one’s local cultures, arguing that engaging with beauty across cultures develops better humans and citizens who value the world, remain open-minded, and understand multidimensionality.
- Acting in the World sits at the apex as the central competency, defined as the ability to develop and deploy agency by identifying purpose, developing intent, and undertaking activities. This addresses the widespread inability among young people to locate purpose. Acting on the world requires moving from awareness and intent to specific actions, whether in arts, design, sports, volunteering, or other chosen activities.
Let’s get to work! Let’s stay at a work! Together!
