WHO WILL WE BE IN A WORLD WITH AI? (WCIP)
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WCIP: An AI-Integrated Psychological Knowledge Framework.
2 min
A machine can write your next sentence.
It cannot take responsibility for the life you build around it.
Reading Jeanette Winterson's reflections on artificial intelligence brought me back to a question that belongs in every kitchen, classroom and workplace:
As machines become more capable, what are we practising being human at?
From the ground where Working-Class Intellectual Psychology stands, here are seven things worth thinking about.
1. Your worth cannot depend on beating a machine.
A person who has worked for thirty years should never have to justify their existence because software can now perform part of their job. Yet we have spent generations teaching people to measure themselves by output, wages and how useful they are to somebody else. That conditioning runs deep. When work changes, the fear can reach far beyond the payslip: Who am I if nobody needs what I do? WCIP asks us to look honestly at that gap. Your skills matter. Your contribution matters. But human dignity must survive a change in what the market is willing to buy.
2. Keep your judgment at work.
Ask AI for an answer. Then question it. Being impressed is easy. Taking responsibility for what you accept requires effort.
3. Deep thinking needs somewhere to begin.
You do not need a university title to ask a serious question. You might begin on a building site, during a night shift, or at the kitchen table after everyone else has gone to bed. Books, art and education can give that thinking more language and depth. Lived experience gives it something to answer to. We need both. A society preparing for AI should give ordinary people more opportunities to read, discuss, make things and challenge assumptions. Otherwise, we risk building powerful systems while leaving the people affected by them with fewer chances to understand or question their decisions.
4. Leave room for the difficult sentence.
Before asking a machine to explain what you think, try writing it yourself. Sometimes the struggle is where you discover your meaning.
5. Ask who gets the time we save.
When technology makes a task quicker, somebody decides what happens to the hours released. Do workers gain breathing room? Does care improve? Is there more time to learn, raise children or recover from exhausting work? Or does the same person simply receive a longer list for tomorrow? These are decisions about power, ownership and priorities. Personal responsibility matters, and so do the conditions people are expected to live under. We cannot ask someone to practise their way out of every pressure while refusing to examine the system applying it. Progress should be judged partly by what an ordinary day becomes for an ordinary person.
6. Practise giving someone your attention.
Put the phone down. Hear the whole answer. Ask another question. Human connection needs time in the room.
7. Choose one capacity to exercise today.
Read something that takes concentration. Explain an idea in your own words. Make something with your hands. Have the conversation you keep postponing. Use AI where it helps, and stay involved in the work of understanding. In the WCIP spirit, begin with one honest action small enough to carry out today. Then give it another place in your life tomorrow.
We will need to question the people building these systems.
We will need to question the institutions buying them.
And we will need to notice what we ourselves are becoming accustomed to handing over.
The future will reach into ordinary lives. Ordinary people deserve a hand in shaping it.
Start with the next decision that is yours.
Raymond and Ken
Rights reservation: The RIST Foundation expressly reserves its rights concerning automated collection, scraping, text and data mining, and use of this article for AI training. Publication does not grant permission for those uses. Any use remains subject to applicable law and existing licences.
WCIP: An AI-Integrated Psychological Knowledge Framework.