COMMENTARY: Is it possible that users of wearable AI devices could, like Narcissus, become unable to tear themselves away from their own data?
As Christians, we seek to know ourselves — especially the state of our souls.
But the proliferation of wearable devices powered by artificial intelligence, which offer constant streams of data or even the voice of an AI “companion,” may tempt us to obsess over our physical, mental and emotional selves, rather than our identity in Christ.
Even before Christ, the ancient Greeks considered self-knowledge a virtue, but they also warned of its danger.
When he was a boy, the ancient mythological figure of Narcissus was told in a seer’s prophecy that he would have a long life if he did not seek to “know himself.”
It wasn’t clear if that meant the handsome youth was being advised to avoid looking at himself or that he not become prideful about his appearance. When Narcissus saw his reflection in a pool one day while hunting, both of those admonitions may have been his downfall.
By one account, he was so enamored of his own reflection that he couldn’t tear himself away from it. Suffering from unrequited love (of
