The Big Value of a Big Vision: AI x AI
Author: Tom Morris
We’re now poised on the shore of great adventures to come in response to amazing opportunities that lie ahead, propelled by expertly designed systems AI, well-chosen and properly deployed. But any technology that can be used well can also be used badly. How can we then position ourselves to assure that the adventures to come will be great ones, positive journeys into a future from which we’ll all in some way benefit?
As a philosopher, I think it’s important for us to consider the idea of AI Squared, AI x AI, a new notion of Artificial Intelligence multiplied by a collaboration with the other great AI of Ancient Insights. Our history is full of wisdom that we need right now, to guide us forward in the most positive ways. If you’re implementing the resources of artificial intelligence in your work or hope to do so in new ways very soon, there’s something important to consider.
A Big Vision
The very ancient Book of Proverbs says, “Without a vision, people perish.” And, for sure, we don’t truly flourish. Aristotle understood deeply the connection between human flourishing and excellence in anything we do. Something quite important is needed for both our peak well-being and our maximal well-doping, and it’s something that’s too often left out of modern business endeavors. But when it’s brought in and cultivated properly, any new technologies we implement are used better and produce greater results.
You’ve likely heard an old story: Three men are working at a construction site, apparently doing the same thing, and they’re independently stopped and asked, “What are you doing here today?” The first guy, with more than a touch of irritation in his voice, says, “I’m haulin’ rocks, can't you see?” A bit later, the second answers, “I’m helping to put up a wall.” And finally, the third worker smiles and says, “We’re building a cathedral.”
That third guy articulates the attitude we want for ourselves and our partners in any worthy endeavor. The details are always important. But so is the big vision. And so is a sense of nobility, or high value, about what we’re doing together. A great sense of mission and purpose can bring a smile. It’s also the most reliable source of careful, creative work, and the potential excellence that alone brings.
Communicating the Big Picture
Many people attribute to the author of the classic book The Little Prince the idea that if we want to explore what lies in and across the ocean that reaches far beyond us, we shouldn't just teach others to build boats, but to long for the exciting adventure of the sea. The quote that conveys that idea and often circulates on social media is this:
“If you want to build a ship, don’t drum up the men and women to gather wood, divide the work, and give orders. Instead, teach them to yearn for the vast and endless sea.”
And, while a little fact-checking shows that this is apparently not a genuine quote at all, it nonetheless does roughly summarize a lesson in the author Antoine de Saint-Exupéry’s 1948 book Citadelle, Section LXXV, (also published in English as “The Wisdom of the Sands”), which has a passage that says, in translation:
“Building a boat isn’t about weaving canvas, forging nails, or reading the sky. It’s about giving a shared taste for the sea, by the light of which you will see nothing contradictory but rather a community of love.”
The details are important, but they are always about something bigger, or they can’t do the job they need to accomplish, with true greatness and excellence of results.
That should be our aspiration in anything we do: To communicate and create a shared taste and vision of something great and noble that will then be sought in a community of love
A Community of Big Value
The ancient Greeks had two words relevant to this: techne and telos. Techne is of course behind our word “technology” and refers to how things are done. It’s about tools and methods for the way something is accomplished. Telos is the source of our less commonly known word “teleology,” which is about purposiveness and why things are done—the goal, aim, end, or purpose behind any activity.
In our time, we think a lot about the how and perhaps not nearly enough about the why. And we often seem to get away with it, but the rapid rise of artificial intelligence in our day, as the most powerful techne of all time, will quickly pose new questions for which we’ll need the other AI, Ancient Insights, as for example on the importance of telos, to help us understand the ultimate why in our work and lives. The why should lead the how and suggest the what, or else we end up living the old metaphor where the tail wags the dog.
And the philosophers tell us that the greatest purpose of all is love, shared in community. Several years ago, author Tim Sanders published a book called Love is the Killer App. When people working together share a sense of purpose, a vision in the words of Proverbs, and that vision aligns with their deepest values, they’ll always be building a cathedral, or sharing a taste of the sea, in a community where love plays its proper and universally appropriate role, supporting our flourishing, and the excellence of our results.