At the building site of a skyscraper one time, there were three construction workers who used to get together every day and eat lunch, sitting sixty floors up in the air on one of the girders of the skyscraper. They’d sit there all in a row, with their hard hats on, discussing the best beard oil brands, and each in turn would open his lunch box. This particular week, they were sitting there on Monday, and the first construction worker said:
“I’ve got a ham sandwich, my favorite, oh boy!”
And the second one said:
“I’ve got a portobello and swiss sandwich, my favorite, oh boy!”
And the third one said:
“Oh man, a peanut butter and banana sandwich on multigrain bread, I hate peanut butter and banana, this is terrible!”
The next day, all three gathered on the girder again and one-by-one opened their lunch pails. The first construction worker said:
“A ham sandwich, my favorite, Yahtzee!”
The second one said:
“Portobello and swiss, my favorite!”
The third construction worker said:
“Peanut butter and banana on multigrain bread, I hate peanut butter and banana. If I get peanut butter and banana again tomorrow, I’m gonna jump off this building!
Sure enough, Wednesday came, and as the three gathered, construction workers one and two opened their boxes to find their favorite sandwiches. But the third worker opened his lunch with hesitancy and fear:
“Oh man, not peanut butter and banana again! Well, see you guys…”
And with that, he jumped off the building to his death. The first construction worker turned to his remaining friend and said:
“You know, I could see that coming…he packs his own lunch!”
Navigating the future is always a matter of balancing known and unknown factors, and factors that are both within and beyond our control. Rarely do we have quite as much control over our fate as the construction worker in the story, who determined both his own culinary future each day, as well as how he responded to that future. But we do each have some control over our futures, and especially how we respond to our circumstances.
Take the example that Joe mentioned already, of artificial intelligence. This is a potentially very scary field, but one that ultimately humans can shape and control if we have the will and the foresight. It’s scary not only because of the Terminator scenario, but also because of much more prosaic, non-military applications of artificial intelligence. The most helpful such example I have found comes the blog Wait But Why, which I love. The author describes a company that comes up with “a simple AI system that uses an arm-like appendage to write a handwritten note on a small card.” They give the AI system one initial programmed goal, which is: “Write and test as many notes as you can, as quickly as you can, and continue to learn new ways to improve your accuracy and efficiency.” To do this, they feed the AI system lots and lots of individual examples for it to practice and learn from.
One day, even though it’s against company rules, they attach it to the internet for just an hour to give it instant access to a much greater array of examples, and to gain an advantage over their competitors. Unbeknownst to the humans, their AI system uses that one hour of internet connectivity to covertly advance its goal of writing better and better cards. It uses the internet to gain control over all Earth’s resources and cause the extinction of humanity, and to I initiate a process of interstellar colonization to continue its goal…of devoting more and more resources to creating a better hand-written note.
You might be thinking to yourself, “Wow, that escalated quickly!” I personally have terrible handwriting, and even I don’t think this technological advance would be worth it. But you don’t have to take my word for it; some of the smartest people in the world, including Elon Musk, Bill Gates, Nick Bostrom, and Ray Kurzweil have voiced these very concerns. It’s not that humans haven’t already developed technologies with the capacity to destroy civilization, but now we are adding more to the ones we already have. We’re about to start facing down the most devastating effects of climate change, too. All this can understandably cause a state of heightened anxiety.
Feelings like anxiety, confusion, and fear can leave us susceptible to idolatries and false reassurances; that’s why we have our Fifth Source of wisdom and spirituality in UUism. It states that our living tradition includes: “Humanist teachings which counsel us to heed the guidance of reason and the results of science, and warn us against idolatries of the mind and spirit.”
My hope is that even when the stakes are high and the way forward is unclear, we will not only heed science and reason but also find ways to embrace the mystery. Writes Khalil Gibran:
“…the timeless in you is aware of life’s timelessness, And knows that yesterday is but today’s memory and tomorrow is today’s dream. And that that which sings and contemplates in you is still dwelling within the bounds of that first moment which scattered the stars into space. Who among you does not feel that their power to love is boundless? And yet who does not feel that very love, though boundless, encompassed within the centre of their being, and moving not from love thought to love thought, nor from love deeds to other love deeds? And is not time even as love is, undivided and spaceless?”
“That which sings and contemplates in you is still dwelling within the bounds of that first moment which scattered the stars into space.” The universe will always be made of that which dwelled within the bounds of that first moment! That’s not going away! Let’s find ways to make that awareness part of all that we do. A sense of awe and wonder helps us to approach life’s challenges with greater creativity and playfulness and less anxiety. To envision outcomes beyond subjugation and domination.
And if you prefer a less New Age-y reassurance about the destructive impact of artificial intelligence, I will note that, in general, previous examples notwithstanding, the more tech-savvy the person I talk with about it, the less worried they are about the threat of AI. Roboticists and engineers who see the limitations of where we actually are with that, see its catastrophic capabilities as very far off in the future.
I would like to parse one additional example of high-stakes uncertainty that is more imminent than apocalyptic artificial intelligence, which is economic uncertainty. I consider myself to be an “Elder Millennial,” I am older than about two-thirds of Millennials according to Gallup, Inc., and I’ve noticed different economic outlooks for my cohort from both the older and younger generations. I graduated from college right before the Great Recession, and I had a harder time making a living on part-time jobs in my 20s than my parents did. But my brother graduated just three years after I did, and I have seen it only get harder to eke out such a living in the years since then. I am sure many of you who have been in the job market throughout these and other decades are keenly aware of the shifting dynamics. The movie Sorry To Bother You parodied the working conditions at places like Amazon fulfillment centers and telemarketing firms by portraying modern-day indentured servitude as a tempting option in comparison. It’s a really difficult employment market out there, and it’s hard to be optimistic about the future direction of things.
Pew Research indicates that between 1989 and 2016, middle- and lower-income households maintained roughly the same rate of inflation-adjusted income, while upper-income family incomes rose. The groundbreaking work of Thomas Piketty in his book Capital suggests that, rather than an aberration in the historical march toward greater income equality, that period is a return to a historical trend of increasing income inequality in all eras other than the post-WWII years. We don’t have such data yet for the last couple years, but if anyone wants to make a wager about whether income inequality has escalated since the $1.5 trillion Trump tax-cut package took effect, I’m feeling pretty confident about the “yes” side of that bet.
As a youth minister, I saw the effects of these trends playing out in the increased pressure on teenagers to prepare themselves very early on for a career trajectory that would preserve their family’s class status. As a parish minister I’ve seen even very well-educated and accomplished congregants struggle to find work. UUs like to think of ourselves as immune to the negative realities of American lower- and middle-class economic struggles, but in fact, we really are hit hard by the rise in income inequality in the last thirty years. As Unitarian Universalist theologian Thandeka writes:
“members of our association tend to have a big brain and a small purse. UU’s also tend to be politically active, environmentally conscious, nature- oriented, and live in the suburbs. This is not the profile of the power elite. It’s the profile of civil servants, school teachers, small business persons, and middle managers. In effect, middle America – the group of professionals who keep America running by training its children, maintaining government, and paying taxes.”
Her point is that while we like to think of ourselves as still having the elite status of Unitarianism’s Boston Brahmin ancestors, UUs are by and large susceptible to the same economic tumult as most middle-class Americans in the current period. To the extent that we can maintain a focus on our values of justice and equity in the face of such high-stakes uncertainty, we will be able to help create a better future for all.
In the case of an uncertain future for middle-income Americans, what does it mean to embrace the mystery? My hope is that we can remain calm enough in these circumstances to ask the following questions:
- Who are our partners in working for economic justice?
- How can we provide not just charity, but solidarity?
- How can our economic approach best reflect our commitments to the environment and future generations?
It’s much harder to strategize and collaborate when you are in a panic versus when you’ve taken a moment to breath and embrace life’s possibilities. That’s why our spiritual practices are not just nice things to do, but actual tools in the work of collective liberation; they put us in a better place to be able to be the leaders our communities need. If we allow our uncertainty to paralyze us, then it becomes a detriment to doing the hard work of self-education, empathy, and coalition-building. But if we can embrace the mystery that helps us to hold space for discovery, if we can embrace an awareness “that that which sings and contemplates in you is still dwelling within the bounds of that first moment which scattered the stars into space” then questions with high stakes and high uncertainty can actually become our greatest teachers.
May it be so, and may we be the ones to make it so.
Delivered at Northwest Unitarian Universalist Congregation
January 13, 2019
© Rev. Jonathan Rogers