# Transcript: Homo digitus – humanity in the next decade

## Description

We won’t be talking about digital technologies, but about how to keep your soul nourished even in the digital age and about the fundamental roots of “being human” in the era of AI.



Who is Karolína Presová



Karolína Presová spent two years working in Asia during her studies in sociology and media, where she began to observe the negative effects of digital technologies on the mental health of children and adolescents. For this reason, she immediately founded and developed the successful nonprofit Replug me upon returning to the Czech Republic, which has been addressing the negative impacts of the digital world on children and adults for several years, including research. She was one of the first in the country to practically address digital wellbeing both in schools and companies. Thanks to this, she has received numerous awards for social innovation and corporate social responsibility, and Forbes included her in its 30 under 30 list. Currently, she enjoys a slower pace of life in nature and motherhood. Professionally, she focuses on the development of AI and its impact on the soul and human development. Individually, as a consultant, she works with clients overwhelmed by the fast-paced digital age who want to dive deeper into themselves.

## Transcript

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**[00:10:00]** A kind of paradigm of today's digital age,

**[00:10:03]** also has another side, which is the roots.

**[00:10:06]** Which are inefficiency, irrationality, spontaneity, and uncertainty.

**[00:10:12]** And as you can probably guess, a tree without roots dries up.

**[00:10:16]** It simply cannot exist.

**[00:10:17]** Just like a person is like that tree,

**[00:10:20]** without roots, without inefficiency in life,

**[00:10:23]** irrationality, uncertainty, in short, it dries up.

**[00:10:26]** But unfortunately today we focus only on the top.

**[00:10:29]** Only on the crown.

**[00:10:31]** And we're basically operating within the technological paradigm

**[00:10:33]** of efficiency and performance.

**[00:10:35]** But it's not caused by digital technologies.

**[00:10:37]** That's a very interesting idea.

**[00:10:39]** If you look at excellent psychologists and historians,

**[00:10:46]** who focus on comparative analysis of brain development,

**[00:10:50]** you find that since the Paleolithic era,

**[00:10:55]** through agriculture, to primitive communal societies,

**[00:10:58]** and the industrial Cartesian age,

**[00:11:01]** the human brain has actually evolved towards the crown.

**[00:11:04]** We were building consciousness, ego.

**[00:11:07]** We tried to be more rational,

**[00:11:10]** to survive specifically in the industrial era.

**[00:11:14]** That means over time we developed that crown,

**[00:11:17]** but our roots also grew.

**[00:11:19]** However, over time, those roots became less useful,

**[00:11:22]** because inefficiency and irrationality just slow you down.

**[00:11:26]** Why bother with emotions, interacting with our unconscious,

**[00:11:31]** having some spontaneity in life?

**[00:11:33]** We don't really have time for that today.

**[00:11:34]** So over time, we started to somewhat cut off those roots.

**[00:11:38]** There is even great research by American neurologist Paul McLean,

**[00:11:46]** who says that over time,

**[00:11:48]** we focused so much on reason and consciousness,

**[00:11:52]** that as we developed the neocortex,

**[00:11:55]** we suppressed some functions of the limbic system,

**[00:11:58]** to the point that we lose intuition.

**[00:12:01]** And digital technologies entered this moment,

**[00:12:04]** this historical setting, which is very natural.

**[00:12:07]** The development of the crown is very natural.

**[00:12:10]** And digital technologies, social networks, and now AI have entered it.

**[00:12:14]** And they only support the crown, the growth of the crown.

**[00:12:17]** Which isn't bad, it's just natural development,

**[00:12:20]** and that's the direction we're going, but it's good and important,

**[00:12:24]** more than ever before, to also focus on the roots.

**[00:12:28]** Specifically on irrationality, inefficiency, spontaneity, and uncertainty.

**[00:12:32]** And that's because if we basically lose contact

**[00:12:37]** with the roots, with what nourishes us,

**[00:12:39]** we lose something fundamental.

**[00:12:42]** And I have named this for myself as a kind of crisis of meaning.

**[00:12:46]** This is what I perceive often happens with Dinma now.

**[00:12:49]** I'll give you a specific example that repeats in patterns.

**[00:12:53]** Someone comes to me who has an excellent career, a great job,

**[00:12:59]** children they wanted, living a basically perfect life,

**[00:13:05]** but something is missing, they feel dry, drained.

**[00:13:09]** Something just isn't working there.

**[00:13:12]** Shopping doesn't help, Netflix doesn't help, alcohol doesn't help,

**[00:13:16]** adrenaline sports don't help, and after every vacation they return with the same thought.

**[00:13:21]** Yeah, something isn't quite right.

**[00:13:25]** And I started asking why meaning is disappearing from our lives.

**[00:13:32]** Why is that, when we have everything and live in a hugely abundant society,

**[00:13:38]** and we basically have everything we want here in Central and Eastern Europe,

**[00:13:42]** why don't we have that meaning?

**[00:13:45]** Why do we often not really know where we're heading and what to do with our lives and what should fulfill us?

**[00:13:50]** And what is it that we have to give to this world?

**[00:13:53]** To look at this context a bit more,

**[00:13:57]** we could start with digital technologies,

**[00:14:00]** which entered the historical development of our crown and roots.

**[00:14:08]** Digital technologies satisfy our basic needs very well.

**[00:14:17]** I don't know if you've ever connected this with Maslow's pyramid,

**[00:14:20]** but this is a simplified version of it,

**[00:14:24]** and those two levels I have highlighted,

**[00:14:27]** are belongingness, meaning I belong somewhere,

**[00:14:30]** I relate to someone,

**[00:14:33]** I somehow build a feeling that I belong to some group,

**[00:14:38]** whether at work, in family, or personal life,

**[00:14:41]** in interpersonal relationships.

**[00:14:44]** Above that is self-esteem, meaning how I feel with others,

**[00:14:48]** what I think about myself, how I relate to the environment,

**[00:14:52]** and what that means for my personality,

**[00:14:54]** these are basically basic human needs,

**[00:14:57]** which the digital world has significantly disrupted,

**[00:15:00]** without us noticing.

**[00:15:02]** It was very subtle,

**[00:15:04]** it took a relatively long time,

**[00:15:06]** and since I've been in this field for a very long time,

**[00:15:10]** and was horrified by how we started using Instagram on a daily basis,

**[00:15:15]** I observed how at first we noticed it.

**[00:15:18]** Ah, I haven't been on Instagram very long,

**[00:15:20]** ah, and here I see some photos, what am I supposed to think about them,

**[00:15:23]** until the point where we don't notice it at all.

**[00:15:25]** We just go there unconsciously,

**[00:15:27]** somehow letting the content affect us,

**[00:15:30]** without realizing

**[00:15:32]** that it basically addresses our most basic needs.

**[00:15:35]** And that is, of course, the reason why we go there so much,

**[00:15:38]** why we go there almost obsessively,

**[00:15:40]** not even knowing why we go on Instagram,

**[00:15:42]** just because it pulls the phone out of our pocket,

**[00:15:45]** we don't even know, we basically have no reason, no justification.

**[00:15:49]** And these basic needs that the digital world fulfills,

**[00:15:53]** I give an example, but an extreme one, so you understand.

**[00:15:57]** If you look at today's influencers,

**[00:16:00]** and this mainly concerns the younger generation,

**[00:16:04]** the digital space basically tells you,

**[00:16:07]** if you have a butt like Kim Kardashian,

**[00:16:10]** you can value yourself,

**[00:16:12]** and if you get 100 likes on this Insta story,

**[00:16:15]** you will be loved.

**[00:16:17]** This is the extreme form of the narrative

**[00:16:19]** that we get from social networks,

**[00:16:21]** which is connected precisely with these two layers of the pyramid.

**[00:16:24]** That means we secure the feeling that

**[00:16:27]** we belong somewhere, whether it's on Facebook,

**[00:16:29]** chatting with someone, or on LinkedIn,

**[00:16:31]** being part of some community, part of a professional group.

**[00:16:34]** We fulfill our self-worth there,

**[00:16:36]** meaning we get likes, comments,

**[00:16:38]** but even when your boss writes you an email,

**[00:16:40]** you feel, aha, you have some connection with the boss,

**[00:16:43]** it's important, he is your authority,

**[00:16:45]** so there you also internally fulfill that feeling of self-worth.

**[00:16:49]** It's very subtle, but it happens every day in our lives.

**[00:16:53]** But when we outsource fulfilling those basic needs,

**[00:16:57]** which unfortunately some children and teenagers already do,

**[00:17:00]** to the digital world, how do we then reach the meaning at the top?

**[00:17:05]** That path is suddenly blocked.

**[00:17:08]** You already have the meaning automatically presented to you by the digital space.

**[00:17:11]** That means, to exaggerate again for the younger generation,

**[00:17:16]** The meaning of my life is to look like Kylie Jenner.

**[00:17:19]** The meaning of my life is to look like so-and-so

**[00:17:22]** and have this and that lifestyle.

**[00:17:24]** Often, when you ask today's youth,

**[00:17:26]** what their purpose in life is, what drives them,

**[00:17:29]** not what they want to be professionally, but what spark burns inside them,

**[00:17:33]** they either can't say, or it's exactly mimicking something

**[00:17:40]** that exists in the digital space.

**[00:17:42]** And the fact that the digital world has disrupted these two basic levels

**[00:17:48]** of our Maslow's pyramid, one important thing has happened,

**[00:17:52]** which is especially important for the young generation and children,

**[00:17:55]** and that is it complicates the creation of a solid personal identity.

**[00:17:58]** Here, I would like to mention the idea of Shoshana Zuboff,

**[00:18:01]** an American psychologist working at Harvard,

**[00:18:04]** who wrote an excellent book about surveillance capitalism,

**[00:18:09]** which awaits us all, or we are already somewhat in it.

**[00:18:12]** She basically says that the young generation are like chameleons,

**[00:18:16]** that they mimic, this happens in the digital world,

**[00:18:19]** and based on that, they set up their own lives,

**[00:18:22]** because they feel that the digital world and social media

**[00:18:26]** are the right ones, the ones that present the 'correct' way,

**[00:18:30]** so they no longer look for their own spark.

**[00:18:33]** They only mimic what they see outside.

**[00:18:35]** So if you ever happen to notice

**[00:18:37]** that in front of schools there are many girls who look like Kylie Jenner,

**[00:18:42]** all wearing the same clothes, all with the same hairstyles,

**[00:18:46]** it's not just your imagination.

**[00:18:48]** It really is about this chameleon-like mimicking approach

**[00:18:52]** that young people have.

**[00:18:54]** However, I want to say this is not a bad thing,

**[00:18:57]** that they have a role model, that they have a role model like Kylie Jenner,

**[00:19:00]** that they have a role model like anyone else.

**[00:19:02]** The problem is that the digital space offers only one role model

**[00:19:06]** and says, this is the right one.

**[00:19:08]** And it says, follow this path, because this lady on Instagram

**[00:19:13]** has the biggest market commercial, the biggest reach,

**[00:19:16]** so we will follow her, and she becomes the currency

**[00:19:19]** by which we build our identity.

**[00:19:26]** It's good to realize that without a grounded identity,

**[00:19:29]** there is no sense of fulfillment.

**[00:19:31]** And here in these two layers, the buttery pyramid,

**[00:19:33]** the identity is not authentic.

**[00:19:35]** And that means the child or the young person, but also adults,

**[00:19:38]** this doesn't only concern children, but also us adults,

**[00:19:40]** actually form their identity based on what they see outside,

**[00:19:43]** what is validated by their commercial, let's say marketing world,

**[00:19:48]** getting to that meaning, what wakes us up in the morning,

**[00:19:53]** what energizes us, is almost impossible.

**[00:19:56]** And what is very, very sad

**[00:19:59]** and let me

**[00:20:00]** I think it's also due to the times that no one even asks children about it.

**[00:20:05]** What is your purpose, what energizes you, what is inside you that you want to burst out into the world.

**[00:20:13]** And what you don't primarily see on social media.

**[00:20:19]** If I go back a bit to the adult world,

**[00:20:23]** how much we have filled that mass pyramid,

**[00:20:26]** how much digital technologies have penetrated the compulsive layers of that mass pyramid,

**[00:20:31]** depends on how and by whom your digital well-being is set.

**[00:20:34]** That's why I'm talking about it now, because it actually depends on you,

**[00:20:38]** how permeable the boundaries of the digital world are for you.

**[00:20:42]** How much you have set some rules for how you will use the digital world.

**[00:20:48]** And now we'll take a look at that a bit in the quiz that Honza mentioned, which we prepared.

**[00:20:55]** So, how are you doing with your digital well-being?

**[00:20:58]** It's always interesting for me to see how it actually looks.

**[00:21:02]** And here we have the first question.

**[00:21:08]** I hope you see it on the slide.

**[00:21:11]** I often reach for my phone when I'm bored or feeling nervous.

**[00:21:17]** Just when you're in some tense situation,

**[00:21:20]** before a lecture, or before an important meeting,

**[00:21:23]** or waiting for a date with someone,

**[00:21:26]** your fingers just can't help themselves and you start scrolling.

**[00:21:37]** Great.

**[00:21:38]** I'm glad there are so many participants here, at least we'll have a large sample.

**[00:21:42]** Let's give it a moment more.

**[00:22:00]** This result is actually quite common, if you guessed so.

**[00:22:05]** And it's normal, because the phone is actually a great escape strategy.

**[00:22:12]** Again, we don't want to face, as I said at the beginning,

**[00:22:15]** we don't want to face uncertainty.

**[00:22:17]** That doesn't do us much good.

**[00:22:19]** Our basic basal roots, the root of uncertainty doesn't do us well,

**[00:22:23]** such spontaneity, so we basically want to live our whole life,

**[00:22:27]** So when we're nervous, it immediately brings back that sense of certainty.

**[00:22:29]** And on Instagram, that certainty is always just there.

**[00:22:33]** There's always something we roughly know, we check email,

**[00:22:36]** we look at Google Calendar to see what's coming up,

**[00:22:38]** and we instantly regain that sense of certainty.

**[00:22:42]** So, let's look at the next question.

**[00:22:45]** This one is a bit work-related.

**[00:22:47]** I feel like work never ends.

**[00:22:49]** I have no boundaries between work and personal life.

**[00:22:53]** It's mainly because we all have emails on our phones,

**[00:22:56]** or Slack on our phones, WhatsApp on our phones.

**[00:23:03]** So, it seems that way.

**[00:23:11]** I have to say, I'll comment on this as we go.

**[00:23:13]** I have to say, when I started dealing with digital well-being in companies,

**[00:23:16]** it was usually 100%,

**[00:23:21]** around 90%.

**[00:23:23]** Now I'm happy, of course, it's a small sample,

**[00:23:26]** but I'm glad the number is gradually decreasing,

**[00:23:30]** because many companies have started focusing on this

**[00:23:32]** and noticed that it's actually counterproductive

**[00:23:35]** for employees to be constantly connected

**[00:23:37]** and mentally at work all the time, because they never rest,

**[00:23:40]** and that's not good for burnout,

**[00:23:43]** or for efficiency and performance.

**[00:23:48]** Sure, 72%.

**[00:23:52]** We can maybe return to this work question

**[00:23:54]** at the end if you have something specific you're curious about,

**[00:23:58]** but it's really interesting that we hardly even notice it,

**[00:24:02]** we do notice that work is in our personal life,

**[00:24:05]** our families or children notice it most,

**[00:24:08]** but it seems normal to check email before sleeping,

**[00:24:11]** just in case. It feels normal,

**[00:24:14]** to grab the phone right after waking up and check emails,

**[00:24:17]** because what if something's urgent.

**[00:24:20]** Very rarely is something urgent, but this shows

**[00:24:24]** that the belonging part of Maslow's pyramid, the love and belonging,

**[00:24:29]** the feeling of belonging somewhere, is affected by digital,

**[00:24:33]** and also by work.

**[00:24:37]** Let's look at the next question.

**[00:24:42]** It happens that I check messages, calendar,

**[00:24:45]** anything on the phone, but then I snap out of it after 20 minutes

**[00:24:48]** scrolling on Instagram, LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter,

**[00:24:51]** whatever you choose.

**[00:25:22]** This is a very interesting finding.

**[00:25:24]** I'll tell you why this usually happens,

**[00:25:27]** because it happens to me too.

**[00:25:30]** It's because we don't perceive time at all,

**[00:25:33]** we can't measure time in the digital environment.

**[00:25:35]** It will be interesting with the arrival of AI and possibly some

**[00:25:39]** plug-in to our brain, if that happens,

**[00:25:44]** whether we can really measure and perceive time

**[00:25:46]** in the digital space, but our brain isn't capable of that yet.

**[00:25:49]** We can perceive time by how the sun sets,

**[00:25:52]** how the weather changes, but not by how many photos we've scrolled through.

**[00:25:56]** That's why it often pulls us in without us realizing it.

**[00:26:00]** And again, going back to the Maslow pyramid,

**[00:26:03]** it's about fulfilling basic needs,

**[00:26:05]** the feeling of belonging.

**[00:26:07]** Knowing what's happening around us, knowing where we belong.

**[00:26:11]** So, next question, this will be the second to last.

**[00:26:17]** Sorry, sorry, I skipped a lot here.

**[00:26:29]** I take photos and videos thinking about

**[00:26:32]** how I will look in the Instagram story.

**[00:26:37]** This is a very interesting phenomenon, where actually,

**[00:26:40]** if we were capturing reality normally,

**[00:26:43]** we would take photos for ourselves,

**[00:26:46]** but we take them for the world around us.

**[00:26:48]** We do it for others, for self-presentation.

**[00:26:59]** Here is an interesting difference between adult audiences and younger ones,

**[00:27:03]** because with the younger audience, with children, the result is the opposite.

**[00:27:06]** Children actually show their life,

**[00:27:09]** or capture it with the motivation to show it to the outside world.

**[00:27:13]** Here you can clearly see the huge intergenerational difference.

**[00:27:19]** So, next question, and I think the last one.

**[00:27:26]** Already? Did I switch you off?

**[00:27:29]** It's okay, it's okay, I won't shout here.

**[00:27:32]** Yeah, sometimes I feel pressure to be better, more productive

**[00:27:36]** because of what I see on LinkedIn, Instagram from others

**[00:27:39]** or on Twitter.

**[00:27:44]** ...

**[00:27:49]** I experience that too, especially on LinkedIn,

**[00:27:52]** when I wonder how it's possible that someone generates

**[00:27:55]** so much content, so much material, almost like they work at it.

**[00:27:58]** Like, how do they do it?

**[00:28:01]** I always ask myself that question and honestly want to know.

**[00:28:04]** So now I internally motivated myself,

**[00:28:07]** to write to those people.

**[00:28:10]** I asked if they have some kind of hack.

**[00:28:13]** A hack that isn't chat GTP.

**[00:28:16]** ...

**[00:28:19]** So here, if we have any feelings

**[00:28:22]** that we need to be efficient, more productive,

**[00:28:25]** it relates to this.

**[00:28:28]** First, it nicely reflects the crown of the times

**[00:28:31]** we live in. Performance, efficiency, some kind of rationality.

**[00:28:34]** We need to push through at all costs.

**[00:28:38]** But it also relates to the mass pyramid,

**[00:28:41]** that we need our own self-worth.

**[00:28:44]** We determine our self-worth based on what others do

**[00:28:47]** and how others do it.

**[00:28:50]** So thank you very much for this quiz.

**[00:28:53]** I hope you realized something from it,

**[00:28:56]** self-reflectively.

**[00:28:59]** This was a quiz on the level of digital well-being,

**[00:29:02]** which is like a pre-level of AI well-being,

**[00:29:06]** and you probably noticed that even with digital well-being,

**[00:29:09]** with how we set boundaries in the digital world, we're not perfect.

**[00:29:12]** We still have some gaps there.

**[00:29:15]** And into this context comes a new challenge,

**[00:29:18]** which is AI, operating on completely different principles,

**[00:29:21]** but basically building on what we've already built

**[00:29:24]** or rather haven't built beyond the boundaries

**[00:29:27]** within the digital world as we know it today.

**[00:29:30]** It's not about when...

**[00:29:35]** You've probably heard many thoughts about AI already,

**[00:29:38]** and most of those debates are technocratic,

**[00:29:41]** meaning, should we ban its development or not.

**[00:29:44]** Is it good, bad, how to use it, where to invest.

**[00:29:47]** These are all relevant debates.

**[00:29:53]** I don't even have an opinion on it,

**[00:29:56]** and I wouldn't want to present one here.

**[00:29:59]** You can form your own, but I just want to say,

**[00:30:00]** to the Terminator who might be aiming some kind of gun or something specific at us,

**[00:30:07]** it's actually about something very subtle that will affect our lives and already does.

**[00:30:14]** I have current numbers here; the first graphs talk about investments in AI.

**[00:30:20]** In 2022, it was 2.5 billion dollars, and a year later it's already 7 times that amount.

**[00:30:26]** It took Instagram 2.5 years to reach 100 million users, but ChatGPT only 2 months.

**[00:30:32]** This shows how intense the tipping point likely is, one we've long passed,

**[00:30:39]** which we've already overcome, and what's interesting historically,

**[00:30:44]** if you studied comparative analyses of historical tipping points in agricultural,

**[00:30:51]** industrial societies, and breakthrough periods, you'd find it feels a bit uncertain.

**[00:30:57]** It feels like we shouldn't, or as if we shouldn't. We feel a bit like it's something strange,

**[00:31:03]** that we're transitioning into a new era, which usually signals a very significant period.

**[00:31:08]** And I think the idea we probably shouldn't have is the debate about whether

**[00:31:15]** we should somehow stop it or just let it run,

**[00:31:19]** whether we should regulate it specifically by law or not.

**[00:31:22]** So I think we have many indicators that our lives will be significantly influenced

**[00:31:27]** by artificial intelligence. And I'd like to share how I think about it,

**[00:31:33]** from my perspective, from my experience with the digital world and the people

**[00:31:37]** I work with. When we look at the social media paradigm,

**[00:31:42]** which we still live in but is now somewhat marginal,

**[00:31:48]** it was about being or not being online. You could disconnect and everything was fine.

**[00:31:52]** You could disconnect even in the forest, all was well. But the AI era is no longer about

**[00:31:57]** being or not being online; it won't even be a question,

**[00:32:02]** because AI is so sophisticated and can help us so incredibly,

**[00:32:07]** that disconnecting will be almost madness, nearly impossible and unrealistic.

**[00:32:14]** First, it would be irrational not to use such amazing computing power,

**[00:32:19]** and second, it might be socially unacceptable,

**[00:32:23]** or simply disadvantageous in some way.

**[00:32:26]** So the question with AI and AI well-being isn't about being or not being online,

**[00:32:30]** but about being or not being human.

**[00:32:33]** That's the question we must ask ourselves, and that's what I wanted to talk about now,

**[00:32:38]** the second part: to what extent it influences our humanity,

**[00:32:42]** to what extent we allow it into our lives,

**[00:32:46]** to what extent you should let it in, and how to even notice

**[00:32:50]** that it's entering some level of our humanity,

**[00:32:54]** because with social media we didn't really notice it.

**[00:32:58]** With social media, it was very subtle until one big boom.

**[00:33:01]** Ah, we feel mentally unwell.

**[00:33:03]** And I want to inspire you to start a debate about AI well-being,

**[00:33:09]** specifically from the perspective of humanity, so we don't realize it too late.

**[00:33:15]** Where this is probably heading, maybe you logically thought about it before,

**[00:33:20]** is that we will let the digital world deeper into our basic needs.

**[00:33:26]** I'm talking about the third level of certainty and safety,

**[00:33:30]** the fourth level of fulfilling physical needs through machines and technology.

**[00:33:34]** I think that is still a distant future.

**[00:33:36]** I don't even know if we will get there at all.

**[00:33:39]** And that's the metric in the sense we probably imagine.

**[00:33:43]** But I want to talk about the level of certainty and safety,

**[00:33:46]** because there are certain indications and cases that already show us we are there.

**[00:33:51]** In the United States, for example, there are specific jobs

**[00:33:56]** where you cannot be employed unless you allow your biometric data

**[00:34:03]** and brain function data to be recorded.

**[00:34:06]** Which means someone knows quite a lot about you.

**[00:34:10]** And it's a big intrusion into your intimate environment.

**[00:34:13]** But they collect this information for the reason

**[00:34:16]** that the person working in a certain job,

**[00:34:19]** or in some healthcare area,

**[00:34:22]** creates safety for their patients

**[00:34:25]** or for the people they serve.

**[00:34:29]** But it is conditional on you submitting that data.

**[00:34:32]** If you focus on this level of certainty and safety,

**[00:34:36]** it's actually something we all naturally desire.

**[00:34:39]** We want safety and certainty in our lives every day.

**[00:34:44]** Before, we had to do it ourselves, so we sat on a rock

**[00:34:48]** and watched what was happening around us.

**[00:34:51]** If a tribe or danger was approaching,

**[00:34:54]** we analyzed the situation ourselves.

**[00:34:56]** Now we live in a time when computing technology

**[00:34:59]** or AI with its data can analyze for us

**[00:35:03]** how much danger we are in or not.

**[00:35:05]** And it can tell us very precisely.

**[00:35:07]** Which is great, I think it's fantastic,

**[00:35:10]** but, there is always a but,

**[00:35:12]** we have to submit a large amount of data

**[00:35:14]** and let AI into our intimacy,

**[00:35:18]** into our most intimate spaces,

**[00:35:20]** because if you have a bodyguard, he goes home with you.

**[00:35:23]** If you have a bodyguard, he sometimes goes to the bedroom with you,

**[00:35:26]** to protect you.

**[00:35:27]** And here is the question of how much personal data we are willing to give up,

**[00:35:31]** to secure that protection and safety.

**[00:35:34]** That is one part of the question.

**[00:35:36]** And it also relates to,

**[00:35:38]** whether we are willing to share data not only about our bodies,

**[00:35:41]** like our blood pressure, how we sleep,

**[00:35:43]** but also about what we dream,

**[00:35:45]** what thoughts we have,

**[00:35:47]** because that is where it is really heading,

**[00:35:49]** so that we feel safe.

**[00:35:51]** And then the second part, these are my reflections,

**[00:35:53]** I leave it to your own consideration,

**[00:35:56]** is whether we might lose some of our own abilities,

**[00:35:59]** for example to defend ourselves if the mechanism fails.

**[00:36:03]** If we outsource absolutely everything long-term

**[00:36:05]** to digital technologies,

**[00:36:06]** will we even be able to defend ourselves,

**[00:36:08]** to assess safety on our own,

**[00:36:10]** when from a historical perspective we know

**[00:36:12]** that the instincts we haven't used for centuries

**[00:36:16]** are basically almost completely suppressed.

**[00:36:18]** For me, this is a philosophical question,

**[00:36:21]** and I don't want to give any answers at all,

**[00:36:23]** it's more of an indication for your reflection,

**[00:36:26]** just some inspiration for you

**[00:36:28]** on how to possibly think about it.

**[00:36:35]** Looking back again

**[00:36:39]** at the Maslow pyramid,

**[00:36:43]** I want to return to the meaning

**[00:36:45]** and the crisis of meaning.

**[00:36:47]** When social networks have already

**[00:36:51]** infiltrated the two lower levels,

**[00:36:54]** and it is relatively clear to us how that happened,

**[00:36:57]** with the next level coming,

**[00:37:00]** which we have not yet paid much attention to,

**[00:37:02]** that someone might somehow

**[00:37:04]** be hacking into it,

**[00:37:06]** it will be even more difficult to find meaning.

**[00:37:09]** It will be even harder to say,

**[00:37:11]** Okay, I don't feel safe here,

**[00:37:13]** AI tells me, to simplify it completely,

**[00:37:15]** AI tells me this isn't the best way to go,

**[00:37:17]** but I feel like I should.

**[00:37:19]** Are we going or not?

**[00:37:21]** Who will be the decision-maker now?

**[00:37:23]** Will it be us, or will it be the machine,

**[00:37:25]** making decisions for us?

**[00:37:27]** For me, that's a philosophical question,

**[00:37:29]** but also a question of humanity.

**[00:37:31]** How much do we notice and how much are we able

**[00:37:33]** to let those technologies in?

**[00:37:35]** And it doesn't have to be just AI,

**[00:37:37]** it could be another future technology,

**[00:37:39]** that will develop.

**[00:37:41]** How much do we allow it to fulfill

**[00:37:43]** all those basic needs?

**[00:37:45]** Because then,

**[00:37:47]** we stop being human like this,

**[00:37:49]** if we lose meaning in life.

**[00:37:53]** Sorry, I seem to have a big problem

**[00:37:55]** with the clicker today.

**[00:37:59]** Without finding that meaning, we lose

**[00:38:01]** what made us human,

**[00:38:03]** we lose our humanity.

**[00:38:05]** And this is also a thought

**[00:38:07]** from Shoshana Zuboff. The moment

**[00:38:09]** a person stops finding meaning in life,

**[00:38:11]** they become a machine.

**[00:38:13]** And the mechanism

**[00:38:15]** reverses.

**[00:38:17]** That means, we no longer mimic machines,

**[00:38:19]** but people mimic machines.

**[00:38:21]** Because it's efficient,

**[00:38:23]** it's rational, there's certainty,

**[00:38:25]** it seems right,

**[00:38:27]** and it's calculated.

**[00:38:29]** And that calculated is what we actually want and where we're heading.

**[00:38:31]** And Shoshana Zuboff calls it,

**[00:38:35]** that we become part of some kind of swarm.

**[00:38:37]** The swarm society becomes

**[00:38:39]** one organism,

**[00:38:41]** which pursues a certain calculated goal,

**[00:38:43]** but no longer follows the individual's meaning.

**[00:38:45]** It follows the meaning

**[00:38:47]** of that society and the swarm

**[00:38:49]** as a whole.

**[00:38:53]** Here I want to say that

**[00:38:55]** it sounds very conspiratorial,

**[00:38:57]** but

**[00:38:59]** it's not a conspiracy,

**[00:39:01]** but a natural evolution of humanity.

**[00:39:03]** If you recall,

**[00:39:05]** at the beginning I told you,

**[00:39:07]** the historical development with the crown of the tree is common.

**[00:39:09]** Actually, from that small tree

**[00:39:11]** in some Paleolithic era,

**[00:39:13]** our consciousness, our ego,

**[00:39:15]** our cognitive capacities

**[00:39:17]** have developed throughout history

**[00:39:19]** into such a huge crown,

**[00:39:21]** which is a completely normal development because we needed it,

**[00:39:23]** to survive on the planet,

**[00:39:25]** but over time we forgot

**[00:39:27]** to also cultivate the roots and humanity itself,

**[00:39:29]** and now we might somehow pay the price for that,

**[00:39:31]** because one-sided development

**[00:39:33]** always has its cost,

**[00:39:35]** and the price we might pay

**[00:39:37]** is precisely the loss of meaning.

**[00:39:39]** So I

**[00:39:41]** ask myself,

**[00:39:43]** how to remain meaningfully human

**[00:39:45]** in this new era.

**[00:39:47]** How to remain meaningfully human in the age of AI,

**[00:39:49]** so that we don't lose the basics,

**[00:39:51]** so that we don't lose contact with ourselves,

**[00:39:53]** with our own humanity and our own meaning.

**[00:40:00]** I don't have complete instructions for you here, but to some extent I do, and those instructions, in my opinion, are quite pleasant.

**[00:40:11]** When I recall what I advised people about digital well-being 5-6 years ago, it was kind of unpleasant stuff.

**[00:40:19]** If your phone is out of the room, it's uncomfortable, or if you set some boundaries, it was unpleasant.

**[00:40:25]** But now, the challenge ahead is cultivating those roots, focusing on what we should develop,

**[00:40:32]** because otherwise we put all our energy just into the cortex, into rationality, into cognitive capacity,

**[00:40:38]** and actually, it's very pleasant and the activities ahead can be really nice.

**[00:40:43]** We'll get to them right away.

**[00:40:45]** So in the future, it will be good if we develop inefficiency, irrationality, spontaneity, uncertainty,

**[00:40:52]** and here we are also talking about the unconscious, from a psychological perspective.

**[00:40:57]** That means developing contact with the unconscious side of our personality.

**[00:41:01]** And how to do that, or how to think about it?

**[00:41:05]** I'll borrow a thought here from Taoist philosophy, which is thousands of years old,

**[00:41:10]** and basically, looking at it from the perspective of the time we live in,

**[00:41:17]** we only want the top without the bottom.

**[00:41:20]** We want only the right, but not the left.

**[00:41:22]** We want only the back without the front.

**[00:41:24]** We always want just one side, but that's not how the world works.

**[00:41:28]** The world works, the world is in balance, and we must cultivate both,

**[00:41:32]** so that we can be whole, so that we can function at all.

**[00:41:35]** That means a cultivated crown without roots is impossible.

**[00:41:39]** This sounds a bit abstract.

**[00:41:42]** How could I possibly cultivate inefficiency?

**[00:41:45]** How do I cultivate irrationality in my life?

**[00:41:49]** I tried to brainstorm some examples,

**[00:41:51]** to give you five points for a good presentation.

**[00:41:56]** No, now I'm joking a bit.

**[00:41:58]** But how to actually look at it.

**[00:42:01]** And the very first thing that's important, and now this is funny,

**[00:42:06]** it seems very trivial.

**[00:42:08]** And when I tell you this, it will seem to you,

**[00:42:11]** like I do it every day.

**[00:42:13]** The thing is, we think so, but it's not true.

**[00:42:17]** First, how can you cultivate your inefficiency,

**[00:42:21]** is in nature, and now you might say,

**[00:42:25]** I go to nature, I was on a trail this weekend,

**[00:42:30]** I walked 20 kilometers marked in red.

**[00:42:33]** But that's not inefficient time spent in nature,

**[00:42:35]** you go from point A to point B, you measure it on your watch,

**[00:42:38]** you have a certain number of calories burned, it's certain, it's planned,

**[00:42:42]** it's rationality.

**[00:42:44]** You need to get to nature, park randomly somewhere,

**[00:42:48]** Not knowing where you are, it's about 15 degrees,

**[00:42:52]** take off your shirt, lie down in the cold grass,

**[00:42:55]** feel what it's like to be really cold,

**[00:42:58]** then walk about 5 kilometers, realize you don't know where you are,

**[00:43:01]** don't know your location, get a bit stressed about it,

**[00:43:04]** now notice there are some mosses here,

**[00:43:07]** some things here, the sun was over there,

**[00:43:09]** basically be in intense interaction with nature,

**[00:43:12]** not just start a trail and finish after 20 kilometers at the end of the green path.

**[00:43:17]** That doesn't work, we need intense experiences in nature,

**[00:43:21]** for example, really swimming in a river,

**[00:43:24]** looking at the moon and letting it affect you,

**[00:43:27]** looking at the stars, letting them affect you for 5-10 minutes,

**[00:43:31]** looking at the Prachov Rocks and feeling what it actually does to you,

**[00:43:35]** what thoughts come to your mind, not just photographing them,

**[00:43:38]** not taking selfies at the Prachov Rocks,

**[00:43:41]** not searching Google for the best restaurants nearby,

**[00:43:44]** just letting nature affect you.

**[00:43:46]** And why is this important?

**[00:43:48]** There are actually two reasons,

**[00:43:51]** and they are really great, one mentioned by Alan Watts,

**[00:43:55]** which is that nature is such a terribly complicated mechanism for us,

**[00:43:59]** such a terribly complicated specific system,

**[00:44:01]** that our brain can't fully grasp it.

**[00:44:03]** That's why we chose to live in boxes.

**[00:44:06]** We have work in boxes, life in boxes, we live in boxes,

**[00:44:11]** we work in boxes, we even eat boxed diets.

**[00:44:14]** It's a simplification of our lives,

**[00:44:16]** and when you go into nature from that boxed rationality

**[00:44:20]** and that boxed efficiency and planning,

**[00:44:23]** nature actually affects you,

**[00:44:26]** it complexifies your thinking, deepens your reflection about yourself,

**[00:44:29]** because that's its power, that's what nature does.

**[00:44:32]** If you can truly get closer to your own essence at the same time,

**[00:44:36]** if you have intense experiences in nature,

**[00:44:38]** like swimming in a cold pond,

**[00:44:40]** you move from the crown of the tree

**[00:44:44]** towards the boundary with the roots,

**[00:44:46]** and some boundary between your conscious and unconscious fades away,

**[00:44:50]** and you really get closer to your own soul.

**[00:44:52]** This is what nature does when we use it inefficiently.

**[00:44:56]** But we use it efficiently.

**[00:45:02]** So I'll say, we could go to nature.

**[00:45:04]** Now we have to.

**[00:45:06]** Regarding boredom,

**[00:45:08]** the World Health Organization's view is

**[00:45:11]** that modern society no longer knows how to be bored.

**[00:45:14]** We simply can't just laze around, stare out the window.

**[00:45:17]** That's the basic thing we should cultivate.

**[00:45:20]** Not planning something, not necessarily,

**[00:45:22]** just sitting by the window, drinking coffee,

**[00:45:24]** and thinking about how I'm doing.

**[00:45:27]** Just let your thoughts wander,

**[00:45:29]** let the world come to you,

**[00:45:31]** because that's how your brain rests.

**[00:45:33]** That way you can step out of the box,

**[00:45:36]** out of the bubble of rational planning.

**[00:45:41]** Another point I linked to irrationality

**[00:45:45]** is rituals and mysteries.

**[00:45:47]** Rituals are, unfortunately,

**[00:45:50]** something that's been with us for thousands of years,

**[00:45:52]** but in modern times, the last decade,

**[00:45:56]** the last two decades, they've been somewhat tainted

**[00:45:59]** by spiritual consumerism,

**[00:46:01]** which isn't necessarily bad.

**[00:46:03]** But I'm talking about a ritual that doesn't have to be pure,

**[00:46:06]** you don't need specific clothing,

**[00:46:08]** special incense, you don't have to pay thousands of crowns,

**[00:46:11]** or drink special drinks.

**[00:46:13]** It's about approaching a significant milestone

**[00:46:17]** in your life or something specific

**[00:46:20]** you experience in a special setting

**[00:46:23]** and living through it.

**[00:46:25]** It can be very simple,

**[00:46:27]** for example, now we're in the period of the autumn equinox,

**[00:46:30]** so make a campfire.

**[00:46:32]** Make a campfire, light a fire and say,

**[00:46:35]** yes, autumn is here.

**[00:46:37]** These are very simple things

**[00:46:40]** that fulfill the form of a ritual.

**[00:46:42]** And this will pull you, first of all, into nature

**[00:46:44]** and secondly, closer to yourselves.

**[00:46:46]** It's completely irrational.

**[00:46:48]** Who on earth would spend two hours

**[00:46:50]** making a fire and building a campfire?

**[00:46:52]** It really seems irrational,

**[00:46:54]** but that's what we need to cultivate.

**[00:46:56]** And above all, we want to cultivate it.

**[00:46:58]** If you reflect on yourselves,

**[00:47:00]** somewhere inside you feel,

**[00:47:02]** yeah, I'd like to make that campfire.

**[00:47:04]** And we do make those campfires,

**[00:47:06]** when we're on vacation or on weekends.

**[00:47:08]** It's necessary to do these things,

**[00:47:10]** but not every day, of course,

**[00:47:12]** just more often than once a year.

**[00:47:14]** That means really

**[00:47:16]** focusing on the

**[00:47:18]** ritual form of life,

**[00:47:20]** like when I've changed jobs,

**[00:47:22]** or had a child born,

**[00:47:24]** or experienced a difficult breakup

**[00:47:26]** or divorce. It's all good

**[00:47:28]** to process consciously

**[00:47:30]** through some ritual,

**[00:47:32]** because our life just goes

**[00:47:34]** tick, tick, tick, tick.

**[00:47:36]** And the things happening to us

**[00:47:38]** are in the root layer,

**[00:47:40]** in the core, meaning yes, I've had a breakup,

**[00:47:42]** a child was born, which means

**[00:47:44]** one, two, three, four, five, this to-do list,

**[00:47:46]** these activities, here I put it in Google Calendar,

**[00:47:48]** I go to therapy.

**[00:47:50]** But we don't experience it internally at all,

**[00:47:52]** and then we feel

**[00:47:54]** that our life somehow dries up,

**[00:47:56]** because we simply

**[00:47:58]** don't experience it on a deeper level.

**[00:48:02]** Regarding spontaneity,

**[00:48:04]** so inner impulses

**[00:48:06]** and listening to them is absolutely fundamental.

**[00:48:08]** You probably all have inner impulses

**[00:48:10]** and urges.

**[00:48:12]** Now, if I ask what you really want right now?

**[00:48:14]** Some want to leave badly,

**[00:48:16]** some really need to go to the bathroom,

**[00:48:18]** some want to go home from work badly,

**[00:48:20]** it's like it's burning inside them.

**[00:48:22]** Some just want

**[00:48:24]** to go to a hill and make a fire.

**[00:48:26]** And these are the impulses

**[00:48:28]** we should listen to

**[00:48:30]** and somehow,

**[00:48:32]** somehow combine them with the crown of what

**[00:48:36]** we basically have.

**[00:48:38]** Because I'm not saying, cut off the crown,

**[00:48:40]** that's great, that's wonderful, we cultivate that,

**[00:48:42]** but we also try to fit in

**[00:48:44]** the spontaneous.

**[00:48:46]** This means that, for example, in Golgolandař,

**[00:48:48]** you make a window,

**[00:48:50]** do nothing for two hours every day

**[00:48:52]** and wait to see what comes.

**[00:48:54]** Or in the morning, great, what works, for example,

**[00:48:56]** when people come to me saying

**[00:48:58]** they want to experience a bit of those crowns

**[00:49:00]** in their life,

**[00:49:02]** they have tea in the morning

**[00:49:04]** and wait to see what comes to mind,

**[00:49:06]** what they might want today. They wait

**[00:49:08]** 20-30 minutes and have that slot for it.

**[00:49:10]** Then something comes to mind and they have

**[00:49:12]** the slot to do it.

**[00:49:14]** It incredibly enlivens a person's life

**[00:49:16]** and it's such a simple thing.

**[00:49:18]** You don't need to pay for anything,

**[00:49:20]** you don't need to buy anything,

**[00:49:22]** you basically need nothing, just

**[00:49:24]** your own authenticity and to listen to yourself

**[00:49:26]** within yourself and have time for it.

**[00:49:28]** And a space that's good to create,

**[00:49:32]** you need to work with those roots.

**[00:49:34]** And the last thing that came to mind

**[00:49:36]** within those roots,

**[00:49:38]** tied to uncertainty,

**[00:49:40]** is some solitude and reflection.

**[00:49:42]** It seems,

**[00:49:44]** that it's obvious,

**[00:49:46]** that I think about how I am

**[00:49:48]** and what's happening to me,

**[00:49:50]** but can we even be alone?

**[00:49:52]** Now I'll just ask you,

**[00:49:54]** I don't have a question on the slide,

**[00:49:56]** if you could raise your hand,

**[00:49:58]** who among you

**[00:50:00]** spent 20 minutes alone this week,

**[00:50:04]** without listening to anything, watching anything, or being with children,

**[00:50:07]** just alone with your own thoughts, simply staring.

**[00:50:12]** This week, great, awesome, that's a good result.

**[00:50:16]** That's mostly efficiency, not quite mindfulness,

**[00:50:19]** because those 20 minutes is time is money.

**[00:50:23]** And there's no need to waste it on self-reflection.

**[00:50:27]** Of course, I'm exaggerating a bit here,

**[00:50:31]** but I think you understand what I mean.

**[00:50:33]** You really need to spend time alone and reflectively.

**[00:50:36]** And why did I link it to uncertainty?

**[00:50:38]** Because the moment all our activity is in a digital environment,

**[00:50:43]** and it will be a digital environment, technologically driven by AI,

**[00:50:47]** we will be giving away a certain amount of information about ourselves.

**[00:50:50]** And if you don't keep any solitude or intimacy,

**[00:50:53]** you give away everything about yourself.

**[00:50:55]** In solitude and intimacy, you keep a little piece of your humanity hidden.

**[00:51:01]** Something no one knows about.

**[00:51:03]** And that's very important and interesting.

**[00:51:06]** Here I could refer to the thoughts of Šušana Zubov,

**[00:51:09]** who says that in terms of security and safety of the whole society,

**[00:51:14]** it's obviously undesirable for you to have hidden thoughts.

**[00:51:18]** So I want to invite you

**[00:51:22]** to be a little rebellious and keep some secrets to yourself.

**[00:51:28]** If I had to put it on a very specific level,

**[00:51:32]** I still gave two examples from my own life this week.

**[00:51:36]** The first example is on the left, on the right is a gif we couldn't get to work,

**[00:51:40]** but I'll describe what probably happens in that gif, you can guess.

**[00:51:43]** On the left, I'm driving home from the city and there's a tractor with manure in front of me.

**[00:51:49]** And I know I'll be driving 20 minutes behind that tractor,

**[00:51:52]** because there's simply no way to overtake it.

**[00:51:53]** What could I do?

**[00:51:55]** Oh my God, I could have been home long ago,

**[00:51:57]** I'm just wasting so much time here now.

**[00:52:00]** But no, I said to myself, okay, I'll drive at ten,

**[00:52:04]** I opened the windows,

**[00:52:07]** to smell it, to find out what's going on,

**[00:52:10]** how the living space still looks.

**[00:52:13]** I looked at the landscape and it was really beautiful,

**[00:52:16]** 20 minutes in the car behind a tractor.

**[00:52:18]** Totally inefficient, totally irrational.

**[00:52:21]** I could have turned off about three times on some road,

**[00:52:23]** to overtake it. Why?

**[00:52:25]** I just had the time, so I enjoyed it.

**[00:52:28]** This is totally irrational, totally inefficient,

**[00:52:31]** just completely crazy.

**[00:52:34]** But it felt good.

**[00:52:36]** I think it connected me with myself,

**[00:52:39]** with some part of my humanity.

**[00:52:42]** And on the right, I recorded a video especially for this event,

**[00:52:47]** how I go to a favorite café that's in the forest,

**[00:52:51]** and the lady who runs it is drying laundry

**[00:52:54]** in the café's garden.

**[00:52:56]** Yeah, she doesn't care at all because guests just come there.

**[00:52:59]** And the laundry was swinging so nicely.

**[00:53:01]** I thought, wow, that's so nice.

**[00:53:03]** I hadn't looked at laundry swinging and drying for so long.

**[00:53:06]** And I really gave it a good 10 minutes watching it dry.

**[00:53:09]** I watched it and it was actually very pleasant.

**[00:53:13]** And I came up with relatively good examples even for today,

**[00:53:16]** more for today, so it had some

**[00:53:19]** professional effective value.

**[00:53:22]** It was actually really pleasant.

**[00:53:24]** Too bad the gif doesn't work, you would calm down watching it,

**[00:53:26]** How nicely it swings.

**[00:53:28]** If you want, I can send you that give by email later.

**[00:53:33]** So these are some concrete things.

**[00:53:36]** I just want to suggest that it's really not hard.

**[00:53:39]** The time we're entering is over-technologized,

**[00:53:45]** but the answer to that is truly humanity.

**[00:53:48]** And we know how to be human.

**[00:53:50]** It's not hard, we don't have to cram,

**[00:53:52]** or learn some principles.

**[00:53:55]** It's actually very pleasant to cultivate those roots.

**[00:53:58]** So I would kindly encourage you to dive into it

**[00:54:01]** and think a bit about where your internal impulses are,

**[00:54:04]** where you could also be a bit rational.

**[00:54:06]** For example, when you walk through a shopping center,

**[00:54:09]** you might jump a little.

**[00:54:10]** Maybe you all look like fools,

**[00:54:12]** but you have that impulse right then.

**[00:54:14]** Why not? Because that will really happen less and less.

**[00:54:17]** Everything seems to be heading toward rationality

**[00:54:20]** and total calculation.

**[00:54:23]** And to conclude, I want to borrow a quote

**[00:54:26]** from my favorite psychoanalyst Carl Gustav Jung,

**[00:54:30]** who said eighty years ago,

**[00:54:34]** that we shouldn't strive for perfection, for the crown,

**[00:54:37]** for rationality, for calculation, but for completeness.

**[00:54:40]** It's not about having a perfect life, but a complete one.

**[00:54:44]** Because as you know, when someone has a perfect life,

**[00:54:47]** it's great, but something is still missing.

**[00:54:50]** And if I were to relate this back to the beginning,

**[00:54:54]** to the topic of digital well-being,

**[00:54:56]** I have worked on digital well-being very intensively

**[00:55:00]** and found that it's no longer about installing some blocking app,

**[00:55:05]** blocking Instagram, or eliminating something.

**[00:55:11]** It's about knowing yourself and your own humanity,

**[00:55:16]** because if you know yourself, you know your purpose, where you're going.

**[00:55:21]** And if you know yourself and keep discovering yourself and strive

**[00:55:24]** to know yourself completely, including your roots,

**[00:55:26]** then you recognize very well when some technology or someone

**[00:55:32]** is poking into you and trying to enter your space,

**[00:55:36]** you notice it quickly.

**[00:55:38]** The worst is when we don't know ourselves, subtle technologies affect us

**[00:55:44]** and we don't even notice it.

**[00:55:46]** That's what I wouldn't want for the future.

**[00:55:48]** I would want these technologies to affect us,

**[00:55:50]** but for us to be aware of it.

**[00:55:52]** Where they go too deep into our intimacy.

**[00:55:54]** So I actually moved from digital well-being to

**[00:55:58]** helping people find themselves and return to their true selves.

**[00:56:03]** And that's my life mission.

**[00:56:05]** It's very rewarding to cultivate and help nurture those roots.

**[00:56:10]** So that's all from me.

**[00:56:14]** If you'd like to learn more or contact me,

**[00:56:17]** you can find my contacts on the website or by email.

**[00:56:24]** And here I've also provided the sources I used.

**[00:56:29]** If anything is unclear, especially for those watching online,

**[00:56:33]** I'm happy to explain more or elaborate by email.

**[00:56:37]** So thank you very much, and today, think about your humanity.

**[00:56:42]** Thank you.

**[00:56:59]** Thank you.

**[00:57:01]** I'm wondering if with your presentation, what you wanted to prove,

**[00:57:06]** I'm feeling quite thoughtful right now.

**[00:57:10]** I actually don't feel like going into performance mode,

**[00:57:14]** talking about it.

**[00:57:16]** I can add to that.

**[00:57:18]** That's exactly great that you say that, that's what I wanted to achieve.

**[00:57:21]** I wanted to create a kind of special relaxation

**[00:57:24]** and a relaxed atmosphere.

**[00:57:26]** And now I would really wish that everyone, including you watching online,

**[00:57:29]** just stare blankly and really think.

**[00:57:33]** That's what I would really wish for.

**[00:57:36]** Anyway.

**[00:57:38]** I'm thinking we should have a minute of silence now,

**[00:57:41]** that we could include.

**[00:57:43]** A minute of humanity.

**[00:57:44]** But I probably won't last.

**[00:57:46]** Considering the questions upvoted here.

**[00:57:53]** Thank you very much.

**[00:57:54]** That was a great presentation.

**[00:57:56]** And many connections that I hadn't quite grasped,

**[00:58:01]** so I'm glad we're here now with Brain&Breakfast as top students.

**[00:58:06]** And now I'll take a little sip of the soup.

**[00:58:10]** I realized during that talk,

**[00:58:13]** that Brain & Breakfast is kind of an irrational thing.

**[00:58:16]** Because actually, when we go into companies, they often want,

**[00:58:19]** 'Now we need AI, now we need time management,'

**[00:58:23]** 'Now we need this and that.'

**[00:58:25]** And we play them this, you know?

**[00:58:27]** Or we play them something about how important education is.

**[00:58:31]** And we actually put a point in there that

**[00:58:35]** they don't really need it at all.

**[00:58:37]** But somehow the feedback from those companies shows us

**[00:58:40]** that it does them good.

**[00:58:42]** That it's nice and they thank us for being able to see this.

**[00:58:45]** So thank you for this encouragement.

**[00:58:51]** However, one big bundle of questions that are there,

**[00:58:54]** and I wanted to discuss with you, is actually child upbringing.

**[00:58:58]** And you actually mentioned the grief that teenagers have

**[00:59:03]** and that it's like an epidemic.

**[00:59:05]** And you worked a lot in schools, etc.

**[00:59:09]** Try to describe a bit more

**[00:59:12]** what is happening now with the young generation,

**[00:59:15]** who are caught by social networks,

**[00:59:18]** and bring us a bit into this.

**[00:59:22]** Jesus, that's tough.

**[00:59:25]** Well, where to start?

**[00:59:30]** I'm thinking about how I could approach it,

**[00:59:34]** but first of all, if I...

**[00:59:42]** I'm a young parent now.

**[00:59:45]** And when I think about how my baby, my child,

**[00:59:51]** could be introduced to a better relationship

**[00:59:54]** with the digital space,

**[00:59:56]** not to disconnect, but to a more meaningful contact,

**[01:00:00]** I would probably recommend to myself or other parents or teachers in schools

**[01:00:08]** to dive into the children's world, because I think that's what children miss the most.

**[01:00:14]** Like, I came into a classroom, I was explaining something about digital technologies,

**[01:00:19]** about Facebook, about some algorithms, how it works, what addictive principles there are, and they,

**[01:00:24]** 'Yeah, we know that from the digital world, so what?' So actually, the kids have a lot of that information,

**[01:00:31]** but what they lack is humanity. They lack the chance to ask, what really hurts you,

**[01:00:38]** what makes you feel super anxious, what you can't stand. That's what the kids miss,

**[01:00:45]** the questions that go to their inner self, and I think now it would be good to inform children about that,

**[01:00:52]** how the digital world works, I think that part worked well, but now getting kids

**[01:00:58]** to get closer to themselves, to that internal experience, is very important and what's missing.

**[01:01:04]** Because kids often really consume digital content, but it doesn't make them feel good and they don't know why.

**[01:01:11]** They feel anxious and don't know why. They don't even know why they go there, why they scroll 4-5 hours a day.

**[01:01:18]** They can't track their own trigger mechanisms.

**[01:01:21]** So, how I would approach kids now is to ask them basic questions.

**[01:01:25]** What made you spend 4 hours on TikTok? How do you feel about it?

**[01:01:30]** Does it make you feel a bit bad, or is there something that caught your attention, something you liked?

**[01:01:35]** Basically, help them ask, help them ask reflectively, but that requires parents

**[01:01:42]** to dive into it themselves. Not to alienate it, not to hate on them.

**[01:01:46]** Just saying, you're a complete idiot for even going on TikTok won't lead anywhere.

**[01:01:51]** Sorry for such expressive words, but I've noticed that in many families

**[01:01:57]** or schools, kids get judged and then we're like, it wasn't like that for us,

**[01:02:02]** so you just deal with it however you want. So kids relatively already know how it ticks,

**[01:02:06]** how it works, how the commercial sector works, how ads work, and so on,

**[01:02:10]** but what they don't know is how to ask basic self-reflective questions,

**[01:02:15]** what it does to them. I don't know if I fully answered, but this came to mind now

**[01:02:19]** as a meaningful answer to what to actually do about it. Because if I had a child,

**[01:02:26]** I do have a child, but not yet active on a phone, I would try

**[01:02:32]** to encourage them to think about it. Like, what does it do to you, how do you feel,

**[01:02:38]** what interests you there, why does it interest you, how did you find it, how do you see the context

**[01:02:47]** when I have a small child, is to be a role model. That means we don't use any technology in bed,

**[01:02:54]** at meals, in places where we don't want the child to use it. And when we do use it,

**[01:03:00]** now that he's almost one, we already show him what we're doing there. So sometimes we show him,

**[01:03:05]** what work we do there, what we work with. When I'm on the phone and need to handle something,

**[01:03:09]** I show him exactly what's happening, who's calling, why I need to call.

**[01:03:13]** I believe that even a small child relatively understands that.

**[01:03:16]** So show that we use it as a tool. And when we want to watch a movie

**[01:03:20]** or a video, we show him that too. Look, now we want to watch this video,

**[01:03:24]** something that interests us. I understand and know it takes a lot of energy, a lot of effort,

**[01:03:29]** but I decided to invest that energy into it.

**[01:03:33]** That's the most, and it's not anymore, but Iva is asking. And maybe you already somewhat answered it.

**[01:03:46]** Is it true that generative AI degenerates people, that we rely on it so much for learning that we get dumber?

**[01:03:51]** And since you talked about it a bit, just...

**[01:03:54]** Yes, I'm really glad these questions are here and it's probably clear from the presentation,

**[01:04:00]** that I wanted to base it mainly on the historical development,

**[01:04:06]** which is clearly documented with data, so to speak, that the human brain

**[01:04:12]** develops in a way that intuitive and basic human things really degenerate.

**[01:04:19]** But it's naturally set up that way, what is important to know is that we need to take care of it

**[01:04:25]** and to nurture it. The fact that it degenerates doesn't mean it's okay to just leave it be.

**[01:04:29]** We actually need to focus on it more. So I think that part of our humanity

**[01:04:35]** we're simply outsourcing and trading for excellent information, great data analysis,

**[01:04:42]** but it's a trade-off. We're giving away a piece of our humanity, and Yuval Harari says

**[01:04:48]** that with AI, we're giving away a piece of our soul and intimacy. He means that intimacy

**[01:04:54]** is the data we provide to have more information about ourselves, to make better decisions,

**[01:04:59]** and to be safe, but in part, we're giving away our soul in the sense,

**[01:05:04]** as I presented with the roots. We're giving away part of our unconscious content.

**[01:05:09]** Not exactly giving it away, but we stop paying attention to it. That doesn't mean it doesn't affect us internally.

**[01:05:16]** I actually liked the presentation with the tree. When you say the crown, that's rationality,

**[01:05:24]** and below is irrationality. It's great that when we say the presentation will be at a certain time,

**[01:05:31]** you just send it to me. That means everything is there, it's not like it doesn't match that I'm a flink. And why do I say that?

**[01:05:35]** Here's a probing question: Did AI help you create the presentation?

**[01:05:43]** Actually, no. But I thought I might give it some tasks. For example, with the tree visual, I found it myself.

**[01:05:51]** This opening one. I didn't even feel like it. I thought it would be good, but I didn't feel like it.

**[01:05:58]** Purely from some impulse, I just didn't want to. But as you say, I'm not saying at all, let's cut off the crown,

**[01:06:08]** or not focus on rationality, plans, and efficiency. That belongs there too.

**[01:06:15]** It's about being whole, as I quoted Jung, because without wholeness, we won't get very far.

**[01:06:21]** Maybe, because there are a few questions here, try to describe what you did.

**[01:06:28]** That means you actually went to those schools, how it went, what you did there, how schools could hire you, and so on.

**[01:06:38]** Just try to say this here, because we didn't touch on it in the lecture.

**[01:06:44]** And I feel it's very important, that it's not just that you sat, watched, did laundry, and suddenly it dawned on you,

**[01:06:48]** but that there is some data and that many thousands of children have passed through your hands.

**[01:06:54]** Yes, so I'll go back to the story a bit, and when I returned from Asia,

**[01:07:00]** I realized the problem would be societal and that there would be a mental health crisis partly due to social networks,

**[01:07:07]** and I wanted to do something about it in the Czech Republic, because we were really behind regarding technology use.

**[01:07:14]** So I kind of anticipated the time and started going into schools completely randomly.

**[01:07:20]** I just wrote to some school asking if they wanted to learn about digital technologies, and they,

**[01:07:26]** well, maybe yes, so come, so I tried to do a few workshops,

**[01:07:31]** then I thought it needed a bigger concept, so I invited a psychologist,

**[01:07:35]** and we started creating curricula or content that made deeper sense,

**[01:07:40]** but over the years, about 8,000 kids have gone through our hands, which was a lot,

**[01:07:46]** so we decided it would be good to start measuring, to bring some rationality,

**[01:07:52]** and we developed a project called digital education, where we work in schools

**[01:07:58]** for several months, have several workshops, and measure the program's impact.

**[01:08:04]** So that was the highlight of our work developed with the schools,

**[01:08:09]** however, when I later got pregnant, I felt I needed to move forward in this topic,

**[01:08:16]** so I handed the organization over, there's a new CEO, and it continues to operate,

**[01:08:24]** but I'm no longer involved, I took a year off, which was very valuable for me,

**[01:08:34]** that I came up with a completely new approach regarding AI and started actually dedicating myself to it,

**[01:08:40]** to put it simply, AI well-being, and so I let this little project, this organization, move forward.

**[01:08:45]** It still works, any school can actually order it, they can take the program either as a one-time thing or the whole digital education,

**[01:08:55]** I think it's still great and relevant.

**[01:08:58]** I'll just add that, like, a couple of months ago, maybe two or three, with Michal Mijovsky,

**[01:09:08]** we had a breakfast about addictions, and there are some classifications of addictions,

**[01:09:15]** and in the discussion following Brain&Breakfast, we talked about how social networks actually stand in this context.

**[01:09:21]** And he said something very interesting in that discussion, that we don't have a classification for it yet,

**[01:09:26]** but all the symptoms correspond to how all the other addictions manifest.

**[01:09:32]** So just that even addiction specialists are starting to notice it more and more, it's just that,

**[01:09:38]** it's not officially recognized as a disease, but over time the closest comparison is gambling,

**[01:09:45]** which we can somehow track, and they have some kind of classification for it.

**[01:09:49]** So I would just say don't underestimate it, because it's no joke at all, and I feel that our role as parents,

**[01:09:57]** whether as role models or in how we interact and discuss with our children,

**[01:10:00]** is very important.

**[01:10:02]** This was one of the big moments,

**[01:10:04]** when I said, this topic

**[01:10:06]** we absolutely have to bring here.

**[01:10:08]** So just

**[01:10:10]** adding some more context.

**[01:10:12]** What exactly does it mean

**[01:10:14]** to know yourself?

**[01:10:16]** Is it even possible to fully know yourself,

**[01:10:18]** 100%?

**[01:10:20]** From Slovakia, greetings,

**[01:10:22]** friends, we're rooting for you,

**[01:10:24]** 39.

**[01:10:26]** I think it's not possible.

**[01:10:28]** Well, I think

**[01:10:30]** we can try our whole lives,

**[01:10:32]** and we should try our whole lives,

**[01:10:34]** but it's

**[01:10:36]** actually fun to get to know yourself.

**[01:10:38]** And if there was any goal,

**[01:10:40]** then

**[01:10:42]** I have a good example.

**[01:10:44]** Maybe something to think about,

**[01:10:46]** and this relates to it, if you knew,

**[01:10:48]** and I'll calculate it for you,

**[01:10:50]** based on all your data,

**[01:10:52]** including your thoughts and dreams,

**[01:10:54]** if you knew,

**[01:10:56]** that if in life you exactly achieved all your

**[01:10:58]** wishes and goals,

**[01:11:00]** you would enjoy it.

**[01:11:02]** And that's actually,

**[01:11:04]** that's the funny thing, that we actually want

**[01:11:06]** to have a bit of mystery, a surprise in life,

**[01:11:08]** and self-discovery is part of that,

**[01:11:10]** because a person thinks,

**[01:11:12]** that they have already solved a lot,

**[01:11:14]** like a lot of it,

**[01:11:16]** in some way,

**[01:11:18]** addressed it, but then they find

**[01:11:20]** something completely basic, something huge,

**[01:11:22]** or life usually brings

**[01:11:24]** something interesting and there is something new to discover.

**[01:11:26]** And it seems to me that this again

**[01:11:28]** relates to the crown above, when I

**[01:11:30]** keep looking at it and have it in front of me,

**[01:11:32]** that actually, somehow,

**[01:11:34]** I see that this is also the performance

**[01:11:36]** phase of that discovery, that a lot of it

**[01:11:38]** is directed there, just like now another book,

**[01:11:40]** and another and another course,

**[01:11:42]** and I have to, and here a badge and this

**[01:11:44]** on LinkedIn I have to put. Yeah, yeah, that's totally great,

**[01:11:46]** that you say that, because that's

**[01:11:48]** our way of discovering nowadays, but

**[01:11:50]** I really know only a few people,

**[01:11:52]** a handful, who discover themselves

**[01:11:54]** by simply sitting down

**[01:11:56]** and staring,

**[01:11:58]** and waiting to see what comes.

**[01:12:00]** And maybe after two hours it comes.

**[01:12:02]** This person really annoys me.

**[01:12:04]** And now I think.

**[01:12:06]** Why? Yeah, because actually

**[01:12:08]** they don't just read a book that says,

**[01:12:10]** analyze who annoys you and

**[01:12:12]** Then actually analyze why.

**[01:12:14]** The person just approaches it

**[01:12:16]** and you have the irrational side, where

**[01:12:18]** you wait to see what comes.

**[01:12:20]** You have the inefficient side, and I find that

**[01:12:22]** very interesting.

**[01:12:24]** In that context, I found it interesting

**[01:12:26]** to put a slot in the calendar

**[01:12:28]** and wait to see what comes.

**[01:12:30]** Yeah, ideally make some tea for it.

**[01:12:32]** It's nice.

**[01:12:36]** I'm thinking.

**[01:12:38]** Opinion on chat GPT.

**[01:12:40]** Please, just one more?

**[01:12:42]** Opinion on chat GPT, probably on the language model.

**[01:12:44]** The question is,

**[01:12:46]** how to use it, how not to use it.

**[01:12:48]** You talked about AI, how this...

**[01:12:50]** Yeah, I didn't want to deliberately

**[01:12:52]** steer this lecture that way,

**[01:12:54]** because I think there's a huge amount of content on it

**[01:12:56]** and I didn't want to fully

**[01:12:58]** go the technocratic route on how to use it.

**[01:13:00]** But I used it

**[01:13:02]** by asking,

**[01:13:04]** what are the basic

**[01:13:08]** digital well-being recommendations.

**[01:13:10]** So I waited to see what it would give me

**[01:13:12]** and then I said, aha.

**[01:13:14]** I kind of validated it.

**[01:13:16]** Or I asked how to properly grow

**[01:13:18]** dry chata to avoid mold.

**[01:13:20]** I use it for everyday things,

**[01:13:22]** when I need to quickly find out something,

**[01:13:24]** like a Google search,

**[01:13:26]** but more complex,

**[01:13:28]** but I can't imagine producing

**[01:13:30]** something from it

**[01:13:32]** that gets to the essence.

**[01:13:36]** I think that's still missing.

**[01:13:38]** That it's not possible

**[01:13:40]** yet completely

**[01:13:42]** no matter how well the question is asked.

**[01:13:46]** To put it simply,

**[01:13:48]** chat GPT doesn't reach that humanity,

**[01:13:50]** that question of humanity.

**[01:13:52]** In my opinion, it's just not there yet.

**[01:13:54]** Right now, we are

**[01:13:56]** at home.

**[01:13:58]** We have an interesting situation,

**[01:14:00]** my older kid

**[01:14:02]** is going into fifth grade,

**[01:14:04]** and it's like

**[01:14:06]** suddenly

**[01:14:08]** he has less and less

**[01:14:10]** time to just fool around.

**[01:14:12]** And actually,

**[01:14:14]** we don't overwhelm him with clubs or anything,

**[01:14:16]** but still, as he grows older,

**[01:14:18]** school and the system

**[01:14:20]** make more and more

**[01:14:22]** demands on him, and he has to focus.

**[01:14:24]** And now, if I watch it,

**[01:14:26]** this lecture helped me

**[01:14:28]** realize that he

**[01:14:30]** has less time to be bored.

**[01:14:32]** So I just think

**[01:14:34]** maybe even the school system

**[01:14:36]** and how we move kids forward,

**[01:14:38]** we actually kill

**[01:14:40]** their boredom.

**[01:14:42]** Because they don't sit in school to stare out the window,

**[01:14:44]** but to solve x number of problems,

**[01:14:46]** to take tests, to do this,

**[01:14:48]** to get into high school, to join clubs,

**[01:14:50]** to be good at sports.

**[01:14:58]** And actually, I'm thinking

**[01:15:00]** and kind of reflecting on it

**[01:15:02]** or definitely enjoying the discussion.

**[01:15:04]** Like, what to do about it?

**[01:15:06]** How to approach it and say to him

**[01:15:08]** hey, you don't have to do everything

**[01:15:10]** or actually help him out.

**[01:15:12]** That you can handle this smartly like this and that one

**[01:15:14]** you can handle smartly like that.

**[01:15:16]** I'm thinking about how to approach it.

**[01:15:18]** I remember one example from school,

**[01:15:20]** when we were talking about free time.

**[01:15:22]** And we talked

**[01:15:24]** also about boredom,

**[01:15:26]** because when I have a workshop for kids,

**[01:15:28]** I really try

**[01:15:30]** to emphasize the question of boredom

**[01:15:32]** and being bored,

**[01:15:34]** because I knew they really lacked it.

**[01:15:36]** And one boy or girl,

**[01:15:38]** I don't remember exactly,

**[01:15:40]** said, yeah,

**[01:15:42]** but I just get home at 6 p.m.

**[01:15:44]** And I have clubs,

**[01:15:46]** but that's work.

**[01:15:48]** That's not fun.

**[01:15:50]** So I get home at 6, then I have homework,

**[01:15:52]** and by 8 I'm already exhausted, I can't be bored.

**[01:15:54]** This was in the first grade of elementary school.

**[01:15:56]** Yeah, so that's what you're saying.

**[01:15:58]** I'm always for not packing kids’ weeks

**[01:16:00]** with clubs or activities.

**[01:16:02]** One or two clubs is enough, in my opinion.

**[01:16:04]** But for kids in the first grade of elementary school,

**[01:16:06]** and even in the second grade,

**[01:16:08]** having space for boredom and doing nothing

**[01:16:10]** is really important so they can find that spark inside,

**[01:16:18]** that spark to find out,

**[01:16:20]** what is at the top of that pyramid,

**[01:16:22]** what is it that

**[01:16:24]** ignites me.

**[01:16:26]** Because if I fill that boredom and idleness

**[01:16:28]** with a club or go online,

**[01:16:30]** I find out that my spark is

**[01:16:32]** aha, now I'm interested in what that YouTuber was doing.

**[01:16:34]** But it's nice,

**[01:16:36]** but it's not authentic.

**[01:16:38]** That means, the boredom and solitude for those kids

**[01:16:40]** leads them to recognize the top of their own pyramid.

**[01:16:42]** There actually

**[01:16:44]** is something we could still relatively envy them for,

**[01:16:46]** because for us adults it's already very hard

**[01:16:48]** to reach that personal meaning

**[01:16:50]** and that spark.

**[01:16:52]** When I was still listening

**[01:16:54]** to your lecture, this part

**[01:16:56]** really caught my attention about chameleons,

**[01:16:58]** about those mimics,

**[01:17:00]** in the younger generation,

**[01:17:02]** and so when I was sitting there,

**[01:17:04]** I asked myself a question, and it wasn't like

**[01:17:06]** always that

**[01:17:08]** I was in Janej,

**[01:17:10]** you were a Depešák and this and that.

**[01:17:12]** Only the field was

**[01:17:14]** maybe narrower.

**[01:17:16]** Right now it is narrower.

**[01:17:18]** The joke is that

**[01:17:20]** everyone always had their role models,

**[01:17:22]** from Bravíčko, we all probably

**[01:17:24]** remember how we stuck those posters,

**[01:17:26]** but there was a whole palette.

**[01:17:28]** And none of them

**[01:17:30]** had such a strong preference.

**[01:17:32]** None of them had such a strong,

**[01:17:34]** like no one specifically pushed

**[01:17:36]** Arda Jagr on us,

**[01:17:38]** or simply Lunetyky,

**[01:17:40]** or just anyone else. It was kind of

**[01:17:42]** balanced, when you think about it now,

**[01:17:44]** if, if I exaggerate a bit,

**[01:17:46]** the Jener sisters

**[01:17:48]** are a great example,

**[01:17:50]** when Kylie buys

**[01:17:52]** 50 million, or

**[01:17:54]** 10 million followers

**[01:17:56]** somewhere in Cambodia,

**[01:17:58]** which you can actually buy.

**[01:18:00]** That way, it increases some

**[01:18:02]** numbers on her account, so Instagram

**[01:18:04]** evaluates, okay great, people seem to like this more,

**[01:18:06]** so we'll show it more.

**[01:18:08]** And then she becomes the one

**[01:18:10]** in the spotlight. It's no longer that

**[01:18:12]** we have a range of posters

**[01:18:14]** from Bravíčko, but now there's only

**[01:18:16]** one poster and every month

**[01:18:18]** one poster and every month the cover

**[01:18:20]** features only one person.

**[01:18:22]** And you can clearly see it, in my opinion, in this

**[01:18:24]** society, even if we step

**[01:18:26]** out of the entrance hall

**[01:18:28]** or walk around here sometimes, or if you actually walk

**[01:18:30]** past a school, you'll see

**[01:18:32]** who is currently

**[01:18:34]** the idol, but it's for everyone. When we had, someone

**[01:18:36]** wore a black jacket,

**[01:18:38]** because they were a Depeche Mode fan, someone wore

**[01:18:40]** a denim jacket, someone had a fokuhila.

**[01:18:42]** It was just varied, but now it's

**[01:18:44]** uniform.

**[01:18:46]** Interesting.

**[01:18:48]** Lily asks,

**[01:18:50]** and we keep coming back to how

**[01:18:54]** to guide a teenager towards healthy

**[01:19:00]** approach to using social networks

**[01:19:02]** and time on the phone, and how to

**[01:19:04]** inspire self-discovery?

**[01:19:06]** So I'll try to say, my

**[01:19:08]** ten-year-old

**[01:19:10]** doesn't have a phone,

**[01:19:12]** and we've agreed that he'll have one at thirteen.

**[01:19:14]** Or at fourteen,

**[01:19:16]** we'll see.

**[01:19:18]** But it's not that he doesn't have access

**[01:19:20]** to technology, it's just that

**[01:19:22]** it really annoys me,

**[01:19:24]** and I see it in myself too, that

**[01:19:26]** doomscrolling, when it happens to me,

**[01:19:28]** so when I'm at a bus stop and I see

**[01:19:30]** young people who are just four

**[01:19:32]** around a phone, it just

**[01:19:34]** annoys me. So since he doesn't have one,

**[01:19:36]** I assume he won't

**[01:19:38]** do that.

**[01:19:40]** So that's my approach,

**[01:19:42]** but back to the question,

**[01:19:44]** what do you advise?

**[01:19:46]** That's exactly what I said, a good inspiration, because that's what

**[01:19:48]** you do, and what many parents are very

**[01:19:50]** afraid of. To actually prevent access

**[01:19:52]** to private technology, meaning buying

**[01:19:54]** the phone. And I think

**[01:19:56]** it's a good approach, with the idea that you yourselves

**[01:19:58]** use it at home, he learns about

**[01:20:00]** the phone.

**[01:20:00]** He knows how to use it, probably hears it from you, but unless there's a clear reason

**[01:20:06]** for him to have it alone in his room and the content is tailored to him and now it's pulling him in,

**[01:20:14]** there's no reason. The only reason would be if he's socially excluded.

**[01:20:18]** On the other hand, some parents want to go this way,

**[01:20:23]** but the kids then have so much stress that they're excluded, that their classmates laugh at them,

**[01:20:29]** that there was some streaming yesterday they didn't see, and it actually affects their social bonds.

**[01:20:37]** So here I would consider the level of stress for the child, but if you put good energy and time into explaining

**[01:20:45]** and making it accessible through your device, I think it's a good way.

**[01:20:51]** However, I would definitely give a basic piece of advice or the first date to the child, some rules and boundaries,

**[01:21:01]** but like with flexible boundaries in the sense that I'd like it if you simply weren't on your phone at 9 p.m.,

**[01:21:08]** because you'll just sleep better and so on, what do you think about that?

**[01:21:11]** And the child will say, well, at 9:30, for example, the teacher uploads homework and projects for tomorrow,

**[01:21:18]** on WhatsApp, through WhatsApp for example, we encounter that a lot, so I need to be on my phone at 9:30.

**[01:21:23]** OK, so 9:30. How do you feel about that? Because parents often set a rule, set a boundary, and then don't discuss it,

**[01:21:31]** but kids often have good reasons to shift that boundary.

**[01:21:35]** Usually, it relates to social connectivity with their friends.

**[01:21:39]** So basically, set the boundaries and rules flexibly, and the hardest part is for parents to enforce those rules.

**[01:21:45]** Because how can I expect my 13-year-old to eat spaghetti without a phone in the evening when I'm checking emails at the same time?

**[01:21:58]** Screen time is, in my opinion, the alpha and omega, and it ties into social status.

**[01:22:05]** Fortunately, they don't have that at school, in their class. They aren't some nerds, and they don't even know what that means.

**[01:22:15]** I just heard what Apple did in America, where more than half the people have iPhones.

**[01:22:21]** It's about messages: if you get a message from a device other than an iPhone, it's green.

**[01:22:27]** If it comes from an iPhone, it's blue.

**[01:22:29]** That means those with green messages are socially excluded because they don't belong to the iPhone community.

**[01:22:35]** Very clever marketing, but quite scary.

**[01:22:40]** And I think Apple is a good company.

**[01:22:46]** But back to Shoshana Zuboff, it's still surveillance capitalism, it's still a corporation, so you have to be very careful.

**[01:22:56]** For example, when I come home, I put my phone completely in my study, because study comes from the word 'to work'.

**[01:23:03]** Of course, sometimes I take it, but it's a way to create a barrier so it's not always in front of my face, which is great.

**[01:23:12]** And when you say someone might be uploading something at 9 p.m. or so, even on WhatsApp,

**[01:23:19]** we tend to minimize screen time at home after 5 p.m., because we just don't want it.

**[01:23:27]** Why would we watch it? So if the boys want to do Duolingo, they have until about 6 p.m., but after that, no exceptions.

**[01:23:36]** But it's just about thinking it through, setting boundaries, agreeing at home.

**[01:23:41]** If I came in, slammed the table, and said, from now on it will be like this, it probably wouldn't work.

**[01:23:47]** But it's a conversation we have with them, and if needed, we can of course negotiate.

**[01:23:56]** I also thought about what you asked, ma'am, about how to bring children closer to each other.

**[01:24:03]** It relates a lot to what I said about nature and inefficiency.

**[01:24:09]** I mentioned with Alan Voce that we live in boxes, and going into nature gives us a big step back from the box,

**[01:24:18]** into the complexity of the environment.

**[01:24:20]** For those interested, I would recommend some books about the impact of nature on the brain, the hormonal system, basically about forest therapy.

**[01:24:33]** It's interesting that children who had problems—I found a great study on this—

**[01:24:39]** children with self-esteem issues, meaning low self-worth,

**[01:24:43]** who had problems with bulimia or eating disorders, caused partly by seeing thin people on social media,

**[01:24:51]** chose therapy in nature,

**[01:24:59]** spending significant time in the forest, because the forest after a certain time, and here I mean 4, 5, 6 hours,

**[01:25:07]** does something specific, I'm simplifying, but it affects the brain, so suddenly you see yourself from a distance,

**[01:25:14]** from a big distance, and then you leave the forest and think, oh my,

**[01:25:19]** when you're in the hustle and bustle of the city, life rushing, homework,

**[01:25:26]** I see it on Instagram, the social pressure, but then the child zooms out in that environment

**[01:25:31]** and maybe even camps there overnight, really experiencing a deep connection with nature,

**[01:25:37]** so they're able to see, yeah, this doesn't suit me, or their perspective starts to shift a bit,

**[01:25:43]** which is very important to instill in children, but not just like, let's go on a two-hour trip and that's it,

**[01:25:49]** really lying down in the grass. What I do with adults is we go into the forest to get lost,

**[01:25:56]** and we make lunch on a fire, cook there, take an afternoon nap,

**[01:26:01]** we just live life in the forest, even if it's cold, and that really connects you to the essence,

**[01:26:08]** so when you come back, even a burned-out manager or anyone else thinks,

**[01:26:14]** wow, they start searching for meaning a bit, start searching for who they really are and reach their core,

**[01:26:20]** and that's incredibly valuable. Teaching kids that is, in my opinion, one of the best approaches possible.

**[01:26:27]** Too bad you didn't sign this as Anonymous, but I have to ask this question here.

**[01:26:35]** Please give a simple explanation: why the fears about AI? AI helps me with personal development,

**[01:26:40]** and thanks to it, I'm more efficient and have time for myself.

**[01:26:46]** I don't have fears about it; it seems like a natural development to me, just progress moving forward,

**[01:26:53]** and we can't stop it. Honestly, I think people have, and I’ll allow myself a somewhat extreme thought,

**[01:27:03]** that people fear the invasion of intimacy because over time we have to give up more and more data,

**[01:27:11]** more and more information. And imagine what it would be like if we all knew,

**[01:27:20]** what everyone is thinking and feeling right now, if that data was just out there in the open.

**[01:27:25]** We gave it up for some kind of safety, for greater efficiency, etc.

**[01:27:30]** There are two philosophical approaches. One says, yes, it would be a huge problem, we fear it,

**[01:27:36]** because obviously we have shadow things inside us that we don't want anyone to see or hear.

**[01:27:42]** That's what we fear, those are the fears, in my opinion. But then there's the idea, what if we were all closer?

**[01:27:48]** What if I could see or feel what someone here in the front row is feeling?

**[01:27:56]** Or what if we weren't strangers and I had greater understanding of that person, not fearing them.

**[01:28:01]** Yeah, some barriers would fall. So there are two approaches.

**[01:28:05]** We would see everything about each other, but is that bad or good?

**[01:28:09]** Yeah, it always has two sides. So I think people also fear that

**[01:28:13]** things about them will be revealed that they don't want others to know.

**[01:28:17]** I know technologies are being developed now to analyze dreams and thoughts,

**[01:28:21]** to visualize what a person is thinking and what kind of dreams they have.

**[01:28:25]** I think with dreams it's a big challenge because we need to understand

**[01:28:29]** a bit of archetypal language to decode them.

**[01:28:33]** But with thoughts and feelings that we can visualize using AI,

**[01:28:37]** it's quite intense and I think it can be stressful for many people,

**[01:28:41]** and that's the fear. But on the other hand, as Anonymous just said,

**[01:28:45]** it's also a great opportunity. I think the opportunity

**[01:28:49]** is, let's use it to improve the planet, apply it to environmental matters,

**[01:28:53]** and so on, but let's not forget the roots.

**[01:28:57]** To someone who asked how it helps with learning efficiency,

**[01:29:01]** if it makes self-development more efficient and faster,

**[01:29:05]** then let’s also allow some slowness, let’s also develop some inefficiency.

**[01:29:11]** I think this is a nice conclusion and a teaser for our discussion.

**[01:29:15]** Karolina, thank you very much for your lecture and chat. Thanks.

**[01:29:19]** Thank you very much too. Thanks.

**[01:29:27]** And because we like to measure, try taking your phone and switching,

**[01:29:34]** there should be feedback on the slide, so write us the one word

**[01:29:42]** that came to your mind during this breakfast.

**[01:29:46]** I will really appreciate and be interested in it. I'm very curious.

**[01:29:50]** Once we read it, of course, we will share it.

**[01:29:54]** So, I'll quickly go through it.

**[01:29:58]** Like every breakfast...

**[01:30:00]** If we triggered an aha moment or touched on something,

**[01:30:06]** it's very good to reflect on those things somehow.

**[01:30:10]** So if you're watching at your company, school, or with your loved ones,

**[01:30:15]** or watch the recordings, be sure to do a reflection round.

**[01:30:20]** We will do that round, and I'm glad that Vete Clark accepted the invitation,

**[01:30:28]** who is sitting here with us, so I'm really looking forward to it.

**[01:30:31]** Also Josef Holík, who had a breakfast about social networks.

**[01:30:37]** I'm also inviting the avatar Filip Dřímalků, whom I really want

**[01:30:42]** to share his perspective, so it will be a very interesting discussion.

**[01:30:48]** On October 4th, if you want, join us and register at edu.

**[01:30:56]** Another person who loves technology and sees mostly the positive side is Martin Holečko,

**[01:31:01]** who recommended this book Měsíce, which is a project among many

**[01:31:07]** that we have in the Red Button network.

**[01:31:09]** If you want to dive into performance and watch all the shows

**[01:31:14]** we have on Red Button EDU, you have it available with one button.

**[01:31:20]** We don't recommend doing it after today, you might get overwhelmed, and definitely follow us.

**[01:31:25]** And the most important thing is the announcement of the next breakfast.

**[01:31:30]** I like to poke at certain things, so I invited Electro Dad, Honza Staněk,

**[01:31:40]** a person who tries to bring a million people to electromobility,

**[01:31:45]** and he has a great story so far.

**[01:31:47]** We will look at what electromobility actually means,

**[01:31:52]** what it will change, what impact it can have on the Czech economy

**[01:31:56]** and on the global geopolitical system in general.

**[01:32:00]** So if you are especially interested in energy, electromobility, and these technologies,

**[01:32:05]** and where it is all heading and the connections, if this topic interests you,

**[01:32:09]** join us on October 19th, again in the morning from 8:30.

**[01:32:15]** And thank you very much for taking the time.

**[01:32:18]** Thank you again for the excellent lecture.

**[01:32:21]** Take care, goodbye, and see you.

**[01:32:23]** Thanks a lot, bye.

**[01:32:39]** www.hradeckesluzby.cz