ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE AND TOUCH THERAPY
I’ve been a bit resigned and discouraged by the increasing use of AI in our world. However, thanks to a recent newsletter from Austin Kleon. I am heartened to know that there certainly is resistance and even some grounds for hope.
Early on I was very influenced by two authors’ books (among many others) Jacques Ellul and Marshall McLuhan: “The Technological Society” and “Understanding Media”. Ellul argued compellingly that the technologization of modern society was increasingly becoming a regulator of people rather than simply a tool used when necessary and truly useful.
McLuhan noted that every “advance” in externalizing human function was accompanied by an atrophy of that function in humans. The automobile increasingly resulted in less walking and so muscular atrophy in humans. The technologization of learning results in less interest in the “humanities” and more in adaptation to working with and for machines.
AI is the next frontier born of information-educated people. It has no allegiance to moral education, no concern for the spirit and none for the development of intelligent and independent minds, no allegiance to the natural creative process of making art.
On the other hand, we have Natural Intelligence - NI. A perfect embodiment of that is massage therapy - because touch is real. Virtual reality means “almost real.” Artificial intelligence is virtual intelligence, not real intelligence.
The goal of education, and life for that matter, is not the skills to just find a job and to earn an income. It should be to nourish the spirit and to honor the vast capacities of the human mind, heart, and body. These are what keep us from being simply part of the matrix. That is our real work. When those higher purposes can be wedded to the everyday work we do, we are blessed.
Massage therapy, done as the application of, in Aldous Huxley’s words, a non-verbal humanity reawakens us to our capacity for embodiment. First, touch is real, the most “real” of all the senses as it is the only one that contacts structure as well as energy simultaneously.
This connection makes explicit the need to touch. Touch is a need, not a nicety! Just as natural intelligence is a necessity, Touch is as direct a communication as we can make, it is the fundamental source of connection.
Rolfers, having identified themselves as “somatic educators”, have done our profession a great service. Every time we touch with intelligence and compassion, learning takes place.
We learn we are not alone; we are in community.
We learn we can feel better.
We learn that care is here in this world
We learn to have more faith in ourselves.
We learn how pleasure is not a luxury, it is a need.
We learn we can feel more at peace within ourselves.
We learn to devalue the excessive reliance on technology.
We learn we can change – for the better!
We re-member we are miracles on a miraculous planet.
