I'm in my final stretch of class for my advanced #meditation teacher training and I had to bite my tongue in class this week because of everybody talking about all the corporate social media that we're supposed to be on to promote ourselves, and using #AI even to code and build websites and and and...

I was hoping to get some really useful information out of this class because I trust the teacher and I know that he really knows his stuff, but I was really dismayed with this week's class. I feel like he's asking us to dance with the goddamned devil.

I resolutely refuse to use AI; I refuse to use it in my work, I refuse to use it to do any writing (I fucking know how to proofread, thank you very much!), I refuse to use it on my website, and I also refuse to use most social media, especially X, Instagram and LinkedIn. I do have a nominal Facebook presence again because it's the only place I know where I can connect with people in my own community regarding potential class offerings. (I truly hate every minute of it!)

The only corporate social I've fully caved to is YouTube, because I'm starting to post steam train videos and intentionally boring long-form outdoor adventure videos there, but I'm not interested in promoting my meditation teaching practice on YouTube right now for a number of valid reasons.

I'm sure I will pass the class just fine, but I'm trying to find a diplomatic way to bring up the topic of AI and how fucking destructive it is to the planet and to the human brain with these people. These are all Buddhists, for Buddha sake (well, I think most of them are?). You think that they would be a little more sensitive to such topics.

I guess I'm gonna be the turd in the pool on the community forum this week. I do not believe that outsourcing your brain and outsourcing your work to AI is a fruitful or useful thing. I believe that it's a fucking trap and that it degrades the human creative spirit almost instantly once one relies upon it.

I also need to remember that most of the people in my class are not neurodivergent, so probably don't think that deeply about these things. They likely see other people using AI and assume that it's OK. My strong ethical codes and boundaries and empathy for the planet are not how most other people live their lives.

Then again, I'm a poet, and a musician, so suffering through creating with my own brain is just part of how I exist, even though most of the work that I try to do in the world is aimed toward helping alleviate suffering for others (or, at the very least, making them laugh or smile). 🤷