PROVOST AND EXECUTIVE VICE PRESIDENT FATMA MILI ADDRESSES INCOMING HONOREES

Hello, and welcome to the Phi Kappa Phi Induction. Phi Kappa Phi is the only Honor Society devoted to excellence across disciplines.

It was first created in 1897 and gained its current name in 1900 as an acronym for its motto Philosophía Krateítõ Phõtôn, "Let the love of learning rule humanity."

Let the love of learning rule humanity. What a beautiful and befitting name for an honor society. There is no better way to capture the essence of universities. There is no better way to explain why we devote years of our lives to learning. Learning is a means to knowledge and wisdom acquisition. Learning is the means to acquire skills we need to survive and live well. But learning, much more importantly is an end in itself. Learning is a lifestyle; learning is a way of being in the world.

We learn because we love learning, because we feel the growth that comes from it, we learn because it is a game, we feel challenged, and get rewards from breaking mysteries. We love learning because it rewards us with the discovery of new perspectives, new viewpoints. We love learning because it keeps us humble, reminds us of how much we do not know and how much we can learn from others. We love learning because we are more empathetic and better human beings thanks to the process and outcome.

On reflecting of the joy of learning, the first image that came to mind is the “Love the question” quote by  Rainer Maria Rilke. He writes about the slow and necessary process in learning, the necessity of sitting with a question and appreciating it in full.

“Be patient toward all that is unsolved in your heart and try to love the questions themselves, like locked rooms and like books that are now written in a very foreign tongue. Do not now seek the answers, which cannot be given you because you would not be able to live them. And the point is, to live everything. Live the questions now. Perhaps you will then gradually, without noticing it, live along some distant day into the answer.”

In this memorable quote he is pretty much telling us, “Don’t google it.”  Don’t “ChatGPT” it.

An answer is only valid if you are able to live it. The value is in the seeking and the stretching, not in the finding and keeping. Take the time to live the question first and construct answers that you can feel, answers that you can own, answers that you will automatically embrace and live.

Parker Palmer, educator and philosopher, in a different context talks about the same slow, painful, and joyful process of “faithfully holding the tension between what is and what might be.”

He further distinguishes between different stressors. Those that are negative and interfere with learning and living well, and those that lead to learning: he describes the latter as: “the stress that comes from being stretched by alien ideas, values, and experiences.”  

Again, no googling and no ChatGPT answer can possibly begin to do that for you. “Positive stress may try our patience, yet it can help our hearts become more spacious and generous. Refuse to hold stress of this sort, and our society as well as our souls, will suffer from shrinkage and stagnation.”

I thought that this topic of reminding us of the purpose of learning is a most timely topic with all the conversations we are holding around AI. Indeed, from the landing on Mars, to deep fakes, to ChatGPT, these exponential advances in computing are expanding our world and confounding our senses of reality. Progress in machine learning and artificial intelligence have swiftly outpaced expectations in terms of performance and potency. There is a risk for all of us to be hypnotized by their power and surrender our responsibility in harnessing their power towards what matters and in understanding the boundaries of what technology can do for us and what remains our exclusive duty and responsibility. Should we choose to, there is an opportunity to engage the potential of machine learning, virtual reality, and augmented reality to connect us, broaden our horizons, and enhance the impact of our decisions. AI can interfere with our learning or enhance it. The choice is up to us.

In his book, Thinking, Fast and Slow, Daniel Kahneman describes human thinking as a constant collaboration between two systems. The first, which is fast, intuitive, and approximate, is always on. The second, which is slow, deliberate, and meticulous, comes on only if necessary, only when called upon. The former is the locus of expertise, but also our heuristics and biases. It is the system we use for day-to-day navigation of our world, for performing routine actions, and for delivering snap decisions. The latter is conscious, focused, demanding our full attention to the process and outcome. It should come as no surprise that calling on the second is not our first call. We can be lazy and leave dormant. As we grow and mature, we increase our level of control over these two systems. We regulate when to rely on the speed and efficiency of our intuitive system, and when to be more cautious and employ our deliberate, slower, more precise thinking. It is this thoughtful regulatory system that takes advantage of both systems and balances their qualities.

As a society, as an educational system, we need to seek and find that right balance. When do we use machine learning and AI to generate answers for us, and when do we use the slow deliberate, thoughtful process of seeking answers and seeking knowledge.

I know that the process of finding those answers will be long and not linear. I do hope that we will err on the side of beauty, the side of human development. I hope that as a society we will always lean towards Phi Kappa Phi’s motto: Let the love of learning rule humanity.

Source: https://artificial-intelligence.educationtechnologyinsights.com/cxoinsights/computing-fast-thinking-slow-long-term-nid-1403.html