Inside Catalyst — 5 November: Ellie shares her joy and challenges
Weekly reflections from the Catalyst team on our tech justice project, grief and AI and spirituality.
This week we’re happy because of…
Ellie: I’m so excited about the organisations we’re going to be working with as part of the Tech Justice Road Trip (the project that Hannah is leading). Those organisations are the excellent Chayn and Camden Giving, both of whom we’ve developed reciprocal relationships with over the course of the last months or years.
Hopefully the brilliant Multitudes will also be joining us in the new year.
I have so much respect and admiration for each of these teams and the work they do, and can’t wait to see what they do when combined in a cohort!
Challenges ahoy: holding, feeling and allowing grief
Ellie: I went to a book launch this week for a book called Tending Grief, and as one of the audience members commented, it felt like soul wisdom, so validating; a mirror.
The author, Camille Sapara Barton, writes of:
‘how little space there is in our Western societies for anyone to process feelings that do not support productivity’,
and at the same time:
‘grief tending enables us to feel more; to care about the world we inhabit.’
Grief and love are two sides of the same coin. I’ve been holding, and attempting to process, a lot of grief these last few weeks, and at times it’s been completely overwhelming. The intensity of world events and personal wrangles can feel relentless, and though Autumn is a time of letting go, I never seem to manage change with as much grace as the beautiful trees.
At these times, even small things like replying to an email (which often entails making one or several decisions, albeit minor ones) can feel impossibly heavy and terrifying.
Grief is allowed at work
Ellie: I’m so grateful to be working in, and having helped create, a culture that allows space for a bit of falling apart. Because sometimes it’s just unavoidable, and I can’t imagine how much harder it would be to have to pretend everything felt fine, actually.
I honestly think building our capacity for grief work might be one of the most transformational things we could do as a society. I’m personally working on building my capacity to fully feel and tend to these feelings — as unflinchingly and honestly as I can.
We are also thinking about
It was great meeting in person with the Activity Leads this week, including a star appearance from Kayleigh’s beautiful stunning baby daughter, Violetta!
I went to a super stimulating talk on AI and spirituality, hosted by a church in Piccadilly. All the big juicy questions… including when will AI be humble and admit it doesn’t know things, or isn’t totally sure about something?
I can’t help but think the infallibility modelled by ChatGPT and the like will have consequences for us
a) believing and deferring to it too readily (I already notice this), and
b) doubting our own discernment, in the midst of always wanting quick answers to complex questions that we don’t have/make time to either fully research or verify.
Will AI ever have an insecure day where it doubts itself and its reliability? What would that mean? ❓🤷🏾♂️🤷🏿♂️🤷🏽♀️🤷🏼🤷🏻♂️🤷♀️❓
