The Harvard Gazette has a story today about the deleterious effect AI has on human empathy. Here’s the first few paragraphs: Artificial intelligence holds the promise of optimizing many aspects of life, from education and medical research to business and the arts. But some applications may have a deeply worrisome effect on human relationships. During a talk March 20 at Harvard Law School, MIT sociologist Sherry Turkle, whose books include “Reclaiming Conversation” and “The Empathy Diaries,” outlined her concerns over the fact that individuals are starting to turn to generative AI chatbots to ease loneliness, a rising public health dilemma… Read More
Continue ReadingThe Myth of the Self (4): Caring Connects to the World
For those who haven’t been following closely, I will repost the table containing the several behaviors associated with the right-hemisphere. I have rearranged the rows in the order in which I discuss them in this series of blog posts. * Russell Ackoff’s ways to deal with messes. Right-hemisphere-dominant behavior types Caring is an especially important category because it has existential implications and is also partly constitutive of flourishing. Caring acts incorporate inputs from the contextual world presented to the right hemisphere. Empathy, sensing what is going on with another person and acting in accordance, guides much caring. But not all… Read More
Continue ReadingEmpathy and the Election
The upcoming election offers many choices, some stark and others more nuanced. Many are related to policy extremes, but, perhaps, the most important is about empathy. Biden demonstrates it in his speech and acts; Trump lacks it entirely. He may claim he is empathetic, but his actions show its complete lack. Think of the many times the President has belittled, denigrated, or dehumanized others. Other people are always only props to serve his insatiable need to glorify himself. The many times he has dismissed others via a tweet is both cowardly, and also without empathy. Empathy is a critical trait… Read More
Continue ReadingCan’t Fake Empathy
Michael Gerson wrote an opinion piece in the WaPo yesterday about the lack of empathy expressed by Donald Trump. Much of the article was aimed at showing how important empathy is at bad times like we’re are going through. He pointed to examples of past leaders. I wholeheartedly agree. At the end he urges the president to “fake it.” There is a hole at the heart of Trump’s rhetoric where empathy belongs. How must the marginal in our society — prisoners, migrants, the homeless and destitute — view a president who seems most excited by stock market gains and welfare… Read More
Continue ReadingEmotional Intelligence
In my daily ramblings through my email and on the web, I often spot something worth commenting on in my blog. Thinking back to when I started blogging about 11 years ago, I divided my posts between ones about my books and somethings about politics or the state of the world. I cannot do much with the latter topics these days. it’s just too depressing. But I still can try to tie my own work to the larger picture, and that’s what follows in this post I was reading a post from one of my regular weekly bloggers and found… Read More
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