Hope - the most needed commodity today
Hope is the most sought-after commodity today. Whether we talk about data protection in university administration, the challenges of education on all levels, disruption by and adoption of AI in business, the future of representation learning, or the questions of everyday life: Is there a better narrative than the standard doomsday scenarios broadcasted relentlessly by the media?
I think we need to upgrade our philosophy: If we cannot see any option for a hope-filled tomorrow, and the gradient in any direction points steeply downward, that is likely not a matter of the facts and science of any particular technology or sociology - but a problem of the mindset. What we adopted as our worldview is the problem.
Frankly: AI is a huge thing (it touches almost every aspect of life and business), but not a big deal (meaning, the transformation is lived out one natural step after the other). There are ways to manage this well, if we do not give up our freedom and agency ourselves by becoming passive (whether this is due to feeling intimidated by assumed machine skills or overcome by the availability of convenience).
I hope to elaborate a bit more on some of these themes in the future.