“What does the world need?”

“What Does the World Need?” Title Banner for the article written by Ryn Delpapa that includes image on the left of Earth and seven areas of global need.

It’s a question I ask ChatGPT for three reasons.

• In the midst of AI being surged forward, I want to know how does AI respond to such a philosophical question based on a query stemming from the outlook of humanity?
• Like so many, I have recently been forced to transition from my job, so I’m in an existential mood attempting to navigate a way forward.
• I am also wondering, what becomes of our future during so much turmoil? How do we solve the world’s problems so that deaths, conflicts, and abuses of power no longer take center stage in our lives?

There’s a lot on my mind, maybe you relate.

Here are the categories given by ChatGPT including its disclaimer in its responses:

1. Sustainability: The world needs sustainable practices in various areas, including energy production, agriculture, waste management, and resource consumption. This involves finding ways to protect the environment, mitigate climate change, and ensure a livable planet for future generations.
2. Equality and Social Justice: There is a need for greater equality and social justice in the world. This includes addressing issues such as poverty, discrimination, racism, sexism, and inequality in access to education, healthcare, and opportunities. Promoting inclusivity and ensuring basic human rights for all individuals is crucial.
3. Peace and Conflict Resolution: The world needs efforts to promote peace, resolve conflicts peacefully, and foster understanding among nations and different cultures. This involves diplomacy, dialogue, and finding non-violent solutions to disputes.
4. Education and Knowledge: Widespread access to quality education and knowledge empowers individuals, promotes economic growth, and leads to societal progress. The world needs educational opportunities that are accessible to all, regardless of their background or location.
5. Health and Well-being: Improving global health and well-being is essential. This includes advancing medical research, ensuring access to healthcare services, promoting mental health support, and addressing public health challenges such as pandemics.
6. Technological Advancements: Harnessing the power of technology for the benefit of humanity can drive positive change. Innovations in areas such as renewable energy, communication, transportation, and medicine can significantly improve people’s lives and the overall well-being of societies.
7. Collaboration and Cooperation: The world needs increased collaboration and cooperation among nations, organizations, and individuals to tackle global challenges effectively. Building strong partnerships and fostering a sense of global community can lead to shared solutions and collective progress.

I have to agree with the above, and I believe there are two underlying solutions.

1. Emotional Intelligence (EI)
2. Curiosity, which is a form of intelligence, is classified as Curiosity Quotient (CQ).

Take the seven categories above and look at the very words used to describe the ‘needs’.

Protect, Mitigate, Access, Inclusivity, Resolve, Understand, Health, Benefit, Change, Cooperate.

The AI response’s very words are indicative of those that trained the model and perhaps reflective of our own human wishes even in our most robotic, professional, and perfectly shaped answers. The desire for a more cooperative, inclusive, protected, and accessible world.

After exploring ChatGPT-4 and DALLE-2 plus the multitude of articles spun up that take a stance on these products as amazing extensions of hyper-productivity or industry/employment disruptors — I believe beyond optimizing our collective work outputs there’s a more subtle lesson.

AI is a tool, product, and output crafted by intelligent minds that are creating immense change in our society. The early adopters of AI are exemplifying curiosity to either understand, utilize, or mitigate the fear of the unknown. Advancing, optimizing, improving, and growing are all positive aspirations for us to pursue with whatever tools we can implore.

Yet, if fear is the motivator, then our use of the tool controls us. We humans tend to want to survive and in this Information Age — we truly do need to expand. Look back at those seven outlined ‘world needs’ — each need reflects an improvement area that would ultimately be served with us improving upon our collective Emotional Intelligence (EI) and Curiosity Quotient (CQ).

“Emotional Intelligence (EI) is the ability to manage both your own emotions and understand the emotions of people around you. There are five key elements to EI: Self-awareness, self-regulation, motivation, empathy, and social skills. People with high EI can identify how they are feeling, what those feelings mean, and how those emotions impact their behavior and in turn, other people.” (MHANational)

1. Self-Awareness
2. Self-Regulation
3. Motivation
4. Empathy
5. Social Skills

Why do I claim that some of our greatest global needs boil down to Emotional Intelligence and Curiosity?

As one individual on this rotating globe, I by no capacity of my own, am looped into a category, group, collective, community, society, and species. By merely existing, I am a part of a larger group of humanoids — aka humanity.

So are you. We are all a part of a collective. However, when we fight the reality that our individuality is entwined to our social and physical environments, then we are fighting against the interpersonal. We view ourselves as singular entities either at war or at peace with others.

Now, this is not dismissing the turbulent experiences of trauma and systemic-ingrained -isms that make the pursuit of peace with others a challenging one to find. However, on the individual-to-individual level when you look another in the eyes — what can you see?

Do you see an enemy?

Do you see a friend?

Are you curious to know what they are thinking? Are you curious to know deep down if they are just like you?

Your worst enemy is just another human who for better or worse is staring right back at you with, most likely, the hope of living another day. Their existence, like your own, has been molded by their genetics, upbringing, physical environment, cultural climate, and social expectations.

Now, let’s amplify this one-to-one example. Imagine your boogeyman — the one that truly resonates as an enemy in your subconscious and conscious mind. It would be easy to simply define them as a problematic foe that is your nemesis. But what if we zoomed out with a curious mind?

“Your Curiosity Quotient describes just that skill set — the ability and motivation to learn and to make sense of the world around us in new and innovative ways.” (SmartBrief)

This is our world’s conflict personified on a group scale. Opposing forces of one group against another. In this stark contrast of opposition exemplified — we can look back at the ‘World’s Greatest Needs’ … humanized.

• Sustainability: Environmentalist vs. Climate-Change Deniers
• Equality and Social Justice: Egalitarianism vs. Prejudice-based -isms
• Peace and Conflict Resolution: Pacifist vs. Militarist
• Education and Knowledge: Liberalism vs Dogmatism
• Health and Well-being: Health Conscious vs. Health Unconscious
• Technological Advancements: Technologist vs Traditionalist
• Collaboration and Cooperation: Collaborative vs Uncollaborative

Here’s what’s important to note — the binary breakdown we witness in the opposing forces above is reflective of the binary categorizations presented to us that lead to polarization.

These polar stances one takes are informed by many elements, but they can also be habitual. Habits that become entangled in our own identities and communities. It’s in the “vs” that we get lost.

For if you’ve been on one side your entire life and then suddenly begin to see the veil lifted — can you redefine your thinking? Can you reassign the collective and societal standing you’ve ascribed to in order to change? Can you get more curious?

That’s where we can learn from AI.

AI comes in many forms but it’s built upon a model. On the ChatGPT developer’s homepage, two things are called out.

1. It’s an iterative model that has come out of exploration, learning, and refinement.
2. ChatGPT, and AI overall, have limitations.

We are human outputs of our explorations, learnings, and life models. We have limitations. That’s what it means to be human, after all. We get to decide every day — do we follow the habits, belief systems, and thinking of the person we were yesterday?

Do we prohibit our own growth and iterative process?

Do we let the limitations of our previous beliefs, assumptions, judgments, and notions constrict us to an antiquated box?

Or today do we accept our limitations to move past them?

Do we explore our thinking?

Do we refine our beliefs?

If we can’t see eye-to-eye and find the common ground to collaborate and cooperate across the construction of polarities in our society — then will we ever cross off any of our ‘needs’?

The grand needs of the world mean humans coming together to solve them — rather than being restricted by our own ego’s capacity to collectively improve and evolve. The grand needs of the world mean looking with a bit more curiosity at the challenges we all face. Remember those words that ChatGPT yielded … “Protect, Access, Resolve, Understand, Change, Cooperate” Those are fundamental desires.

With a curious mind, we can open doors to new creations, inventions, and collaborations.

With emotional grounding, we can witness our own and others’ emotions and not be driven by them.

With an acceptance of new technology, we can choose to expand our self-models to accept, grow, and address our limitations.

So, in your opinion as a fellow human rotating on this planet, what does the world need?

More from the Writer and Artist: https://www.ryndelpapa.com/

Note: ChatGPT was used only for question prompt, not the writing of this article.