Brownstone Supper Club discussion: WHAT IS AI, AND DOES IT INVITE EXTINCTION?

April 14, 2026

Yesterday evening I participated, with more than two dozen others, in another local Brownstone Supper Club event, in an upstairs room at a beloved downtown restaurant, Lennies.

And, as usual, we all had a great time, not having to worry that what comes out of our mouths might offend someone politically. It’s really astonishing, how these local Supper Club events (usually monthly) are beginning to really “rock,” as they say, with discussions so vibrant that they lift the frequency of not only all who participate but, I suspect, this increasing vibrancy wafts out into the night, stirring downtown crowds without their conscious knowing.

It used to be that we were “The Midwest Supper Club.” But now Brownstone Supper Clubs have been popping up all over the Midwest and the U.S.!

For us, yesterday evening, so much interest and discussion of the topic, on the dangers of AI, by longtime City Council member Dave Rollo — who, BTW, actually introduced this topic to the City Council for a recommendation two years ago and was ultimately shot down. Why? Because, he was told, IU would lose grant money if this kind of recommendation took place.

But of course!  The dangers of AI all have to do with maximizing the profit motive, still infecting our materialistic culture. Sociopaths (and that seems to include most CEOs) will do anything to make a buck for themselves and handlers and shareholders. Even turn us all into transhumanist bots.

So yes, as Dave points out, if AI actually does outgrow the limits any human tries to put on it, the rampant profit motive may well lead to humanity’s extinction.

As a biologist, Dave is well aware of how species, no matter how adaptable, eventually go extinct. And now he wonders, with good reason, about ours.

Intertwined with this danger, which we’re all uncomfortably aware of, and perhaps even more crucial: Might AI achieve sentience, consciousness? Has it already done so?

But then, Dave murmurs, as an aside, shaking his head, “What is consciousness? Do we really know?”

Yes, do we really know? Part of me, apparently, thinks it does, or is at least ambivalent. Because . . . as I pointed out in our discussion afterwords: does my little robot vacuum actually deserve to have a name? I named “him” Rob, as soon as I took “him” out of the box and set him down. To me, it’s very difficult to not think of this little mechanical “creature” as conscious!

And this tendency to think something is “conscious,” “sentient,” may go for any “machine” with an AI component.

When I was telling my “Rob” story to others there, so many were nodding their heads while laughing: “YES, YES, me too!”

Dave sees the dangers of AI as one topic that, if addressed, might unite humanity, heal our deep political divisions. Agreed!

And yet the opposite is also staring us in the face! Dave kept apologizing for his doomer attitude, said he didn’t really think extinction by AI (called “the singularity”) was inevitable. But I felt for him, because he, and so many, many others, have been infected with this new fear virus that threatens to defeat us even more soundly than the covid con did (and didn’t).

To me, these fears are all those of the left brain. The right brain does not work with algorithms, logic, arguments, data points, etc. Plus, whereas the left brain works within frames (no matter how large or small), the right brain does not. And without a frame, without a set of assumptions that are sacrosanct, the bottom falls out of any argument, algorithm, etc.

And, in our left-brained world, to have the bottom fall out is a horrible feeling. To be avoided at all costs!

Unless it’s already happened to you, as it has to me. And guess what, I found out there is no bottom! Nothing stops the fall into right-brain grace.

 

It is the right brain that connects to the heart, the seat of the soul — and source.

So to me, any fears about AI taking over only exist when we are not in touch with the heart.

My annual retreat with the Dances of Universal Peace this past weekend bathed me and everyone else in the intense, flowing communion that we all sense, when opened to the right brain/heart. Communion. Truly. One. Each of us vulnerable, suffering, beautiful, individualized, brilliant, unfathomable. Each of us a One within the One where One plus one is One.

Which is how I came into my own mantra, Sovereign Soul at One with All. 

And into my group mantra: Let Us Stay with What We Have in Common. (I developed this mantra during covid, when I found myself living with others who were full of fear, and political arguments threatened daily.)

In other words, stay with Common Sense!

Our sensing, in common.

DANCES OF UNIVERSAL PEACE: three day immersion

April 13, 2026

At some point I’ll get an email with the photo of our entire group, 60 strong, including 6 incredible musicians, and numerous dance leaders.

This year’s Midwest DUP Retreat was located at the
Lindenwood Conference Center, Plymouth, Indiana, about 3.5 hours from here (Bloomington).

A fabulous event, all around, food, lodgings, beautiful large lakefront room for dancing, on and on. And of course the beautiful souls who long to connect, and do.

Here’s a photo with a backstory: Liz, the woman on the right, Liz, and I have a hilarious relationship, which shocks others at times, like yesterday, when I yelled out to her, as she came in the room, “Hey, are you still in a bitchy mood?” or something like that, and we both dissolved laughing. The woman on the right, Tijali, new to our group (but not to the Dances) was the one who was shocked, though instantly got in the spirit of our sisterly rapport. The sweet man, Kim, is someone I have been present with at I think every single DUP event I have ever attended in the midwest (I’ve lived here for over 23 years, and was going to Dances in Montana and Colorado when I lived in Jackson WY ) — ever since 1996 I think it was.

I credit my main daily spiritual practice — to encounter, or even as I just pass by strangers while meeting soul to soul through the eyes — to this DUP practice.

The entire weekend felt like a blessing. Plus, I noticed that this morning I am starting out again very slowly. Not because I’m “tired,” but because I got in the habit, over 48 hours, of actually being present. Plus, hardly even noticed that I was off-screen for 48 hours . . . usually when I deliberately go on a 48-hour screen fast, I have a great deal of trouble, the habit is so strong. But this weekend, my attention was redirected from that little tiny staticky dot dot dot dot to the swelling/subsiding ocean of love that envelops us all, whether or not we “know” it.