In an age of AI and automation, happiness is deeply human

We are deep into the digital age now. The transition to a digital life started with mass media in the 1950s and accelerated with the web and social media is now in high gear with generative artificial intelligence. Information is easier to access, knowledge of current events is nearly instantaneous, and we have the possibility to connect with pretty much anyone, anywhere. It all seems so surreal, so awesome.

So why are we so unhappy? Why do we feel like there is something wrong? Why do we have a feeling that things are not as they seem or should be?

As humans, we are practical, concrete creatures. We need to be able to use our five senses to really understand something, whether it is a new skill or our relationships with other people and with the world. Digital life is fundamentally alienating in this way - it privileges vision and hearing, but starves us of touch, taste and smell.

If you think about it, touch, smell, taste are fundamental to forming memories and emotions. The great French writer Marcel Proust demonstrated this in his beautiful passage, where the taste of a bit of Madeleine (a French pastry treat) transported his main character back to a beautiful moment of his childhood when he was joyful and at a peace.

In a world of automation, we need — more than ever — to seek connections. That means stepping out of digital life and deeper into lives with our friends, families and others we care about. It also means experiencing nature not as a spectator surrounded by gear and tech, rather as a part of nature — digging in the garden, cooking outside while camping, hiking, swimming in the ocean, sitting in a greenhouse, or cycling down the trail, with a speeding rabbit or bird who joins the ride alongside for a bit.

We also need to make sure we do not diminish ourselves. We are not our jobs. We are not the tasks we complete. Indeed, each of us of a member of the world, of nature and loved by the Creator. When we understand and feel that fact, we begin to see that the “reality” of digital life is actually a fantasy — a dangerous fantasy that boxes us in and makes us feel small, when the reality is the opposite. Each of us matters a lot. We are living and we in life. In life with nature, in life with our friends and family, in life with animals and plants, and in life with divinity.

Doing well with AI and digital life is a superb way of building a career and learning and experiencing new things in a virtual way. It is not a substitute for reality, however. When we put digital life in its functional place and open the major parts of lives to our “reality of being in life”, then happiness, feeling, certainty and groundedness will follow.

I wish you luck to finding your way of being in life with the world. Use technology but live in nature and with people.