How to Stop AI From Rewiring Your Brain Without Consent

We live in an attention economy. This is not surprising, given that recent statistics show that the average daily time spent with media in the United States is 454 minutes, or more than 7 and a half hours per day. In itself, this could raise some concerns. But perhaps even more worrying are the thousands of hidden algorithms that artificial intelligence (AI) uses in our devices and apps to monitor us and shape and rewire our brains.

For example, I have seen young clients in my office (as well as adults) who were compulsive users of online pornography that was damaging their lives and relationships. If you doubt that “machine behavior” is influencing you, an article in the journal Nature described the myriad ways in which algorithms are ubiquitous.

Ubiquitous Algorithms

Algorithms are used in credit scoring to make lending decisions. Media outlets and websites use algorithms to determine what political information to show you (and what not).

Algorithms are used by common programs, from ride-sharing apps to travel apps that look for traffic patterns. In fact, algorithms are often layered within other algorithms – hundreds of them enclosed within others.

Do app algorithms make things easier? In many cases, yes. But we must also consider that algorithms can make us more passive and predictable. Indeed, they are designed to hold our attention in order to achieve the goals for which they were programmed.

Some apps are so good at holding your attention that the designers of these apps keep their algorithms secret! It seems that the human brain and human behavior are quite easy to program once algorithms identify our tendencies and what we react to. And because we’re online so much, algorithms can run multiple tests until they figure out exactly what works, whether it’s getting us to buy another product, to take another language course online or to support a predetermined cause or candidate.

How to Stop Being Programmed by Algorithms

If you’ve read this far, rest assured, I haven’t used an algorithm to keep you engaged! I believe you read this because you are alive, and being alive is neither boring nor predictable. Being human means you are supposed to be creative and joyful! This is the essence of free will and setting your own intentions and goals.

I suspect there’s another very good reason why you’ve read this far: because, honestly, who wants to be used, manipulated, and pushed around by other people’s hidden agendas? I don’t know. Maybe that’s why I migrated to mindfulness…yes, this is what can prevent AI from programming your brain and behavior without your consent. Indeed, mindfulness changes the relationship you have with everything around you, both externally and internally, at every moment.

Mindfulness means being present, alert and awake to what is happening. It means that you are open, autonomous and adaptableas opposed to being closed, passive, and predictable. Here are two quotes worth absorbing:

“We need to strengthen our curiosity, adaptability and emotional intelligence while respecting the virtues of empathy, humility and self-control.”

–Me, human by Tomas Chamorro-Premuzic

“Imagination is more important than knowledge. For knowledge is limited to all that we know and understand today, while imagination embraces the whole world and all that there will ever be to know and understand.”

-Albert Einstein

Computers make us faster. They can make us impatient, eager to Google answers so that we can be RIGHTrather than reflective, listen and understand others. Our digital social connections often cause us to miss out on fundamental elements of humanity, like discovering others through touch, gestures, and posture.

Then there’s this: We may be part of a group, but lack the true sense of humanity, which the Merriam-Webster dictionary defines as “compassionate, sympathetic, or generous behavior or disposition: the quality or ‘state of being human’.

Mindfulness comes from the Sanskrit word sati. The original meaning of satiation It is about remembering and remembering oneself. In other words, it is about reclaiming the fragmented parts of oneself in order to become whole. The whole self will never be revealed when it exists in the shadow of an algorithmic master. With mindfulness you can pull your own strings.

Or, as the Buddha said as he lay dying: “Be a lamp to yourself. »

There are many ways to imbue yourself with mindfulness. For example, how many breaths did you notice while reading this article? Start to notice your breathing, your body, what you are thinking in each moment, and how you react to the images and messages on the screen. This is a good starting point!