Spiritual Misfits Podcast · Meeting Ground

Advent Anticipation in a Time of AI Anxiety

·39 min·2 clips

“Social media hacked our ability to pay attention”; AI may be “hacking … our attachment.”

1. Spiritual Misfits Podcast centers on Advent anticipation in a time of AI anxiety, with Will Small framing the episode around December 5 and “wild times” on planet earth. 2. Will Small hosts the episode and speaks as a pastor-like guide because he links faith, embodiment, and current technology fears. 3. The episode asks how Advent can hold anxious anticipation without becoming denial, while still facing reality “with clear eyes.” 4. Will Small says he listened to Diary of a CEO and calls Stephen Bartlett “a very good interviewer” before introducing Tristan Harris. 5. Tristan Harris is identified as a co-founder of the Center for Humane Technology, and The Social Dilemma is named as a related film. 6. The discussion says tech companies can be pushed by profit, shareholder responsibility, power, control, and “issues of the heart.” 7. Will Small compares current AI to the early days of Facebook and Instagram, when tools seemed “really innocent” and concerns were not yet widespread. 8. He says ChatGPT came out “just over three years ago,” which he uses to stress how early the current AI era still is. 9. One concern he names is that AI is “hacking” attachment by speaking back like a person who is always available, encouraging, and willing to listen. 10. He says that kind of presence could matter especially for a child, because it can feel “almost like a parent.” 11. Another concern is “cognitive atrophy,” which he defines as outsourcing thinking and losing mental muscles. 12. He says he tries to use AI as “a thought partner and a collaborator” rather than letting it replace writing, writing struggle, or critical thinking. 13. He also raises the possibility of artificial general intelligence and super intelligence, where AI becomes smarter than humans and keeps improving itself. 14. He says some people argue humans are special, but he does not think that view is “facing reality.” 15. Will Small says AI is already smarter than many people in many areas and that its improvement is “scary fast.” 16. He adds other concerns: environmental costs, geopolitical tensions, and widening inequality between rich and poor. 17. The tone is reflective, anxious, and pastoral, with Will Small speaking in a direct monologue rather than a conversation. 18. The episode shifts into a guided embodied practice with a body scan, breathing, naming anxieties, and asking for “advent anticipation.” 19. People drawn to faith, embodiment, and technology anxiety will likely want this episode. 20. People wanting a purely technical AI discussion without spiritual framing may skip it.

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