Last night I dreamt about AI and roses, and in my dream I was blogging, so here I am, trying to capture the thoughts I had during the night. Thanks to Joe Murphy and Tom Witherspoon, whose inspiring chat at yesterday’s Blogging Community of Practice meeting truly inspired me, I am here pressing publish on a draft, saving the world one half baked idea at a time.
What’s happening in the title of this blog post are mixed metaphors: there is one idiom “Stop and smell the roses” that means “to relax; to take time out of one’s busy schedule to enjoy or appreciate the beauty of life”, and one that says “wake up and smell the coffee” (or the bacon, at least here in the UK), which means “to become aware of the reality of a situation, especially when it’s different from what one believes or expects”. My title means something like… become more aware of the reality of the situation and appreciate the beauty of life. The reality of the situation being the proliferation of AI powered platforms and tools in parts of life where they are completely unnecessary – and the fact that AI can’t smell, or touch or feel and indeed has no senses at all as a disembodied tool.
I recently read a fantastic book, The Power of Not Thinking by Simon Roberts, which very elegantly made the case for embodied knowledge, and how ethnographic approaches can be applied in the workplace. It’s a great read that I really enjoyed, and it reminded me of the research that informed my PhD in Anthropology nearly 20 years ago. One of the things that the book made clear is that the industries, and the companies, that lead innovation, are very interested indeed in embodied knowledge and see the value of such approaches whilst selling tools and services that promote the opposite (just as proponents of EdTech are known to send their own children to tech-free schools where mobile phones are banned and interacting with nature is encouraged instead). I am simplifying here, but I hope you get my meaning.
Yet, this model of embodied thinking feels inspiring to me, as it helps me imagine ways in which to articulate alternatives to the dominant narrative I come across in many workplaces and in education, which feels like it’s moving in the opposite direction. A direction into a future with AI that I feel un-keen and un-curious about. I don’t wish for my day to day to be dominated by tools that speed up productivity or replace human activities (and more advanced applications in sciences or medical research are beyond my direct experience). Because, on some level, it feels like “it is everywhere and everyone is using it”, and everyone is “cheating” with it. Sigh.
Focusing on embodied knowledge, embodied experiences of the world, helps me avoid a dichotomy that doesn’t serve me, with AI on one side and what I want to do on the other. It helps me articulate how and why there is value in things like being there, seeing the world from someone else’s point of view, from being present and embodied. In the case studies featured in the book the value is directly related to the business objectives of the clients the author and his colleagues work with, and he articulates this in a very practical way, rather than in academic jargon (which is hard to do when it comes to talking about things like phenomenology).
Which brings us back to roses. Specifically the roses which are pictured at the top of this post. I am not a huge fan of roses, or indeed pink flowers in general, but I fell in love with these when I was walking through my local garden centre recently and I smelled their strong, fruity, summery scent.
I stopped in my tracks and came closer to drink it in, and immediately decided that this would be the plant for me. They smell like summer, like desserts, like the best sunny day. They have a beautiful colour, from pink to apricot, and their petals are smooth and strong, keeping in all that delicious smell and sheltering the bees that come to visit.
And so, most mornings, in the corner of the garden, I sit mid morning with tea or coffee, and I drink in the smell, and enjoy the beauty of these beautiful blooms. Literally waking up to smell the roses 😉
HI Maren,
Thanks for this very human reflection. Your thoughts on embodiedness strike a chord with me today. I, too, feel “un-keen and un-curious” about the future that AI boosters imagine for us and in response to the resulting overwhelm in resisting the great tech steamroller of the 2020s I’ve found a need to do some other things. Like crochet a blanket, or put some plants in my terrace’s built-in boxes finally, or dance, or read a good (printed) book. The need to engage the body, to be present in my body, as I both pursue these interests and also rage against the machine feels oddly urgent. Your post captures those contrasts and conundrums so well.
It also offers a nice reminder of how I might approach the planning of an upcoming course – by emphasizing embodiment even as we interact online. Thanks for these thought buds. Enjoy your roses!