My dad’s 83 year old mind needs exercise. Yes he reads the actual paper, organizes his stuff and has a few phone calls in his day but other than that not much stimulation. My mom keeps their apartment in order, cooks and pays their bills.

So in order to keep his mind agile my mom has put a memory game out on the table for us to play. There are colourful disks with cartoon drawings of dolphins and cactus, beach ball and clown. A child’s memory game. It’s pattern recognition 101: Finding the matching image.

Photo by Cody Doherty on Unsplash

AI is pattern recognition that is so thorough it sucks the life out anything it is set upon. Specifically as we know: jobs.

Artificial intelligence is making many jobs obsolete while creating a handful of others. The loss and gain of jobs in itself is actually a pattern of industry ebb and flow as we have witnessed over the years. This as always will close some doors while opening others. However the real threat of AI is more the lives behind the loss of jobs than its impact on the economy.

There could well be the arrival one day of a pervading reality when many a man will wake up each morning feeling empty. Empty because someone steals your ability and drive to get stuff done!

Normally when your mind is deliciously challenged by life and work you wake up without an alarm in the mornings; perception loves you and you solve problems with alacrity. These life challenges can also cause stress. Hopefully it is more the kind of stress of finding solutions than the stress of not being able to locate ones resources for success.

This intertwining of success and struggles is what helps form our identity.

Photo by Christian Burri on Unsplash

So a man loses his sense of meaning when he wakes up and does not attack the day. Instead of him projecting himself into the new day – he stagnates. This is dangerous. This creates angry, fragile, insecure men. These men can easily become vehicles of violence. Especially using women as their physical or emotional punching bags.

So. To the authors of AI who design and manufacture your remarkable robots. To you who add an AI start up to your investment portfolio – do your homework. Be the person who accounts for the fallout. Be the man that the military should be before they send their sons and daughters to war. Know what you are asking the soul of your people to do. Bypassing your instinct and ignoring this need for meaning in daily life is irresponsible, rude and damaging.

You have the knowledge of the consequences of your actions. Your decisions are a reflection of your grasp of the beauty of human life and your response to the fragility that can undermine it.

And of course there is Another AI. The Authentic Intelligence. In other words the human based pattern recognition system called the soul…?! It’s an excellent investment. Perhaps the 2 AI systems can work hand in hand.