JOIN US‘Being a hunter-gatherer’ in the age of AI
On February 28, I gave a TEDx talk on “being a hunter-gatherer in the age of intelligent machines.” Little did I know that, very soon, Covid-19 would virtually make us live the life of hunter-gatherers. For the past six months, we have lived in small tribes, dressed down, stopped shaving, worked from home, found local sources of food, found time to cook, connected better with families, travelled mostly where our feet take us, slept early, told stories on zoom, and generally lived a life that would have been recognizable to hunter-gatherers from the early age of human existence. I hope we retain some of these aspects post-Covid-19.
However, the TEDx talk was more focused on climate change, technology, and evolutionary human behaviour. For over 200,000 years, our human ancestors evolved as hunter-gatherers. We have been large-scale farmers for 12,000 years, and industrial workers for just 250 years. Human behaviour in the 21st century, at an epigenetic level, is still modeled after our hunter-gatherer ancestors. The historian-author Yuval Harari eloquently debates modern lifestyles versus hunter-gatherer lifestyles through multiple lenses, including that of human happiness. He nuances human happiness, power, and prosperity. Harari also talks extensively about the impact modern lifestyle has on the ecological equilibrium and hence the potential destruction of human prosperity due to reckless consumption.
A good way to discuss the impact of future lifestyles might be to discuss human responsibility and human fulfilment alongside human happiness. And a specific way to discuss the topic of future lifestyles might be about bringing in the hunter-gatherer lifestyle into the world of intelligent machines.
Talking about the world of intelligent machines, folks such as Elon Musk and even Harari have an alarmist view which I do not share. Artificial intelligence (AI) that powers intelligent machines is a technical tool. I have leveraged AI right from 1990 as a graduate student funded by NASA, all the way to my current role as the founder of an AI company changing the way videos will be consumed. Over the recent years, AI has particularly accelerated in development due to the availability of less-expensive computational power. Certain algorithms, such as the convolution neural network, have enabled better ways to deal with data such as images. However, AI is still a tool to accomplish specific tasks based on training with historic data. Unsupervised learning techniques have also existed for a long time and are certainly evolving. General AI tools such as GPT-3 have, so far, performed nothing more than parlour tricks for those who are eager to be impressed. Of course, AI will automate a lot more in the coming years but will remain a tool in human hands and will certainly influence human lifestyles.
As intelligent machines free up our time from dreary tasks, can we go forward to a lifestyle that gives us a sense of long-term fulfilment while also enjoying the short-term happiness provided by technology? Can we have a lifestyle that is sensitive to the ecological balance while continuing to gain increased power of knowledge? The 8-hour workday, and 5-day workweek is already a vestige of the first industrial revolution, which is now reserved for developing economies. A hunter-gatherer lifestyle in the age of intelligent machines would mean work for pay three days a week; continuous learning; being a storyteller, artist; having deep relationships, leverageable weak ties; being connected with the planet; being a custodian, not an owner; slow cooking, slow digesting food; being a low-impact traveller, walking; being in the moment (time and space); leading a full life, a contented life. That sounds fantastic, but will we go down this path or again consume ourselves with an ever-increasing appetite for prosperity and power at the cost of the future of the planet remains to be seen.