I am not a machine

Catch me if you can

Hey everyone. Here’s something I wrote a while ago, something you may want to take into your day, as a kind of morning prayer fit for the crazy mechanistic times we live in.

I am not a machine, I am a seed falling, rotting, before it sprouts a majestic tree.

I am not a production line, I am a messy spiralling being, sometimes erupting, sometimes chewed to pieces.

I am not a story of achievement, I am an unfolding planetary process, a humble and tiny player in the drama of life.

I am not a money maker, I am a dance between giving and receiving, a story of finding prosperity in celebrating the small ánd grand things.

My hands are not owned by the economy, my hands belong to this body, wise and ancient.

I am not designing the next big thing, I am weaving a new web of life in order to be a good ancestor.

My body is not forever young, I am someone who goes into the darkness, here, wrinkles may spring, but I return from the well of wisdom with great gifts if you care to see them.

I am not an algorithm, I may be programmed, but the vines in my garden remind me that I can pierce through the walls I placed around myself.

I am not a forecaster, I am an embodied futurist, I earned my wisdom the hard way, my predictions are sourced from humility.

I am not an all-knowing quantum field, I surrender to the mystery of not-knowing, as here I become grace and she knows best when I’m not interfering.

I am not consistent, I am uncomfortably unpredictable, to the algorithm at least.

I am not exponentially growing, I grow in cycles. Sometimes I lose a limb, and like a Salamander I find new pathways to regrow something better.

I am not to be preserved, I am alive and kicking, and I live a 1000 deaths before I die.

I am not a machine. Catch me if you can.

This week it’s Dutch Design Week in Eindhoven, NL! I’ve been invited to give a keynote at the event interCHANGES Digital Future on Thursday 26th Oct. 17:30-20:00. Find all specs here. After my talk the audience of experts, scientists, policy makers, artists, and … just general lovely people will have discussions around GRACIOUS AI - how we can turn Artificial Intelligence into Natural Intelligence, and become the required gracious humans that our future needs. Please send me an email if you’d like to join the event, I have a few free tickets for the inner Substack circleee!

Lots of ♡, Lisanne

Image by Nine IJff