Artificiality: Being with AI Doug Belshaw: Serendipity Surface & AI
We're excited to welcome Doug Belshaw to the show today. Doug is a founding member of the We Are Open Co-op which helps organizations with sensemaking and digital transformation.
Doug coined the term "serendipity surface" to describe cultivating an attitude of curiosity and increasing the chance encounters we have by putting ourselves out there. We adopted the term quite some time ago and were eager to talk with Doug about how he thinks about serendipity surfaces in the age of generative AI.
As former Head of Web Literacy at Mozilla and now currently pursuing a master's degree in systems thinking, Doug has a wealth of knowledge on topics spanning education, technology, productivity and more. In our conversation today, we'll explore concepts like productive ambiguity, cognitive ease, and rewilding your attention. Doug shares perspectives from his unique career journey as well as personal stories and projects exemplifying the creative potential of AI. We think you’ll find this a thought-provoking discussion on human-AI collaboration, lifelong learning, digital literacy, ambiguity, and the future of work. Let’s dive into our conversation with Doug Belshaw.
Key points:
- Doug coined the term Serendipity Surface to describe cultivating curiosity, increasing random encounters and possibilities by putting ourselves out there. He sees it as the opposite of reducing "attack surface" in security; it's about expanding opportunities.
- Doug shares an example of prompting ChatGPT extensively over 24 hours with a flood risk report, personas and perspectives to decide on a complex house purchase. This shows the creative potential of using AI tools to augment human thinking and decisions.
- Doug discusses the sweet spot of productive ambiguity where concepts resonate with a common meaning yet leave room for interpretation by individuals based on their contexts. It encourages engagement and spreading of ideas.
- As an educator, Doug advocates thoughtfully adopting emerging tech to develop engaged, literate and curious learners rather than reactively banning tools. Friction facilitates learning.
- Ultimately, Doug sees potential for AI collaboration that brings our humanity, empathy, creativity and curiosity to the forefront if we prompt and apply these tools judiciously.
Links for Doug Belshaw:
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