Startle Me

I came across this wisdom from the Sufi poet, Rumi, this morning.

Humankind is being led along on evolving course

. . . and though we seem to be sleeping,

there is an inner wakefulness 

that directs the dream,

and will eventually startle us back

to the truth of who we are.

~ Rumi, Selected Poems

Earlier, I had been pondering the threshold we find ourselves on with Artificial Intelligence (AI) and the race toward Artificial General Intelligence (AGI) and his words seemed perfect for our time as much as they have for times past.

(Haven’t heard of AGI? I hadn’t either until last evening when we watched a documentary on Prime called The AI Doc: Or How I Became an Apocaloptimist. Be warned, if you choose to watch the documentary, that I nearly abandoned it early on because I felt myself falling into an abyss of despair. I’m glad I stuck with it, though, as I learned some things—one of which was about AGI, the race to develop it, and why we can’t stop now. I’m not smart enough to explain it; I barely understand the tiniest bit of it. You can do your own research.)

As a woman with faith as my guiding North Star, I don’t believe we’re destined for annihilation by AI. Intelligence is not the same as wisdom and is, in fact, the lesser of the two. I put my trust in wisdom and the Divine. (That said, there are certainly things we all need to wake up to, she says, looking in the mirror.)

And so, Rumi.

A voice from the 13th century reminding me of the startling that points us back toward the truth of who we are as beloved created beings—and how we are so easily distracted by artificially created intelligence and, in my own life, things I allow myself to follow like a lemming.

I venture dangerously close to the edge of that cliff at times until, startled by something as innocuous as running my fingers over a set of cold stone prayer beads one quiet morning, I wake up. Oh, yes. I see it now.

It’s like we are hypnotized, our gaze fixed on something shiny and mesmerizing to the exclusion of everything else around us. It happens to me more often than I care to admit.

But then one thing leads to another, then another, and suddenly our eyes are opened. We stand there, startled—as if we’ve arrived at our destination, having just driven across town with no memory of the journey itself.

Thank goodness for those startling moments.

The propensity to be so focused and busy that we can’t see what’s in the periphery can be a dangerous one (again, speaking mostly to myself). So too, our hard-heartedness that keeps us from considering a perspective different from our own.

Sometimes, the bravest but most difficult thing we can do is admit that we don’t have all the answers, and be willing to consider alternatives. That requires a level of vulnerability we’re uncomfortable with.

Is not knowing something a weakness? Or can it be the strongest position of all? All the right-fighting we’ve grown so accustomed to, and our desire for curated communities of like-minded people who don’t challenge our status quo, has all but killed civil discourse and discussion and elevated intelligence above wisdom. We do so at our peril.

We need to be startled out of our comfort zones, and as uncomfortable as it may seem to consider, it’s guaranteed to happen. Our lives will be disrupted by death, illness, relationship discord, and other things that sneak in and take us by surprise. The growing presence of AI—and all-but-inevitable AGI—among them. These things challenge our stated priorities and can result in realignment.

So, yes, wake me from my slumber. Startle me. Disturb my comfort and challenge me to think. Keep me from following blindly toward a destination I never wanted to reach.

And give me the presence of mind to value wisdom above intelligence—artificial or otherwise.