AI and the Future of Humanity

After watching intently former Chief Business Officer of Google X Mo Gawdat’s talk on The Future of AI and How It Will Shape Our World, a couple of things are clear: not only has this technology dramatically disrupted life as we once knew it, affording us god-like power never seen before in human history, but we now stand at that critical “Oppenheimer” crossroads where the fate of humanity is squarely in our hands. We may not be in the control position much longer. Will we wisely guide the unprecedented power of AI to vastly improve the world, succumb to the darker nature of our collective psyche and destroy ourselves, or miss the opportunity and allow the singularity to determine our future fate for us? These are more than sobering reflections worthy of our consideration, and as Zen master Jeff Shore put it succinctly to us this year on pilgrimage in Japan, “the heart of every koan is a matter of life and death.” In this month’s blog essay I want to share some of my thoughts regarding AI and the future of humanity. 

As technology accelerates at a bewildering rate, disrupting and reshaping our economies, societies, and personal lives, the question is no longer whether artificial intelligence will dominate the future—it already is. The real questions are: What does it mean to be human in a world increasingly automated, disconnected, and virtual? And do we have what it takes within us to wield this unprecedented power? These are not hypothetical concerns; as I convey in my forthcoming book, Return with Elixir, they are the defining challenges of our time. Yet within this potential crisis posed by AI lies a profound opportunity: to redefine and embody the qualities that make us uniquely human and to collectively upgrade human consciousness on this planet.

Drawing from several years of research for Return with Elixir, I argue that human connection, discernment, morality, and authentic spiritual traditions will become the critical differentiators for humanity in the age of AI. These qualities are not only essential to safeguarding our future and thriving in a world where technology does much of our work for us, but they also contribute to the expansion of our collective consciousness. In other words, just as AI poses the specter of destruction, it simultaneously co-emerges with the upside potential of a great leap forward in our evolution. These are two risk-reward sides of the same coin. But they are not innate to AI; they are potentialities within our own psyche, which express themselves through AI in dramatic ways never seen before in human history.

Below, I explore these four potentials for greater connection, discernment, morality, and meaning that the challenge of intelligent technology may catalyze.

Human Connection in an AI World  

As the world becomes increasingly digitized, humans are paradoxically more connected than ever yet lonelier and more isolated. Studies show a startling decline in empathy over the past few decades, particularly among younger generations. A 2010 meta-analysis published in Personality and Social Psychology Review revealed that college students’ self-reported empathy scores have dropped by as much as 40% since the 1970s. Loneliness, too, is reaching epidemic proportions, with a 2021 report by the U.S. Surgeon General identifying it as a public health crisis. What is not well known or documented is the slow decline in social-emotional learning aka people skills needed for young adults to form and maintain the interpersonal bonds they need to thrive.

In this environment, the craving for genuine human connection grows stronger. In the face of the current AI takeover, I’ve had to ask myself if my line of work and what I offer is in danger of becoming redundant or outsourced to even more intelligent and cheaper technologies. Likewise, is advanced technology moving me away from genuine human contact?

I could have never anticipated, after the pandemic, that most clients would prefer to continue their psychotherapy sessions online and that the convenience and time efficiency would trump our innate human desire to connect in person—especially for something as vital and intimate as one’s healing process. However, I realized this holds true when our meetings occur with weekly frequency.

On the other hand, my group pilgrimages tell a different story. People will prioritize time and finances to participate in transformational experiences abroad when they occur periodically or annually. One reason for this is that pilgrimage creates an intensive immersion that satisfies a sense of human connection and genuine community, which counterbalances the pervasive disconnection fostered by our increasingly virtual lives. Relatively infrequent, in-person events actually become more critical and sought-after, and people are willing to pay a premium for festivals, concerts, and retreats precisely because they provide that irreplaceable experience of human connection and visceral energy only found in the physical world.

“Eventually, we might adapt to living for longer stretches in a day-to-day virtual world if we know we will complement this with shorter but more intensive bursts of extremely meaningful connection with others in the real world.”

 Another relevant contributor to the growing interest in pilgrimage is that individuals connect not only with other human beings but also with holy sites, exotic or unfamiliar cultures and customs, and vibrant landscapes in the natural world, forming bonds, facilitating meaning-making, and revitalizing the soul. These experiences remind us of fundamental truths that AI may never replace: healing is relational, newness is as rejuvenating as it is unsettling, and embodied immersion in nature satisfies some very deep biological drive in our evolutionary makeup.

Discernment in the Information Age

The Information Age, despite its promise of instant access to an inconceivable domain of knowledge, has also devastated our sense of reality and truth. Misinformation, disinformation, and algorithmic manipulation have created a society in which contradictory narratives flourish unchecked. For example, during the pandemic, public discourse on issues like mask efficacy and vaccination safety exemplified how science itself can appear fractured, leaving individuals unsure of what to trust. Without tolerance for cognitive dissonance and ambiguity, I think most people have outsourced their authority and, worse, have unconsciously become irrationally wedded to increasingly extreme views such as QANON or animal-related pronouns, which only a short time ago would have been dismissed as preposterous.

 Many of us now overlook the innate limitations of our allegiances to worldviews and political orientations, over-idealizing our side while demonizing others—with religious fervor, I might add—possibly to create an internal sense of coherence and “in-group identity” at the expense of deep, ever-growing polarization. Hence, the viral phrase reflecting our social predicament: “We’d rather be right than seek the truth.”

 "In this fractured landscape, the ability to discern truth from manipulation is no longer a luxury; it is a survival skill. Yet discernment requires more than rational thinking—it demands intuitive, non-conceptual wisdom that can see through internal bias and external propaganda alike."

 Buddhist training in critical or deconstructive analysis called the middle way philosophy, emphasizes specific skills we need today: learning to challenge the appearance and ontological status of things (e.g., deepfake viral videos), learning to identify and deconstruct extremes in binary thinking (e.g., MAGA vs. Woke) to retain open-mindedness and return to more moderate and flexible views, learning how to self-regulate emotions that would obscure or amplify distorted perceptions (e.g., victim-helplessness or self-righteous anger weaponized by legacy media), and learning to tolerate ambiguity and dissonance—that two seemingly opposing realities can coexist or be mutually true (e.g., Israeli sovereignty vs. Palestinian genocide).

When these analytic skills are complemented with meditative training, moving conceptual understanding into intuitive insight, the result is an internal sense of reliability and confidence in one’s capacity to discern, know, trust, and navigate the confusing landscape of reality. Rather than outsource our understanding to misguided external authorities—be it medical professionals, scientific research, legacy media, government officials of any party, or globalist institutions like the WHO and World Bank—we can reclaim agency and responsibility, guided by a more sound inner compass.

The Buddha reminds us all that we have it within us to know reality for ourselves and to not rely on any authority, hearsay, or scripture. As the deluge of information swirls and reality becomes increasingly ambiguous and even strange, many may resort to external authority for spoon-feeding and security, leaving them prone to manipulation, while others will use this adventitious circumstance to refine innate discernment, deepen inner refuge, and preserve sovereignty.

A Moral Compass in a Narcissistic Age

As technology grows in power, its neutrality becomes its greatest danger. No tool, including AI, is inherently good or evil; it merely amplifies the intentions of those who code and wield it. This presents the so-called Oppenheimer moment of our age that Mo Gawdat spoke about: Will we human beings harness AI to create a utopia or a dystopia? Actually, even this binary is too simplistic. Could it be both simultaneously, based on individual perception?

The answer depends on many factors, but none is more important than whether we can rapidly develop the ethical underpinning needed to guide technology. In Return with Elixir, I recount how yogi-saint Sri Yukteswar (1855–1936) observed our current position within the cosmic transitions of the Yuga cycle (24,000 years) and how psychoanalyst Carl Jung anticipated the challenges of our current transition between the astrological Piscean and Aquarian ages (each lasting 2,150 years). Both concurred: in the transitional phases between epochs we have now entered a period where our technological prowess exceeds our moral capacity. Collectively, we are immature children in possession of nuclear capability.

Children who have not matured through initiatory rites of passage often continue to exhibit a kind of infantile narcissism—a developmental stage where the world is perceived as revolving around one’s needs and desires. While natural and necessary in early childhood, when prolonged beyond its healthy stage, this narcissism can evolve into pathological traits in adulthood. These traits include:

1. Exaggerated self-absorption.
2. Grandiosity.
3. Lack of empathy.
4. Constant need for validation and admiration, and rage when this is not met.
5. An unreasonable sense of entitlement.

Read those five traits again and tell me modern materialistic culture has not devolved into the most narcissistic culture imaginable. Technology and AI may only enhance and hasten this alarming trend unless we disrupt it by addressing its root causes with a return to rites of passage and cultivating moral integrity.

Moral development is the foundation of every authentic spiritual tradition the world over. However, over the last four hundred years, as humanity transitioned into the scientific paradigm with its cultural shadow of materialism and nihilism, we largely jettisoned spiritual traditions, initiatory rites, and practices that helped cultivate inner maturity and pro-social aspects of our nature. A return to these practices could counter the five characteristics of pervasive narcissism by developing their inverse:

1. Receptivity and genuine interest in others.
2. Humility.
3. Empathy and compassion.
4. Internally generated confidence and healthy self-esteem, with tolerance for when needs are not met.
5. Generosity and service.

Current neuroscientific research demonstrates that compassion training enhances pro-social behavior, activating brain regions associated with empathy and altruism. The research is also clear that emotions like empathy and compassion can be trained and cultivated, just like skills in sports, reading, writing, or arithmetic. The Tibetan Buddhist tradition offers some of the most well-articulated and effective methods for cultivating compassion. While secular adaptations like psychologist Paul Ekman’s Cultivating Emotional Balance and Thupten Jinpa’s Compassion Cultivation Training are valuable, we must ask ourselves: will these efforts be enough to stem the tide of our pervasiveness culture of narcissism, especially in light of the hyper speed at which AI evolves, and the looming specter of the singularity (where artificial intelligence surpasses human intelligence, leading to rapid, uncontrollable advancements in technology) at which point all bets are off for our ability to manage and mitigate the situation.

Given the fact that those who hold institutional power involved in AI development and access, the so-called technocracy, allayed with shadow governments, and media moguls, for whom ethics is nothing, and profit is everything, we may simply be up against too strong a current, with too little time. On the other hand, people’s movements have coalesced quite quickly and effectively of late, from Occupy, to Arab Spring, to the global farmer’s protest, so there is always a fighting chance that as a collective awakening movement dawns, with a more dignified and ethical thrust at its core, we can take back the reigns of power and technology and use them as an incredible force for good.

Meaning and Purpose in a World Without Work 

The rise of automation and AI will inevitably render many jobs obsolete. We all need to be reflecting on that right now. While this may open the door to universal basic income, freeing many from the need to work tirelessly and aimlessly, it also risks creating a society plagued by apathy, despair, and meaninglessness. For the past three centuries of the Industrial Age, work has provided not just income but identity and purpose. Without it, how do we fill the void?

Unsurprisingly to those who follow my writings, the answer lies in a strong spiritual orientation and a return to authentic spiritual traditions. Humans thrive when they feel connected to something greater than themselves—whether through involvement in the broader human awakening movement, service to a community, or selfless compassion to an individual. As AI takes over mundane tasks, it creates an opportunity for us to focus on what truly matters: the inner work of liberation and the outer work of serving others.

In Buddhist psychology, enlightenment is not an abstract ideal; it is a lived experience of freedom from suffering paired with the expansion of compassion for all beings. This is a uniquely human capacity—one that AI cannot replicate. Buddhist teachings emphasize a lifelong commitment to inner learning and growth. Once restricted to monastics, these teachings later expanded to include lay practitioners, fostering spiritual development alongside daily responsibilities. 

As a result of modern pressures—jettisoning spiritual traditions, collapsing leisure time, and increasing socioeconomic demands—the conditions for fostering spiritual growth have faded over the centuries. However, is it possible that AI could free us to focus on what is truly important: not just the outer work of building more sustainable social systems to enhance the physical welfare of humanity but also the inner work of propelling our spiritual evolution? My teacher Robert Thurman calls this a “free lunch”, the opportunity afforded to the monastic community since its inception so they can be absolved from worldly duties to focus on inner development. Will we take advantage of the benefits of AI to extend ourselves this precious opportunity for freedom and fortune? How else might AI benefit us spiritually? Will we use AI as a bio-feedback system to enhance our attention, instead of distracting it, and even more compelling, to somehow hasten human meditative states of consciousnesses leading to liberation? Perhaps seen from another vantage point AI and human meaning are not incompatible. It is a matter of creative deployment.

Does My Work Matter in the Age of AI?

Does my work matter in the age of AI? This is a sobering reflection, please take a moment to consider it for yourself. The offerings I provide—pilgrimages, Buddhist training, and psychological guidance—are not immediately on the AI chopping block, but one never knows how quickly that can change. Virtual counseling with an AI therapist is already available and more cost-effective, and with virtual reality programs becoming more robust and available, you might be heading out on a pilgrimage to Bodhgaya, India or Machu Picchu, Peru without having to leave your home, sooner than we think. Given my personal, short-term view of what is on the near horizon, and what I learned from my research for Return with Elixir, I am aligning my energy and offerings to address four essential needs humanity must cultivate to thrive in an AI-dominated world:

1. Empathy and Human Connection: Creating spaces for physical contact and genuine human relationships.
2. Discernment and Wisdom: Training individuals to think for themselves and navigate misinformation.
3. Moral Development: Guiding our life, work, and interactions around sound ethical principles.
4. Meaning and Purpose: Offering an authentic spiritual path to awakening, compassion, and service that can and should be followed life-long.

A Human Revolution

As we face the immense challenges of the AI revolution, the answer to our survival lies not in rejecting technology but in embracing it to elevate our humanity. We must cultivate the qualities that AI cannot replicate: empathy, discernment, moral integrity, and spiritual depth. Through pilgrimages, Buddhist teachings, and psychological guidance, I offer tools to reconnect us to ourselves, one another, the environment, and the sacred dimensions of life. Now is the time for each and every one of us to consider how we can retrain and enhance what makes us human while still embracing technology and the incredible power it possesses. Together, we can navigate this brave new world with wisdom and compassion, ensuring that technology serves to amplify the best of our qualities rather than the darker sides of our nature.