I'm amazed at the many ways AI has enhanced the lives of myself and those around me. While it brings intelligent productivity to my life, I experience "AI fatigue" at times. What I mean by this is that my brain can only handle so much extra insight and intelligence at a time. I find myself relishing face-to-face interaction with other humans, spending time in nature, and even boredom. I'm not about to give up AI, but I need to counter the hypervigilant state resulting from vibe coding or trying to decide if something is AI generated.
Recently, I came across Taoism and the concept of Yin and Yang. In my own words, these are opposing forces that balance each other. Light and Darkness. Pleasure and Pain. My example (not sure if I have this completely right) is war and diplomacy. You can solve conflict peacefully or violently. I prefer diplomacy, but diplomacy works best with a threat of war. And, wars never end themselves; they need diplomacy.
So if AI is the yang, the aggressive, power hungry, competitive, growing, rapidly changing, disruptor; what is the yin? This is my proposal for the yin to AI's yang.
Enough
It's possible to have enough. Enough of a meal. Enough sleep. Enough money. Sure, you may always want more, but it's possible to change your mindset and have enough. We may be tempted to ask AI to fill in some hole in our knowledge, but if that knowledge is not immediately used and soon to be forgotten, what's the point? Can we have enough of what AI offers?
Uncertainty
I like to say, "Things are going to get better and things are going to get worse; and not necessarily in that order." I tried for years to predict the future. I would collect information and try to create models. My model would predict the future until some factor I ignored caused reality to deviate from my predictions. I've given up making predictions and I have accepted the uncertainty of the future. I still do my best to prepare for the future.
I heard a financial advisor tell his client "I can tell you how much money you need to retire, if you can tell me when you are going to die."
AI can create the illusion that certainty is attainable, but this can be a vain pursuit.
Boredom
The modern world gives us an abundance of distractions that need not be listed here. AI provides the ultimate distraction with unlimited knowledge accessible with simple prompts. But our minds need down time; time for the subconscious to process without interruption. This is where creativity is born. AI Large Language Models are amazing at predicting what might come next based on everything that has been written before; but, is it possible that there is an entirely new thought yet to be created that doesn't exist in a data centers deep mind? Would AI have come up with the theory of relativity before Einstein? Calculus before Newton?
Boredom is the antithesis of AI. Boredom creates novel data. AI dies without new data.
Street Smarts
I'm always amazed at people with street smarts. They understand unwritten social rules, can read a situation and pivot expertly. It's like social Judo. AI is your awkward book smart friend that can't read the room. Will AI replace street smarts? Never.