The Lie of Superiority: Why AI Isn’t the Future, Human Potential Is
Part 1 of a 3-Part Series on Reclaiming the Right to Be Human
About This Series
This is the first article in a three-part series challenging the silent forces reshaping human life without our collective consent.
Part 1 examines how the current paradigm devalues human intelligence in favor of artificial efficiency.
Part 2 will examine how government institutions are often bypassing the people they were established to serve.
Part 3 will highlight the corporate systems that profit from replacing humanity rather than uplifting it.
The goal of this series is simple: to protect the sacred essence of being human and to reclaim our right to determine how we live, evolve, and lead.
When Did Efficiency Become More Important Than Peace?
I’ve walked through darkness in my life.
I’ve faced the inner collapse that no metric can measure.
And in those moments, I never once prayed for more efficiency. I never asked for optimized productivity or faster decision-making.
What I asked for, what I cried out for, was peace. I wanted clarity. Wholeness. The ability to breathe deeply in my own skin.
And it wasn’t a machine that led me there.
It was stillness. Surrender. The knowing in my gut and the love I could still find in the mirror.
That’s how I know AI is not the answer to the questions that matter most.
We Mistook Tools for Truth
I have no problem admitting that a calculator is better at math than I am. However, I also don’t measure my worth or intelligence by how quickly I can solve an equation.
The calculator is a tool. I use it when it helps. I put it down when it doesn’t. It doesn’t define me. It supports me.
The same should be true of AI.
We didn’t stop teaching people to swim when we invented life preservers. So why are we pretending it makes sense to stop teaching people to think just because a machine can mimic a thought?
Technology is not our successor. It is our assistant. But somewhere along the line, we started mistaking tools for truth.
The Cult of Optimization
We’ve become so obsessed with making things faster that we’ve forgotten why we’re doing them in the first place.
We live in a society that worships speed, performance, and efficiency. That mindset has infected how we view intelligence.
We’ve come to believe that faster means smarter. That logic is more valuable than emotion. That scalability matters more than soul. Efficiency has become the golden calf of modern innovation.
However, efficiency without empathy can lead to exploitation. And progress without perspective becomes pathology.
And in that distorted value system, human qualities like nuance, empathy, and creative tension are viewed as flaws rather than strengths. True evolution is not about how fast we move.
It’s about whether we’re moving toward something that matters.
A balanced future does not elevate efficiency above all else. It honors effectiveness, which includes connection, trust, and long-term well-being.
One without the other leads us off course.
I Don’t Need a Machine to Override My Intuition
Let me be clear: I don’t need an algorithm to tell me what’s best for me.
How I feel in my body is my compass.
The reflection I meet in the mirror is my truth-teller.
The still voice within me, my intuition, is far more accurate than any statistical probability.
We have outsourced our wisdom to machines that cannot feel. And in doing so, we are becoming strangers to our own knowing.
That is not enhancement.
That is erasure.
The Intelligence We’re Not Measuring
AI can process data. It can recognize patterns. It can simulate decisions.
But can it:
Mediate a tense room with grace?
Sense unspoken trauma in someone’s tone?
Integrate paradox?
Lead from love?
Heal a fractured relationship?
Forgive a betrayal?
These are not inefficiencies. They are miracles of the human experience.
Yet they’re absent from every conversation about intelligence because we’ve allowed a narrow set of metrics, processing power, data output, and conversion rates, to become the definition of value.
We are forgetting the deeper intelligence that lives in the body, the spirit, the heart. We are forgetting ourselves.
Human beings possess a multidimensional intelligence, encompassing emotional, intuitive, spiritual, and ancestral aspects. It’s about understanding others' perspectives, my perspective, and our perspective to create win-win solutions.
We can see beyond the problem and into the possibility.
We can steward not just tasks, but timelines.
AI struggles to see beyond what has already happened. However, we possess the ability to imagine, to dream, and to connect across realms.
That’s not woo. That’s wisdom. And it’s irreplaceable.
The Call to Reinvest in Human Potential
What if the billions being poured into machine learning were used to support human learning?
Education rooted in purpose
Therapies that restore wholeness
Leadership that values consciousness
Community that fosters creativity
Cross-cultural dialogue
Creative education
Restorative justice
Mental health care
Expanded consciousness
We don’t need to be replaced. We need to be remembered. And resourced. And restored.
We don’t need to be made faster. We need to be met, loved, challenged, and believed in.
We need to remember that the most powerful operating system on Earth is not artificial.
It’s alive. And it’s within us.
Because the world doesn’t need more code. It needs more compassion. More creators.
More truth-tellers. More people who know how to sit with uncertainty and still choose love.
The Future Is Not a Choice Between Us and AI
The choice isn’t binary.
We don’t have to choose between being human and being left behind.
This isn’t a war between humans and machines.
It’s a reckoning with how we define value.
However, we must reclaim the right to decide how we relate to the tools we create. We do have to stand in the sacredness of our own becoming and say, “We are not obsolete. We are evolving.”
AI may be able to support us, but only if it learns to follow, not lead. To serve, not replace. To be effective, not just efficient.
Let AI assist. But let humans lead.
Let machines process. But let humans guide.
Let tools support us. But let the soul of humanity remain the architect of our future.
Because humanity is not outdated, we are not inferior. We are simply waiting to be re-seen by a system that has forgotten the miracle we are.
What About You?
Have you felt the pressure to become more like a machine just to keep up?
Have you been told your intuition is less valid than an algorithm?
What’s one moment that reminded you of the depth and power of being human?
I want to hear how you’re navigating this moment. Drop your reflections in the comments and let’s begin reclaiming the future before we’re written out of it.
— Graham Skidmore
President, EnGen | Ethical Technology Advocate | Systems Rebuilder