As Marshall McLuhan said, “The medium is the message.”

We are being conditioned by these seemingly innocent human-machine interactions that occur in our lives many times per day. What is the effect that these seemingly innocuous interactions have on us? What are you worrying about you may say. “It’s only a machine!”

Indeed, that is the point. It is having its effect, subtle as it may seem to be in ways for which we probably have not or cannot account. The increasing prevalance of human-machine interactions are conditioning us subconsciously at the least.

I’m suggesting that as these interactions tick up over time, increment by increment, we become more mechanical, less feeling, less happy, and depleted of life-force.

We’re not dealing with another human with whom energy is exchanged through something as simple human chat. Energy in these transaction go two ways and with a robot, one.

Even a brief conversation among we humans is often infused with a touch of warmth, a kind word and a sprinkling of humor.

Can AI produce oxytocin?

One of the hallmarks of human interaction is the exchange of good cheer, energy and oxytocin. One can cozy up to an AI robot all day long, and there won’t be a drop of greater life-force or oxytocin made available unless one has a vivid imagination.

Those that own and control AI are creating a mechanical world-view and a world with ever-diminishing love, compassion and feeling. Even if the robots are “dolled up” to look human, they have no capacity for authentic, human emotions.

For no extra (apparent) cost, you get your own digital I.D., maybe even some digital money and if you’re really lucky, they’ll give you a chip inconspicuously implanted under your skin.

You’ll not only have a whole new identity, but you’ll be surveilled for free as well! All of your personal data, from places of work and your social life to your medical records will be storable on that little chip in your arm. Sound like fun?

Don’t forget IoT, “the internet of things." This controls your appliances, your car, possibly even your bidet. If the smart TV thinks you’ve watched too much of a certain genre, you may be barred from watching more. If your smart refrigerator thinks you’ve had too much chocolate, the door may not open. After all, all your stats are available through the chip. And in your arm, that’s not a “chocolate chip”.

As the Music Man said in that classic Broadway show, “We’ve got trouble here in River City. Right here.” Sarcasm aside, the direness of the consequences are grave, so I do hope that we, the people, wake up fast and out of this society-sized, sheep-like stupor while AI is being assigned to taking over many mental tasks, jobs and functions that were ours until just recently.

One of the main issues we’ll be facing is that some generations who may not cognize the political, social and economic ramifications of a “micro-chipped society”, who may think of it as “cool and convenient”, probably have not read George Orwell’s classic 1984, Animal House or Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World.

Do you want your life controlled by AI? Prefer being a sheep or a human being?

The loss of freedom, self-expression, autonomy and sovereignty is, in effect, the loss of self. A sheep doesn’t recognize itself as part of a herd. It just sheepishly moves along in whatever direction the flock happens to move or is being guided.

People are really obliged to consider the roles of power and authority in their lives and to whom, to what they attribute these. As an individual develops, coming to understand the nature of these is something with which we all need to reckon.

Do I allow people who are said to be in authority to wield power over me or do I challenge it?

Once the larger AI switch is thrown, it will be pretty challenging to turn the clock back and re-gain our sense of autonomy to “what life was pre-AI”. Post-switch, AI’s control over our lives will likely be fairly ubiquitous. It’s like one day, the sky is no longer blue but grey. How does one get the blue back?

Machines can mimic, repeat and retrieve information at super-sonic speeds, very impressive and often useful, but they cannot engage in the energy exchange that humans do through even a simple, 1-minute conversation.

It should be noted that some creative AI nerds have created very human-seeming robots in the form of “sex-dolls”, so they may seem very human, but, please note they are not.

Congressional oversight has lost its vision

Well, your President and Congress, by not designing and exercising regulatory oversight over AI’s encroachment into daily life because Big Tech. and Big Pharma fill their campaign coffers, these mega-corporations get just what they want and everyone becomes pawns in their game. Interestingly, they and their families too are subject to the same “AI Madness”.

Anti-Trust laws, so useful in the earlier parts of the 20th century to rein in unbridled corporate power, are rarely enforced these days because corporations have become so powerful.

This is probably true in most countries around the world to slightly different degrees. In short, there isn’t much appetite by the Justice Dept. to challenge mega-corporations. They are seen as just too powerful and government doesn’t think it can rein them in.

AI can be developed and used responsibly by responsible human beings

I’m suggesting that one of our several challenges is how to use AI responsibly, narrowing its power which can be done through programming—it’s done all the time in every kind of software design.

Part of responsible use is that it is not used for bilking people out of personal information for data collection based on the propaganda that it is for “our safety, security and protection”. That is always the story when power seeks to take power from others.

Part of responsible use is assuring users that AI will not cause harm. This is big, evoking a broad spectrum of concerns, from self-driving cars, trucks or planes to AI calculating that humans are the cause of more problems than they are worth and should therefore be exterminated.

I wish that this notion were just in the realm of science fiction.

The issues are human ones—trust and maturity—in how AI is used, where, when,with what intent and purpose.

Even with responsible use, our brains and beings are still being digitized, made into binary machines, and rendered less human. In short, it needs to be mocked.

At this early stage, we must also be wary of its global engagement as it has this subtle but no less real effect of dehumanizing us in a world that needs more humanity than ever.

While it is easy to recognize the immense value that AI can be in certain sectors of society, particularly medicine, engineering and mathematics, its “softer uses”, as indicated, can be very troubling.

One downside is that people will become so reliant on AI to do so many tasks, they will forget, or younger generations never learn, how to do these oneself.

A segment on a TV newscast told a story about a 10-year-old girl who is glued to her smart phone during her non-school hours and doesn’t get up to play in the park. She called herself “lazy and addicted to the videos on social media”.

Her mother asked her to please go to the store and pick up a few items for the house which the girl did and upon her return, she said: “I feel proud that I went to the store and bought these items”. Her mother too said that she was proud of her daughter for this accomplishment.

Proud to have gone to the store? This is how far off-base we have gotten as a society, and AI, along with “smart” devices, are only beginning to kick in.

AI is getting positioned to rule the world

This is no longer science fiction, but it was best when it was. Just one of many examples is self-driving cars. They cannot detect a fraction of what the human eye can in an instant. The number of serious accidents that have occurred is astounding and virtually unreported.

No sane society would ever let these on the streets. Yet self-driving vehicles are multiplying across the U.S.

AI’s Godfather says no to AI! Not necessarily forever, but certainly for now

The Godfather of AI, Geoffrey Hinton, quit his high-paying job at Google so he could be free to speak the truth to the world about the dangers he knows are present with major deployment of AI, at least in its current form. It is not just a matter of danger, but could easily be terminal for the human species.

This doesn’t even consider the idea of hacking into systems, which has become increasingly easy for hackers to do, sadly enough. AI and machine learning go beyond their creator’s ability to manage or control as they are currently designed.

The subject of human soldiers meeting robot soldiers in the field of battle? Do you go into battle, not with a gun but a screwdriver?

The area of human-AI-robot interactions can and will fertilize a whole new area of dark comedy. Can you imagine?

AI has its own “reasoning capabilities," and it easily detects the flaws in human beings which are pretty obvious even to us. But that’s not really reason to discontinue the species, please! Or is it?

Based on its mandate of increasing efficiency, among others, AI would easily recognize how humans are wreaking such havoc on Earth and on each other that our presence could easily be construed as a threat to life. About that, AI is pretty right.

The logical act, then, would be to “eliminate the the threat.”

This is what leading AI experts and developers are saying, not just science fiction writers.

It is clear that AI and robots, used in specific contexts like medicine, while still posing considerable risks, with refinement, can be highly useful. There are many contexts in which responsible use of AI, which means responsibly developed, could profoundly add to society.

I am not saying “baby out with bathwater,” not at all, but I am urging patience and caution, far more than the marketplace and the insatiable appetite for profit would allow.

I do foresee a bi-furcation in human society: those that think that AI and being chipped is the coolest thing ever, and those that want to live, more natural, organic lives, who want little to do with this Brave New World controlled by The Matrix, behind which is the World Economic Forum.

Troubling as AI is, the root problem is obsession with profit at any expense, not AI itself

This obsessive pathology for “profit at any cost” can be sentient life’s undoing—that’s how serious this matter is. No one can control or predict the outcomes, and the risk is great.

Our real undoing is this “profit-driven pathology” that knows no bounds, it disregards moderation as though it is an issue of survival. It is both that and a powerful dopamine rush at the same time. How we humans learn to mollify and modify these urges is a matter of life of our planet or death.

This, methinks, is the bigger danger than even AI because it has led to the verge of entire eco-system collapse, nuclear proliferation, total disregard of people and planet, all for money and power. And the unleashing of AI before its time to be “first to market” is a sympton of this larger danger.

It isn’t different than a heroin addict stealing old ladies’ purses and bank accounts for their next fix. Because the violations are done by men in suits on Wall St., it has a veneer of civility, but there’s nothing civil about it. The same “dopamine hit” occurs in the brain in both types of perpetrators.

If emotional maturity were really developed, the rush to market would be modulated by wisdom and prudence. These would would prevail in AI by design that would prevent the downside from being so threatening and severe.

“We have met the enemy, and the enemy is us.”

The countermeasure: an evolutionary paradox in consciousness is emerging

At the same time as we bear witness to so much greed, unconsciousness, self-interest, and destruction in and of our world, there is another consciousness arising that is full of love, heart, intelligence, wisdom, creativity, compassion, vitality and commitment to a new future, a new way of being, a New Earth, which is infused with spirit, moving us into harmoniously aligned, cooperative communities based on regenerative and circular economies, self-sufficient in every way, nature-based habitats, with a focus on service, self-expression and love. It’s beautiful, growing and unstoppable. İt’s a fire that cannot be snuffed out, even by the greediest and most unconscious.

Not a chatbot, a human, please!

It may sound so simple but by asking for a human when interacting with AI Voice Trees (really?!) can really take a step to save humanity from the AI onslaught and make us more human and humane.

A call to action

While these developments are taking place on the higher vibratory level, we still dwell in the world of mass murderers and power-mongers seeking to control our lives on every level—our bodies, minds and money. As humans, we are challenged to deal with it all.

We are so preoccupied with our earthly activities we so miss the larger picture, our beautiful Earth floating in the ethers, part of ever-expanding space. And we Earthlings just can’t get out of our own way.

What does it take for us to gain some perspective?

What can we do? We can demand that our representatives pass bills to stop the insane drive toward AI without needed precautions in place. We can demand AI manufacturers keep testing until controls can be effective and reliable. We can refuse to participate in activities that are AI-driven.

Every time we do get a human on the phone after the robotic "introduction," let them know full-out that you disapprove of their company’s use of robots; it needs to be, if not eliminated, limited, and if a request for human customer service or what have you is made, that it be fulfilled at the fastest time possible.

We need, as We, the People, to get creative about what we want our future to look like unless we want it to be laid out for us by the WEF, WHO or NIH, by any acronym agency at all.

Or do we want it designed by our own intelligence with the cooperation of governments and companies interested in transforming our world working with us, not furthering the world’s destruction?

If those companies, what have you, keep getting this message, this direct feedback from enough of us, they will change. If people remain passive or indifferent, they will continue, and the quality of life will degrade for all. As with everything, it is up to us!

Humanity, autonomy & sacred sovereignty are circling back

We can come to recognize our own humanity and our own sacred sovereignty. Not a machine, nor a human can lord over us if we choose a different destiny, which we can do every day in our daily interactions and choices. We can exercise freedom. We can live in the lower and higher worlds at the same time. There is responsible use of AI and of our lives.