A scientist noticed something nobody talks about.

Dacher Keltner's research shows people rarely feel awe from technology, mostly from nature and emotional events. One scientist experienced awe watching advanced AI systems work, realizing how they mirror the nervous system, gut instinct, and creativity involved in human thinking.
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But I find it interesting that you, when you elaborated on the question, you actually asked about awe, right? Did I ever, or have I recently had a moment where I felt awe at technology? And the first thing that comes to mind is actually a study. I don't know if you've heard of this by a researcher who is one of the foremost experts on awe. And he basically did a huge survey on people's experiences of awe. His name is Dacher Keltner, and interestingly, there are, you know, many insights what people are awed by. Lots of it has to do with nature or, you know, emotional experiences or even mystic experiences, oftentimes when they're confronted with death or something really stark. But interestingly, almost no one mentioned an interaction with technology, at least not in front of a screen, which I find so fascinating when you consider how much time we spend with technology. But now I have to admit, maybe there have been recent moments when my interactions technology at least gave me a sense of awe because it made me realize what we can do. So it really actually reflected back to me the sort of wonder of what goes on, let's say, in my entire body when I have just come up with an idea, right? It is not just a pattern recognition. It is this entire process between my nervous system, my gut instinct, yes, also my thoughts, my cognitive infrastructure. So working with a lot of these recent AI tools, especially with some of the agentic frameworks, when you see how they get to, you know, the end of something, you realize the immensity of actually what we are doing every single day. So you could, you could call that a sense of awe at technology.
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