We (all) Work in the A. I. Mines, Explained.

Introduction to the A.I. mines and the problem of Education

This collection (you’re reading its first entry) traces and identifies a central and tragically underestimated condition of our time: We all work in the mines and we are suffering for it.

This condition is especially evident in the classroom because mining is (in most cases) forbidden. Students reveal their condition in the negative, specifically as withdraw symptoms.

“In the mines” is in part a metaphor for our students’ and our children’s (and all of our) interactions with modern tech under the guise of “social media” and the phenomenon undergirds them all: data extraction via dopamine induction. “Social media” (in all its variations) has many well publicized negative outcomes (and a few positive), but these are in fact secondary to their underlying algorithmic mechanism which mines (our) data in exchange for a quite literal drug input (dopamine reward).

Child Miners, Not just a Metaphor

Whatever the form, our students (and, in fact, all of us) spend most of their days in those mines. Young people in some sense have spent most of their lives there. Vast data treasure hordes have been filled by the mine owners and the tough hours show on our students’ faces. In this sense it isn’t mere metaphor: their eyes are heavy and their minds frayed. These and other symptoms mirror the symptoms of the child-miners of early nineteenth-century Wales, despite the very different settings. Our students (temporarily deprived of dopamine induction) sit with deformed spines, slumped in their chairs, and fall asleep. They mirror our own condition: tired, sore, and befogged. This is by far our biggest “AI” challenge right now: We are all working in the mines.

The Map Out (into Green Shade)

Green Shade (this collection) provides a map out of the mines. Throughout this collection I will discuss our condition and the map out, addressing those who hear and heed the call from the outside. I will do this in the context of education where the effect is most acute, but always in the world beyond schooling as well. This is at the state of generalizable crisis, and our solutions will be interdependent.

“AI” is multifaceted and will have a crucial role in our present and future. There is no way around AI, generally speaking. It has arrived and has been with us much longer than most think. We are leading students (and ourselves) out of the mines so that they and we can curate and cultivate futures with AI in a “high” sense, and this will also be a fundamental part of the discussions in this collection. What tools, resources, and modes of being we need to properly see, approach, and direct AI will be the critical nexus at the highest level for education and our society.

So this isn’t just a map out of the mines, but it is also a map into the forest: into the green shade where green thought grows.

Each entry in Green Shade is a tool, a method, a dash, a line. As we move (metaphorically and sometimes actually) into the forest, we students and teachers, children and adults, will undergo a change in condition. Our time in the mines doesn’t merely make us dopamine sick, our selves are dispersed at every encounter, flattened, and reassembled as so-called “identities.” The move toward “green shade” is movement toward complexity and concentration of existence (something we will return to many times!). I trust this will be a collaboration, and you are already here: we need you.

Sunshine and Fresh Air

Every entry in Green Shade will offer something practicable and actionable. We cannot wait for the time is come. So I offer the simplest (practical) beginning to accompany this long introduction.

For inspiration, let’s go to Lord Anthony Ashley-Cooper’s 1842 Royal Commission on children working in mines in the United Kingdom. Sufficed to say, it was a sensation and led to radical reforms after its publication. Children as young as four were down in the horrific damp and dark cavities hour after hour. He repeatedly emphasized the effect of this lack of sunlight and fresh air:

“In many cases, the children are described as pale, stunted, and sickly, a condition which the Sub-Commissioners attribute to the nature of their employment, where they are deprived of the benefits of fresh air and the invigorating influence of natural light for the greater part of their existence.”

So let the sun be our first technique. Bring yourself (and children or students) out into the (actual) sunlight and fresh air. Open a window in your classroom or home. A first step. Recovery will be a fundamental part of our journey.

Closing Remarks

When we say (as we sometimes do) that we should we reimagine education, do we have any real sense of what that means? First and foremost we must remove our children and ourselves from the mines. It is only with clear minds that we can meet AI on a higher level. It is not just that AI will transform education (it will), but we must consider with clear eyes how we can have the perspective, daring, direction and true imagination to cultivate and shape it. I hope you’ll come along for the adventure.