In the last post we discussed two paths of moving from A to B with the support of Chat GPT. To illustrate we defined point A as a place where we are motivated to find an answersolution and point B, a place where the answersolution has been satisfied. The key theme focused on the idea that if we outsource all our problem solving and answer seeking to Generating AI we will become more efficient, but at the expense of our perspectival and participatory knowledge.
Seeking a solution is not always about finding a correct answer and finding it in the fastest time. Most human problem solving is about finding a good enough solution (Simon, 1954). All options in any complex situation cannot be noticed and evaluated, otherwise we would be presented with combinatorial explosion (ibid). Combinatorial explosion, a concept developed by AI pioneer and social researcher Herb Simon, suggests that humans would be overwhelmed immediately if they were forced to consider all variables in a problem space. To prevent this, human beings zero in on what is relevant (Thompson, 2014).
When in a problem space, something grabs our attention from the external world as the place to start (Thompson, 2014). This is the role of intuition. Bergson (1999) beautifully captures how we experience life as a flow, but we turn our experience into a range of concepts and disciplines via the scientific method. The scientific method has its significant role in human existence but, observes Bergson (ibid), this should not come at the expense of diminishing the role of intuition.
Bergson (1999) continues that we can go from intuition to analysis, but we can never go from analysis to intuition; the phenomenology is lost and reduced to category. If we examine the points made by Simon on combinatorial explosion, and Bergson on intuition, it seems reasonable to conclude that intuition is essential to beginning any human journey; from deciding what product to buy from a range of options, through to finding our way down from a mountain in poor weather.
If intuition is essential to human experience, then it follows that we need to trust it and use it (McGilchrist, 2021). If we demote intuition by outsourcing our problem solving to generative AI, then echoing Bergson (1999), we cannot move from the AI produced analysis back to intuition; something is lost.
Discovering our own solutions to problems is a co-created process with the external world. Our intuitions grab something in the problem space, and we act upon. Our actions test the effectiveness of our intuitions, and this allows us to revise and update them, to sharpen our intuitions. During our discovery we may take many wrong turns, but it is all learning. The result is when we find ourselves facing a similar problem in the future, what initially grabs us as relevant is more likely to be effective. In other words, the world affords itself to us in more productive ways (Gibson, 1979).
If we outsource too much problem solving to AI, then it reduces our chances of acting effectively when we are forced to go without it. Returning to Bergson (1999) we are allowing the AI to grab affordances from the external world on our behalf and divorcing ourselves from the process.
Too much AI (also read technology) dependence would increase the chances of anxiety as we would not know what to zero in on in technology absent situations, we would be stuck in constant evaluation without selection (McGilchrist, 2021). Elements of the world would afford themselves to us, but without trust in our own intuitions, we would be fearful to act on them, and anxiety fills the void.
Once again, we need to develop the skills to participate effectively with AI. We need to be alert to situations when time is the crucial factor and AI can help us move from A to B efficiently. Equally, we must be aware of situations and opportunities when we can take ownership of our discovery and develop skill and trust in using our intuitions. If we take Bergson seriously, once we have moved to analysis we cannot return to intuition. If we have played no part in producing the analysis, our intuitions have been left blowing in the wind, with nowhere to land.
Reading
Bergson, H. (1999). Introduction to Metaphysics. Translated by T. E. Hulme. Gnosis Press.
Gibson, J. J. (1979). The Ecological Approach to Visual Perception. Houghton Mifflin.
McGilchrist, I., 2021. The Matter with Things: Our Brains, Our Delusions, and the Unmaking of the World. What Then is True?. Volume Two. Perspectiva Press
Simon, H. A. (1956). Administrative Behavior: A Study of Decision-Making Processes in Administrative Organizations. Free Press
Simon, H. A. (1969). The Sciences of the Artificial. The MIT Press.
Thompson, E. (2014). Mind in Life: Biology, Phenomenology, and the Sciences of Mind. Harvard University Press.
