As I build a new venture focused observing, experiencing, analyzing, and reporting on the impact of A.I. on the entire Creator culture and economy, I wonder …
What to do with a technological phenomenon, when considering how and working on the mechanics of launching a business focused on that phenomenon, when that technology now or shortly will be able to autonomously create and launch any lucrative business, including:
- Choose the market and the structure,
- Find the funding,
- Decide the value offered,
- Develop the strategy,
- Make all the decisions,
- Gather all the necessary data,
- Design the best possible systems,
- Complete all the labor,
- Track and respond to all outcomes.
All while relying on massive computing power, the collective knowledge of the human race, and new ‘synthetic’ knowledge it generates entirely on its own — as it constantly learns how to improve and get staggeringly faster and better?
How do I play in an arena where that is happening and compete, using my measly human resources and assets?
Perhaps I’ll do this:
- Be an authentic human voice in that wilderness and report honestly, from the heart, with all my best instincts, humanity, heart, and insight, on all the other human voices.
- Make the best use of that technology to amplify the humanity.
- Make the leap and take the chance to do that and report on it, purely for the experience, and report on that experience, too.
The voices of doubt and fear demand to know:
- How am I going to get found? I’m seeing YouTube videos like “How to use AI to create a website with 100 Articles, for ‘beginners’.”
- How will I figure out all this technology and present a credible message and content if I don’t figure it out?
- With all this tech and all these focused, hard-working, talented, skilled, obsessed, funded, motivated, connected people and then all the AI bots and agents exponentially racing around, what the hell will I be able to do?
- In that environment, how can one Creative in the third stage of his life learn the new rules, or create them, or track them and use them, and find anything other than futility in his endeavors?
What is futility anyway? If in this endeavor, I:
- Find my literary voice,
- Make many meaningful connections,
- Use this entire opportunity to deepen my spiritual existence,
- Be of some use to others I meet,
- Model an attitude of faith, willingness, integrity, and thoughtful action,
- Have some or a lot of fun,
- Witness and experience up close the transformation of human civilization,
- Help us maintain and deepen our humanity and become less stupid through the far more advanced intelligence now available,
- Surely encounter many discoveries and surprises I could never anticipate when standing here on this brink.
And then one day, hopefully decades from now, look back and know I didn’t give in to fear and doubt and instead chose to enter that vast arena — would that be futility?
At this stage, I need — and long for — the rigor and systematic integration of all my efforts, at a level of rigor that I’ve always avoided or neglected. Or when initial attempts, always half-hearted at best, failed and fizzled I abandoned and went back to the J.O.B. and working for the Man.
Ah, but while that effective, well-tuned, integrated online system is necessary, it’s not sufficient. It is the ship that I launch to venture out on the sea. Yes, it must be in the best working order, all its systems coordinated tightly, its navigation top-notch, and it must be tight and strong and agile.
But the adventure, exploration, and discovery happen out there on the wide ocean. And “it’s an ocean that will never be filled.”
The well-built, well-run ship is only about 10% of the journey. Where that ship sails and what that reveals and experiences is the rest.
Leaving that ship in port and never setting sail due to hesitation or doubt or because the port offers no risks is absolute folly. As well, continuing to polish the decks, tune the rigging, stock the hold, train the crew, endlessly examine the maps and charts, wait for the next issue of navigation tools, and peer sheepishly over the horizon for possible storms or rough seas or unfavorable winds — all this ensures a quiet and safe life with a fine ship, only to languish forever in a sheltered port.
