What is the purpose of an experience, specifically one that isn’t convenient? Do we all come unto this Earth within these bodies and possess the immeasurable capabilities of an intangible consciousness just to flex on our mammalian ancestors? Okay, cool, we evolved to think beyond survival and fucking. Now what.
Lately I’m finding myself being faced with the looming threat of having to consistently define what purpose is in the era of AI, where everything you could possibly need to do is being “optimized” by techbros who have never spoken to a woman. Almost every tech company is utilizing their marketing campaigns to emphasize the solution to the crux of all human inconvenience, connection.
Automating phone calls and text messages, ordering Uber Eats for the meal that’s roughly one mile and one really beautiful walk away from your house, Amazon to avoid the elderly cashier who takes just a bit too long to check out your groceries, and painfully enough using generative AI on dating apps. We now live in a world that has not only fully integrated tech into our lives but has usurped the desire of human experience to make room for it.
What is it that makes us view the possibility of having to interact with another human being as such an inconvenience? Why are we so avoidant to connection that we’ve built a world truly obsessed with having AI and tech as the middle man? Once we’ve erased our need to have any sort of connection we’ve also erased the possibility for whimsy, for a fun side quest, to meet people who ultimately change the entire trajectory of our lives, to have a conversation with that elderly grocery store associate who just wants to feel acknowledged for the first time this week.
We’ve become cucks to tech, allowing it to take over every aspect of our lives and joylessly reap the benefits of sowing isolation. Look at the dating app, Hinge. You now have the incredible option to avoid having to come up with anything original or sincere by having a perfect one-liner generated in a matter of seconds to send to someone who was never going to match with you anyway. It’s truly grim, the prospect of optimizing your ability to fall in love. And yes, I understand the irony of writing all of this on a laptop, where seemingly every internet search engine has integrated with AI against my will. I just wonder why it is that connection is so terrifying to us?
Sometimes when I’ve had a particularly hard night; one ripe with inner turmoil and questioning what the fuck I’m even doing here, I think about all of the houses in my neighborhood. At bedtime I think of each house slowly uncoupling from the realities of their day. I think of which houses might have people in them that are feeling the same way I do. Which houses are comforting someone snot-crying because they’ve just gotten their heart broken. I think of which houses will hold someone’s last moments. Each of these houses are so connected, yet so othered. Maybe because I can’t actually see what each person is going through it becomes easy to separate myself from other people and their inner worlds, creating avoidance. Because connection is scary, and maybe seeing myself in a stranger hits a little too close to home. Yet, these moments of connecting myself energetically to these imagined homes and people remind me that sometimes I just want to connect, because that is the human experience. I don’t believe we are here for any one specific reason, but I do believe connection with each other is certainly a glimpse into what purpose feels like.
I like to go the store to get what I need even though I might have to sit in traffic, I like when I get to say “hi” to the manager at Vons and we both remember each other because we have the same date, “1973” tattooed on our knuckles. I feel of use when I get to help a neighbor wrangle their dog who got out of the yard again. I feel whole when I have a terribly awkward first date where we have no idea what to say to each other but, hey, it’s better than using fucking AI. I happen to think the things we paint as inconveniences are the very reason for it all. To experience what we can, while we can.
And also, I intentionally don’t gaf about my grammar because I refuse to ever be questioned about using AI to write or create anything. Imperfection shows humanity. YOLO
almondmilkhunni 