📝 Authenticity Isn't About Blurting Out Your First Thoughts: This Fast-Paced Information Era is Burning Our Wisdom of Thinking Things Through
We now, unfortunately, live in a world that promotes fast and raw information instead of purposeful and polished wisdom. We continue to feed the flow of algorithm-driven information (using the term “communication” feels too generous these days), without reflecting on what messages we truly want to communicate.
I fear we are racing toward a finish line that might actually be a cliff, allowing our minds to age faster than necessary, while never deliberately strengthening our ability to think things through and transform knowledge into wisdom.
It is a race to the bottom, through and through.
To make matters worse, a lot of people now outsource all thinking processes to generative AI (I would never call it Artificial Intelligence, so let's just pretend it’s the abbreviation of Artificial Information.) I do not entirely condemn using these tools—I admit I often use them myself for certain tasks—as long as you are the one holding the reins of the thinking process.
However, when you stop using your own mind to truly understand your thinking, you stop learning to understand yourself. When you stop understanding yourself, you cannot refine your thoughts and identities to shine, and that process of polishing is precisely when the sprouts of your wisdom begin to spread to the world.
Therefore, in my opinion, the problem is not generative AI itself, but how our societies have stopped promoting purposeful and thoughtful forms of communication.
People love to point out “AI slops,” but turn a blind eye when human-generated content is sloppy or even harmful, excusing it as being “real” or “true to yourself.” I hope, for the best for everyone in this world, that the definition of being real does not reduce into mere rawness of expression, without the polish of thoughtful reflection. The idea of expressing “your real self” as quickly and as frequently as possible pains me—and, I hope, pains you and future generations—deeply.
Speaking your mind, which once meant expressing well-considered thoughts aligned with your values, has now become shouting whatever crosses your mind in the name of being “honest” and “real.”
Editing and crafting your thoughts is now often seen as an outdated and ill-advice—unless it means filtering your identities to fit algorithm-driven trends—while sharing the first draft has become the encouraged practice.
We sadly mistake honesty and authenticity for the spontaneous and superficial layers of ourselves.
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To me, it feels like living in a primitive society that keep setting fires, quickly one after another, just because they look bright and shiny, without the skill to put them out or even utilize them for good uses.
Unintentionally and unconsciously, we are burning down the forest of wisdom just to see who can start the fire fastest and brightest.
The worst part is that we might be too late to stop these overwhelming flames. And even if that is not the case, we might not know how to bring people to solve these issues collectively.
This may sound pessimistic, but I only wish to live a good, healthy life, and not necessarily a long one. Because I'm not that eager to witness where the world ends up after we burn wisdom to the ground and lose the ability to grow new trees of insight ever again.
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Or… perhaps those “AIs” will one day become better thinking machines than the whole humanity itself, mercifully letting us live amid the flames of our own making.
Who knows? The realest and most honest side of humanity might shine brightest, then.