My recent brush with the virtual realities of AI on Quora … and more broadly, has been a bit of a shock to my poor little human mind. I was brought up to say what I mean and mean what I say. In pre-AI days honesty and truth were simple concepts to grasp. That is not the case today.

Whilst working on my PhD, I explored ‘ways of knowing’ and identified 3 different ways in which an individual might ‘ground’ their take on their perceived reality:

Academics, and those versed in logical and rational ways of thinking, might seek intellectual grounding: does the reality we’re detecting match up with published knowledge, with established facts and scientific theories?

Engineers and ‘down to earth’ folk would look to physical experience, first-hand evidence of eyes and hands.

Mystics and meditators might seek confirmation of truth through direct apprehension, inner knowing, the voice of the divine.

And, of course, there are many variations of these three WoK, overlaps between them and other descriptions we might come up with to ascertain what’s real to us.

And that’s the other big lesson I learnt during postgraduate studies: the description of a thing is not the thing itself. No set of words, no definitions, no descriptions are real. As soon as we attempt to pin things down, we have lost that immediate sense of being (real).

The very notion of ‘virtual reality’ what seem to confirm that idea!

And then, if we look at Buddhist philosophy, we are encouraged to transcend the difference between what is and what is not.

So maybe that is the best, perhaps the only, way of coping with our increasingly virtual and complex world: to detach from any preconceived notion of what is true or real.

With AI and virtual reality blurring what we mean by intelligence and reality, maybe we’re best transcending these notions all together!

By adopting a Taoist or Zen approach to life, then the only reality that matters is the present moment and our total immersion in it.

If, for one individual, being in the moment means being in the flow of some computer game, who are we to judge their choice of reality?

If someone struggling with mental health finds solace in an AI therapist that seems to listen to them, is getting attached to that AI any worse than becoming dependent on a flesh and blood therapist?

If we are hungry and the kiosk that we want to buy some life-sustaining food from has a notice saying “card payment only”, then insisting on the physical reality of coins and notes, is not going to sate our hunger, is it!

So I think life is about being real and getting real … and putting ourselves fully in the present moment.

I know all this … but that doesn’t stop me getting depressed and/or angry when someone lies to me!

And so I come back to a good old serenity prayer: Oh Lord, give me the courage to change those things I can, the patience to accept those that I can’t … and the wisdom to know the difference.

So if a product or service I buy isn’t as described, I will complain. But much of the time I ought not let it annoy me and sometimes, probably most AI related things, are just beyond my place to influence. Allow. Let go. Let God. Sigh.