Are Borgs Taking Over Your Thoughts? This is How You Overcome AI Anxiety
Are Borgs taking over your thoughts but not for geeky reasons? Instead of cosplaying Captain Picard, are you worried that bots will take over your workplace? Though it might seem like something a geek would be thinking, the reality is that artificial intelligence is increasingly present in our heads, and not for the right reasons.
Will the company automate more processes, making me redundant?
That’s the critical question in the depth of your mind. Even if you smile at your co-workers, something nagging in your head makes you cringe. Do you remember the Borgs? Are we going to be taken over by AI? Will we lose our jobs first and our humanity second?
It’s normal to feel nervous about Artificial Intelligence. Even if you want to avoid the words “AI Anxiety,” the reality is that it exists. If you don’t like to call it so, you can call it something less fancy, like “the fear of the unknown.”
Fear of the Unknown
The less we know about something, the more our nerves get all jittery and jumpy. And let’s be honest, the whole AI enchilada is still a mystery to most of us. But one thing’s clear as day – AI is a game-changer and has its eyes on our jobs.
When we don’t understand something fully, we start having lots of anxiety and headaches about our future. We just can’t see things clearly. Our brains create the most fantastic scenarios trying to prepare us for the worst. Instead, we end up all burned out in the process. We collapse, and instead of opening our brains to creative solutions, we end up setting ourselves up for failure.
And that’s what we’re doing when we overthink about artificial intelligence.
Are Borgs taking over? Or worse: are we going to become the Borgs ourselves!? Why do we see “Borgs” in a bad way? Is just Star Trek the culprit?
Borgs, Cylons, Terminators…
The media (and movies/shows, especially) have made it very clear about AI going rogue. We have many examples of what happens when AI goes unchecked, gets a conscience, and changes the game. We go from being the pinnacle of evolution to the pinnacle of damnation.
One of our worst fears comes into play: going the way of the Dodo!! (Who wants to be a Dino or a Dodo? No one wants to end up with their skeletons in the Museum section of extinct species!)
Because fear is the kicking magic that will fuel your worst anxiety episodes, it’s your point of view, and what you can do to overcome it that will change the game.
Instead of Borgs…
Augmented Humanity
Since it’s very unlikely that we’ll ditch AI for good, and since we’ll end up merging with it sooner or later, wouldn’t it be better to project that future as something positive, talking more about augmented humanity than Borgs?
Look! Merging is happening already!
For example, Sarah de Lagarde, after a horrific accident on the London tube, became a bit of a “Borg” herself. Now sporting an AI-enhanced bionic arm that cost her a cool £300,000 raised on a fundraiser (no small change there), she’s able to live life a little more normally. Thanks to the AI, her arm learns from her, adapting to her movements.
But it’s not just her! Advancements for the impaired, for example, are here not only to stay but to grow. True, there are still many questions to answer and many hurdles to go through. But the positive possibilities that AI can bring us are unquestionable. We should not stop getting better just because we’re too fearful of problems that might arise along the way.
Every single advancement in our history has also brought its problems. And each time, though imperfect, we found a solution.
Opening our minds in a positive way to possibilities will help us keep anxiety at bay, set our brains in the right direction (finding creative solutions), and allow us to see a brighter future.
So what to do to Overcome that pesky AI Anxiety?
You can now download my new audiobook, “How to Overcome AI Anxiety,” and get ready to smash the future. Not with fear, but with hope and determination!
It’s free with Audible’s trial month 🙂
Audible UK Store. Audible US Store. Audible FR Store. Audible DE Store.
