Let your life be a counter friction

My little sister, Habiba, has recently finished her Master’s in AI and one thing she keeps telling us is that AI is a powerful tool that can either be used to bring about good, help people and make the world better, or used by those who have an agenda that only serves themselves. And as a family of Spider-Man fans, we remember that “with great power comes great responsibility”.

When I think of AI, I used to feel like it was something Sarah and John Connor were trying to fight, back in 1991 when they brought down the Cyberdyne Systems. Remember Terminator 2? The good robot from the future, not that regenerative one that just couldn’t be destroyed – that scene of him running after the car still gives me goosebumps to this day.

I don’t actually want to reflect on the power of AI. I want to reflect on the power of us. The power that people have in their spheres of work and community to make a positive difference. I want to reflect on the power that we hold, despite often being made to feel that we have no power or agency. We are discouraged from speaking out, in case we cause discomfort or are labelled difficult or a troublemaker.

We worry about the consequences of our actions and words – and sit with a feeling of hopelessness that the world may never change, that we don’t have the resources, or reach, or skills to make an impact. That the machine is just too big, that powerful people are sitting on the precipice of this machine looking down at us, and that maybe we need to accept that it is what it is. After all, what can one person really do?

I never want my children to feel that they don’t have the power and agency to create, challenge and change the world. Even to write those words caused me unease. Maybe I am too idealistic, or maybe I just cannot accept a world without hope.

I am reminded of a book I read earlier this year, “On the Duty of Civil Disobedience” by Henry Thoreau, an American philosopher from the 1800s, in which he states:

“A minority is powerless while it conforms to the majority, it is not even a minority then; but it is irresistible when it clogs by its whole weight.” 

What does this mean for us?

“Us” can sometimes feel like a minority. We recently organised a conference for the Supporting Families Division at Tower Hamlets Council on Culture, Identity and Anti-Racism. I reminded the social workers and others who work with the most vulnerable children and families in the borough that they cannot underestimate the power and agency they hold in helping people and changing lives. But it comes down to self-reflection, self-interrogation and a willingness to do and be better.

It takes courage to work against the grain, to not accept or conform to societal norms, and to work towards a hopeful, just and sustainable world. We all have so much more power than we are led to believe. And this is important to remember on a local community level as well as on a global level.

As Thoreau mentions:

“Let your life be a counter friction to stop the machine. What I have to do is see, at any rate, that I do not lend myself to the wrong which I condemn”