toward an ethics of care
Hello there!
I just got out of a therapy appointment, feels good to take care of myself. I don’t know about you, but I think the world requires significant amounts of therapy these days and that is probably not going to change anytime soon. I had gotten out of the habit and it feels good to build that back into my routine because I'm better at everything when I am my best self.
I’m having a lot of conversations with folks who are laid off, some of whom are feeling the uncertainty more than others, which can be a challenge. I want to be at my best to offer skillful strategy, wise counsel, and a shoulder when helpful. It takes effort to be open when I want to close down, and there is a great deal of fear and anxiety in the eco-system which makes closing down – to risk, to difference, to opportunity – feel like the thing to do. All my training comes into play in order to stay open, to stay fresh, and to stay useful to others.
I have mentioned the tech wreck-oning to many of you and a few of you have said it was a helpful phrase – don’t worry I’m not going to enforce attribution. 😊 It feels to me like we are going through a period where many of us are thinking about employment in general and how we use technology in our day to day. We ponder what employment should look like – remote, hybrid, on-site? We also think about the costs of the technology we use and we ask ourselves about impacts to ourselves and to the planet. At least I hope we ask ourselves about that last part. I think about it a lot, which is part of why I am upping my therapy regimen!
As AI and LLMs take our awareness by storm I think a great deal about how the technology we use is often hard coded with existing bias and limitations of which we may not be as aware as we could be. For example: Did you know that during the height of the pandemic many of the pulse oximeters we used in clinical settings and at home did not work as well on darker skin? Those limitations were well known in many circles, but we made choices that put people at risk anyway. Citation: https://www.statnews.com/2022/08/19/diversity-in-science-black-engineers-work-to-fix-long-ignored-bias-in-pulse-oximeters/
That’s kind of a drag. (UNDERSTATEMENT ALERT) We can do better and make better choices, but that starts with the framework in our minds about what we are doing and why. These things helped me:
This is an article I have been sharing and turning to myself in order to better work out my own thoughts on AI and technology in general. Joan Halifax is one of my favorite teachers and thinkers, perhaps you’ll find it useful: https://www.upaya.org/2023/10/roshi-joan-halifax-what-has-ai-got-to-do-with-buddhism/ It helps me think about what we want out of technology in general. After all, technology is at its heart just specialized knowledge we use to solve problems. We can think about the problems we are trying to solve, our approach in how we solve them and anchor both in a framework of care for all of us and by the way I think we need to include the planet as an entity deserving of care as well.
One more useful concept from Joan Halifax-she developed a framework that allows us to use compassion to navigate challenging circumstances with maximum skill and minimum burnout. It was initially focused on clinical settings and healthcare workers, but I think it comes in handy for office workers and especially those working with and building the technology we use in our day to day lives. We need grounding to take care of ourselves and the world. Connecting with people and caring about consequences - for ourselves and for others - is part of the solution to the risks we face.
An excerpt: “Compassion may be defined as the capacity to be attentive to the experience of others, to wish the best for others, and to sense what will truly serve others. Ironically, in a time when we hear the phrase “compassion fatigue” with increasing frequency, compassion as we are defining does not lead to fatigue. In fact, it can actually become a wellspring of resilience as we allow our natural impulse to care for another to become a source of nourishment rather than depletion. Developing our capacity for compassion makes it possible for us to help others in a more skillful and effective way. And compassion helps us as well. Findings from recent research studies suggest that compassion plays a significant role in reducing physiological stress and promoting physical and emotional well being." From here: https://www.upaya.org/2012/09/practicing-g-r-a-c-e-how-to-bring-compassion-into-your-interactions-with-others/
I turn to these concepts and tools almost daily to set my compass form my intentions and ground my actions. Hope you also find them useful – if you do, let me know!
Cheers,
Lisa