“Raise your hand if you aren’t experiencing these: Confusion. Disorientation. Loss of contact with yourself, with reality. Conflating truths. Lack of trust in others and ourselves. Self-doubt of our senses and intuition. We can all protect our emotional lives and optimise our use of AI technology if we master two tasks: 1) Clearly understand what an LLM is and does, and that it is not ‘alive.’ 2) Reconsider the time you spend using digital devices, seek timely disconnection with them to rebalance your self-knowledge and resilience, restoring your humanity and grasp of reality. To address the first point, we can recognise GenAI by its true nature. Clearly understanding what it is – not what its parent companies would like us to perceive it to be. GenAI LLMs could be thought of as powerful search tools, each armed with a massive piece of ‘luggage’: a large selection of information from the largest dataset ever put together in the history of endeavour.
“Within these AIs are massive sets of answers to nearly every question that anyone has ever thought of, written, spoken about or filmed. When queried, an AI system pieces together a response from bits and pieces of this vast luggage. Thought about this way, the mystique surrounding AI tools evaporates and we are able to use them in the way they are optimized, for yielding an outcome.
“I remember wondering as a child how they shrunk the little people inside the TV when we first got one at home. We have a similar sense of mystery surrounding AI tools. It’s hard for us to grasp the vastness of the dataset, which is a large percentage of the information produced by billions of humans over the past few decades in text, audio or visual formats.
“It seems as if these tools respond like a human would, but they have access to much more information on any topic than any human, so why not choose to interact with the AI system instead of our friends and family, who can be moody, irritable or ‘have no time’? Ha! So, of course most people will come to mostly trust in the comfort or information AIs share. But digital devices are not alive. They lack the magic muck that makes humans living things, making us cranky, crying, unpredictable, in our messy, loving, wonderful, living world.
What matters? What is real? What fulfills me? How can I feel less alone? Sometimes an insurmountable feeling of loneliness surrounds us, leaving us digging deeper and deeper into isolating ourselves. We may feel utterly alone even when we attempt to reach out for connection. The levels of dissociation from self and confusion of reality due to our digital existence will only increase as AI systems fill our days. The degree to which we will preserve fulfillment and the wonderful experience of being alive may depend upon the degree to which we can disconnect from digital devices.
“How do we safely navigate the gap between the living and non-living worlds when it seems ever narrower? One way is to travel somewhere we can always easily visit – inside our own minds. We can disconnect. What experience today requires no devices?
“Unprecedented digital challenge is here for a reason. It is an opportunity for us to celebrate our humanity. To reach the other side of this chasm we have to reconnect with nature and with ourselves.
“What matters? What is real? What fulfills me? How can I feel less alone? Sometimes an insurmountable feeling of loneliness surrounds us, leaving us digging deeper and deeper into isolating ourselves. We may feel utterly alone even when we attempt to reach out for connection.
“The levels of dissociation from self and confusion of reality due to our digital existence will only increase as AI systems fill our days. The degree to which we will preserve fulfilment and the wonderful experience of being alive may depend upon the degree to which we can disconnect from digital devices.
- “Can we spend quiet time daily on our own, alone, with no digital device? Taking breaks for much-needed stretches of time gives our brain downtime. It is not ‘boring’ if you consciously allow yourself to process what is important to you and delve into the magic of your own quiet insights. We need to actively seek time alone, with no gadgets. While it may seem unappealing, likely to be ‘boring’ and possibly even scary, it can be an act of bravery that allows you to awaken from the madness that can be digital life and find your way back home. Knowing yourself can build your resilience. Quiet time allows you to the space to envision and plan for your future.
- “Can we leave our digital devices off or put them away on silent mode when we leave home? We need to find the willpower to leave the smartphone off and spend time with friends without distractions or take the train or the lift without checking our phones. Then we are more likely to get to know our neighbours, increasing connection and community, which increases our community’s resilience to social disruption and other problems.
- “Can we be utterly disciplined about our own well-being, prioritizing our sleep over screentime without exceptions?
- “Can we set strict limits on the number of hours we allow ourselves to sit at a computer each day? Three or four hours, tops, is, I would say, the maximum of productivity.
- “Can we watch television on a large screen with no other devices in the room and with other people – not sitting alone, mesmerized by a digital device? It helps mental health to be social in-person, and misinformation, disinformation, etc., are harder to spread if we are actively watching news and other programs together with others, with more brains to notice possible misinformation.
This isn’t just about AI. We need to recognise that our time spent interacting with digital devices is decreasing our connection to others and increasing our vulnerability to manipulation via the content that reaches us through those devices. Allowing our lives to be monopolized by digital devices makes us less resilient, lesser people, feeling less human and less confident in other humans.
“This isn’t just about AI. We need to recognise that our time spent interacting with digital devices is decreasing our connection to others and increasing our vulnerability to manipulation via the content that reaches us through those devices. Allowing our lives to be monopolized by digital devices makes us less resilient, lesser people, feeling less human and less confident in other humans.
“In my family, as a rule of thumb, I ask the question, ‘Would this experience that we are now choosing make any sense to cave people gathered together around a campfire?’ Laughing, telling stories, singing, opening up, sharing food or looking at the sky at night. Ah, no devices needed there.
“If everyone could rein in their exposure to the digital and refocus more energy on the human, the planet could gently restore its course, back to nature. Awakened people will refuse to be manipulated. Social change and human resilience begin by identifying widespread use of digital devices as a form of potential substance abuse, with risk of psychological and physical dependence.
“The digital device ‘pandemic’ attacks not only the mental and physical health of the individual, but also – through reinforcement effects – promotes the spread of ill-advised content. The result is the erosion of the dynamics and social resilience that uphold our communities and societies. It could be the most serious pandemic humanity has seen.
“Recognising our addiction to gadgets and our fear of ourselves requires quiet courage, but it can be the greatest ride of being alive. Explorer and philanthropist Edmund Hillary once said, ‘It is not the mountain we conquer it is ourselves.’ Here, too, it is not the AI we must conquer, it is ourselves.”
This essay was written in January 2026 in reply to the question: “AI systems are likely to begin to play a much more significant role in shaping our decisions, work and daily lives. How might individuals and societies embrace, resist and/or struggle with such transformative change? As opportunities and challenges arise due to the positive, neutral and negative ripple effects of digital change, what cognitive, emotional, social and ethical capacities must we cultivate to ensure effective resilience? What practices and resources will enable resilience? What actions must we take right now to reinforce human and systems resilience? What new vulnerabilities might arise and what new coping strategies are important to teach and nurture?” This and 200-plus additional essay responses are included in the 2026 report “Building a Human Resilience Infrastructure for the AI Age.”