POWER IN PURPOSE
Just two months prior to his own death, the man who would become known as the father of American education—Horace Mann—advised graduating students at Antioch College “to treasure up in your hearts these my parting words: Be ashamed to die until you have won some victory for humanity.”
There has never been a greater moment for citizens of this world to take to heart Mann’s parting words. In a world of increasing contention and division, often made worse by the algorithmic narrowing of the news we have access to, in societies so focused on corporate gain and efficiency that we are automating humanity out of the blue-collar workforce and replacing human intelligence with its artificial counterpart in an increasing number of white-collar positions, and at a time when developers of generative AI claim to threaten both the novelty and unique beauty of the human brain and the very existence of humankind, it is essential that each citizen of this global community carefully consider the legacy they want to leave behind and carefully craft a technology plan that enhances that intended legacy.
Acclaimed performance psychologist Jim Loehr, author of The Power of Story: Rewrite Your Destiny in Business and in Life, calls this our Ultimate Mission or the premise of our personal story. We now live in a historical moment where AI may write you out of the story completely unless you actively and intentionally craft a compelling narrative of your own. We craft our story’s premise, says Loehr, by clearly defining our own personal and unique mission:
Our Ultimate Mission must be clearly defined. If you find this difficult, ask yourself: “If I was standing at the rear of the chapel listening to people eulogize me at my own funeral, like Tom Sawyer and Huck Finn got to do, what would it gladden me to hear? What might someone say up there, or around my burial plot, that would make me think ‘Hey, I guess I really did lead a worthwhile life’?” By envisioning the end of your life, by coming to terms with the question, How do I want to be remembered? or What is the legacy I most want to leave? You provide yourself with your single most important navigational coordinate: fundamental purpose, which henceforth will drive everything you do.
In a world increasingly run by computer systems, by machines that “don’t see us as people, just another piece of code to be processed and sorted,” according to the Stop Killer Robotscoalition, having that navigational coordinate will mean the difference between being tossed about by the whims of the tech bros and the waves of each new technology and having the autonomy to be the author and editor of your own life story. It will mean the difference between being mindlessly led by hyperbolic press releases about new technologies and their potential impacts on humanity and being able to weigh those technologies against the impact you wish to leave on this world, using those technologies that further your Ultimate Mission and walking away from those that do not. It will mean supporting companies that use emerging technologies in ways that align with the values inherent in your personal mission and avoiding those companies whose practices work against your mission. It will mean walking away from work where efficiency and technology take precedence over people and creating or furthering work that enhances and empowers humanity.
I wish I could offer you a checklist for each coming technological scenario, the do’s and don’ts for every forthcoming “advancement” in technology with its accompanying benefit and/or danger to humanity. I can’t. Your checklist will look different than mine because your mission in this world and in this life is different, and beautifully so. That is what separates us from machines built to scale. Your power lies in your unique story and mission. So, too, does mine. And this world is far better when we each pursue the role that is authentically and uniquely our own, the one we are uniquely gifted for, uniquely prepared to accomplish.
For each of us, navigating the new AI and automation terrain begins with defining our Ultimate Mission—“the thing that continually renews your spirit…the indomitable force that moves you to action when nothing else will,” that navigational coordinate that “spells out the most overarching goals you want and need to achieve in your time here,” according to Loehr. I know mine, and it guides every decision I make, personally and professionally. What is your Ultimate Mission and how might you choose to use (or why might you limit the use of) technology in order to accomplish it in a way that is ambitious, noble, beautiful and unique to you and which wins some victory for humanity?
