Untethering from Technology

Men have become the tools of their tools," Henry David Thoreau warned in 1854; philosophers Marshall McLuhan and John M. Culkin later echoed: "We shape our tools, and thereafter, our tools shape us." Whenever our tools no longer serve our deeper purposes—drawing us instead into a vortex of infinite scrolls and notifications—intention has been... See more

Writer and artist Austin Kleon uses two desks: an “analog” desk for generating ideas by hand, and a “digital” desk for refining work on a computer. This spatial boundary is more than a productivity hack; it’s a physical manifestation of conscious choice regarding when and how technology serves his creative process.

The future of our creations, especially AI, depends on whether we design them as extensions of our highest aspirations or unwitting amplifiers of our unexamined shadows.

As our understanding deepens, we recognize that the relationship between human consciousness and artificial intelligence represents perhaps the most consequential application of intention in human history.

Reducing humans to "users" in this race to monetize attention is subtly but profoundly dehumanizing.

People will pay for the convenience of not poring through internet sludge all day and having someone clarify what they need to know.”

Technology magnifies the consciousness of its creators; AI especially mirrors our collective intentions, fears, biases, and aspirations. If our motivations are primarily extraction and control, we will see a rapid and breathtaking amplification of those shadows.