How to navigate changing times?

Reeta Dhar
5 days ago
8 min read

Life is ebbs and flows - but how to navigate it all?

A video popped up on my tiktok feed recently - featuring a middle aged school teacher sitting at his desk correcting assignments, with the following caption:

"My students are asking me, how come I have an email address with my actual name?"

His response (sanitised version),

"Because I was around for the birth of the email ..."

Who else remembers being alive in the late 90s - at the dawn of the internet?

A fad for kids and nerds

When the internet first arrived, it was largely dismissed as a plaything for kids and nerds...

To be fair that's how we mostly used it.

I fondly remember signing up for my hotmail in my final year of high school back in 1998. My tag was so embarrassing I dare not repeat it. We'd take turns on our family computer after school to join dial-up internet, doing little more than burning time chatting to random strangers from distant corners of the planet in chat rooms (they were not as bad as this makes it sound). For kids who had never left the shores they were born in, it was thrilling.

There was no Wikipedia or indeed Google. Yahoo! was all the rage.

No one had envisioned or could predict how much our world would change in the decade or two that would follow. Incidentally, the first industry to exploit the commercial potential of the internet was ... any guesses?

Yes, 'adult entertainment' led the way!

Dawn of AI

So, here we all are - alive for the birth of the next groundbreaking technology - Artificial Intelligence (AI). It already feels like yesterday's news. The only problem is that AI will be far more consequential than any other technology in human history ...

Just as with the internet, no one can predict exactly what shape AI will take over the next decade or two, but we can safely assume that the change it heralds in, will be profound.

Having said this, AI isn't the only paradigm shift we are witnessing at this time ...

The three paradigm shifts

Three paradigm shifts are transpiring that will have transform our familiar world:

Geopolitics is shifting: We are no longer living in a unipolar world where the USA is happy to take on the role of a righteous policeman protecting liberal values, human rights and world peace. Their track record was not exactly exemplary ... but since world war two it did deliver a prolonged period of relative peace and stability. This ended last November when the average American, looking to get a better deal for themselves and their family, elevated a man into power who somewhat ironically had the same goal in mind. In the last six months this man has shamelessly exploited every advantage the USA had, to secure just that - a better deal for himself and his family... Meanwhile global trade, strategic alliances and diplomatic norms have been upended. What's really worrying is that international law, and the institutions who governed it all, have also been largely neutered. Apart from empty rhetoric there seems to be no real avenues available to the global community to meaningfully intervene to de-escalate conflicts, prosecute crimes and prevent human suffering.
Climate has changed: Remember what the scientists used to say when asked about the first noticeable impact of climate change - largely same climatic patterns but with more extreme weather events? That pretty much sums up the weather reports of the past few years. Climate change is playing out here and now, but given everything else that is going on, the issue has been put on the global backburner. Apparently, once AI is actually intelligent, it will solve even this problem for us. But what if our future AI overlords recommend extermination of the human race as a potential solution (an issue known as the alignment problem)?
AI development has accelerated: There is more money being invested into AI than any other thing in human history! What really gets me is the speed at which AI programs that routinely hallucinate (tell lies) are being rolled out. The tech industry's lobbying efforts have also paid off -- legislating any sort of restriction on AI development or safety has effectively been banned in the US for the next decade and governments, even in Australia, are entertaining talks of removing copyright protection for all authors in favour of training AI. The technocrats however continue to enjoy unbridled IP protections for their "creations", which will soon commandeer the sum of human knowledge and creativity. The blatant gaslighting is infuriating but what's even worse is seeing the precious resources of our planet being gobbled up by the mega data centres powering these beasts - with not even a single thought being put to taxing them for the negative externalities.

We are already seeing the first order impacts of these paradigm shifts play out - and while there have been some positives (e.g. applying AI to solve the protein folding problem), most other anecdotes suggest we are regressing to a world where ethics, equality and public good takes a backseat to power, greed and personal ambition.

Any Silver linings?

Human being are generally an optimistic bunch - it has proven to be a useful evolutionary trait. For whatever reason, I have always resisted the urge to be optimistic, for the sake of optimism. I feel it is much more useful to be realistic. My realistic take on our situation is that nothing lasts forever.

No matter how hopeless the current geopolitical or socio-economic tide may seem, even this will come to pass and when it does, we will have the opportunity to build a better future for our world. Realistically though, there is much work to be done to realise this ideal.

Corruption and hypocrisy have never been more obvious than it is now...

I cannot help but feel that this is a good thing as there is no longer any ambiguity on what, who and where the corrupt and corruptible forces in our society are. When the time comes to reform and redesign our systems and institutions, we will know which aspects need changing.

Similarly, incorruptible, courageous and wise voices are also now standing out. It is only a matter of time that we see leaders emerge from this crowd -- leaders who will win our trust and vote to do the work needed to reform our societies.

It is also entirely possible that a more just global order (laws, systems and institutions) may yet emerge. In many ways, this was long overdue.

We need global institutions where power is shared more evenly within member states, where decisions are made more fairly and where for critical global issues eg the climate of our planet, global interest take precedence over national interest. Stronger frameworks for accountability also need to be developed with clear, targeted penalties for non compliance by member states whilst affording protections for innocent populations. Critically, there should be no room for double standards -- we should be able to criticise our friends, with the same (if not greater) ferocity as we do our foe when they step out of line ...

Finally, a more enlightened population may also emerge from all this.

A nation's collective ability to learn and not repeat mistakes made by others has been aptly demonstrated in the recent Canadian and Australian elections: Seeing the chaos unleashed by Trump was all that Canadians and Aussies needed to obliterate dubious politicians, hell bent on causing divisions and pursuing economic policies that favoured their billionaire funders at the expense of all others.

With many businesses and farmers in the US quietly tallying up their losses, public servants facing job losses, academics facing funding grant cuts, immigrants fearing the wrath of ICE and every day Americans still waiting on the wars to end and their economic wellbeing to rise (and the Epstein files to be released) ... it is highly unlikely that another Trump-like candidate will get re-elected any time soon.

That in itself will bring about much needed change and perhaps lead to a higher calibre of people entering the political class -- in the US and world wide.

The combination of better politicians, backed by a more enlightened populace is what may finally lead to groundbreaking work being done to tackle climate change and get the most out of AI, while managing the downside risks posed by the technology.

Positive changes are afoot

We may be optimistic creatures but our news media suffers from a negativity bias. The underreported 'bright side' is that positive changes are already underway.

It may have taken a while but politicians worldwide are busily working to forge new economic alliances (even as they put on embarrassing performances to appease the mad king) -- These are key to keeping the peace.

The shift to renewables and electrification is also well underway, driven to a large part by China's ambition and manufacturing might in the field. Although the transition appears to be slowing in some areas e.g. EVs, it is inevitable the shift will occur as electrified tech is objectively better than the incumbent non-electrified versions...

The one space that still needs more attention -- and public engagement -- is AI.

AI should be a public asset - not owned by private, for-profit monopolies

Just to be clear, I feel that there is a lot of upside to developing AI. It may indeed solve some of the entrenched issues e.g. around energy and medicine.

The problem I have is with the business model that is being used to develop the tech -- a privatised, for-profit funded by venture capitalist (read ultra wealthy investors) and global tech monopolies.

As tech monopolies try to hoover up the sum of human knowledge and creativity (for free) to create better AI, this should come with a mandate to issue majority ownership back to the public.

Why? Because without our collective knowledge, their AI cannot be.

Politicians should not be entertaining any notion of making our IP free. For once they have real bargaining power -- they should use this to demand a better deal for the people they represent.

Public ownership of this critical asset will ensure that the profits from AI replaces the tax revenue that governments will lose as the labour force gets replaced with AI. This income can then be repurposed to provide the appropriate form of social security - something that will be essential as the society adjusts to the new norm.

Tech bros are not shy about asking the world to look the other way when it comes to IP rights -- we should not be shy about asking for our rightful share of companies they are building to replace us.

Wisdom, hope and a willingness to do the work

When I started writing this piece, I did not see any silver linings. I was in fact feeling quite down at the state of the world. But writing has always been a wonderful therapy.

Putting noisy thoughts down onto paper frees the mind to think more deeply. In this instance it reminded me of the enduring wisdom that inspired our fourth Willow the Wonderer book: 'All things come to pass.'

Wisdom gives us perspective. It shows us that there is always scope for change and with that, hope that things will improve. It also shows us that things are never as bad as they seem.

But it is not just wishful thinking that gives us change. Change is an intentional process: We need to have thought through and wanted that change, and being willing to do the work to realise it.

I for one feel optimistic that in the years to come, we all will do just that.

To answer the question I started this piece with -- How to navigate changing times?

With wisdom and hope - and a willingness to do the work to deliver positive change.

If you are thinking about the work you can do to contribute, I'd say pick up the pen and write a letter to your local Federal MP that they drop any notion of waiving IP rights of authors, artists, scientists, journalists, academics or indeed anyone who has ever published anything.