The Digital Dark Ages (and how books will evolve to save us)

Before smartphones, people used to read books and socialize a lot more. We might even argue it was "better back then".

And then big business stepped in, and realized these smartphones could provide amazingly addictive experiences, which leads to fantastic corporate profits. People's mental health was a distant concern.

And here we are. Society is still grappling with the depth of our situation. Parents are raising children with few digital guardrails, and every day we doom scroll to feed our dopamine addictions.

I do believe it is going to get better. Not overnight, but slowly, people will become aware of the "good" apps and bad ones. We will self limit. We will guard our children. It will be the equivalent of moving from a fast food nation to one that eats healthy home cooked meals, while enjoying the company of our family.

Books will Evolve

Books used to provide our escape, leveraging the minds eye to take us on fantastic journeys and learn about complex subjects. But reading takes time, and it's possible our fling with social media has caused us to lose a valuable skill: patience. We need "it" now - no time to read a whole book.

Books are valuable: they embody a carefully crafted wisdom of the author. Words are chosen carefully. And self-help books provide a unique guidance. If we don't have time to read them, what is the alternative?

AI Provides two ways to experience a book

The first way is very Google like: ask AI a question about most anything, and the AI will work to provide a pretty good answer. Services like ChatGPT and Gemini are leading the way on this experience. This is primarily customer guided questions.

The second way turns the tables. Instead of a person asking the AI questions, the AI, guided by the wisdom of the author, asks the person questions and guides them toward an intentional outcome.

Talking Books

We now have an opportunity to leverage the wisdom in countless books to provide an engaging and positive experience for people. No, it can't replace the dopamine fueled doom scrolling, but that was bad for us and humans are learning. We are aware of how we are being gamed, and increasingly strive for a growth mindset and to be intentional with our time.

Benevolent AI, designed to help us be better people, is going to take us out of these digital dark ages and foster a renaissance unlike any other.