What it means to be human in an age of AI | The Dyson Blog

I was walking with my daughter in local woods the other day. We were discussing how to stay positive in times when the world situation seems stormy, dangerous, and bleak; and when it seems the tides are flowing against you. 'You need to focus on what’s just around you and what you can do!' She said. I felt both humble and proud. Of course, we can only do what we can do. There is much we cannot influence.

We both agreed that we also needed to clearly voice our position on important matters when they arose, because a failure to do so could be taken as agreement or consent. In a world where we are tempted immediately into derision, how we do this is important. 'That is not how I see things' may well be enough.

One of the books I read in 2025 was Natural Goodness by Philippa Foot. In it the author sets out how you might define a good human being, based upon how a human differs from a dog or indeed a tree. One key premise is that given the human capability for thinking and understanding there is a duty for us to exercise this in practical rationality: a worked-through assessment of our views and actions. And to be part of a wider practical rationality, we need to express our personal rationale and thinking.

Foot also postulated that a good life does not necessarily mean a happy life. Living by our thought-through morals and ethics can lead to difficulties, but maybe, she argues, happiness without this is not true visceral happiness but a frothy, veneered happiness.

Taking this approach can be self-affirming as it reinforces each of us as our own moral agent, autonomous in making decisions based upon what we believe is important, right, and wrong. This may be a vital message in a world where we are continually bombarded with what other people, groups, and the murmuration of social media tell us is important and acceptable. These views being often based upon what I would call mob-logic – simplistic, stereotyped, and uninformed reasoning. Foot would say we have a responsibility to try and critically think and rationalise thoroughly; this is what marks us out as a well performing human.

Perhaps now is an important moment to reflect upon what it is to be human. In a conversation I facilitated about artificial intelligence, many ethical questions arose about what parts and roles people should play in a society where computer and robotics systems are developing quickly and can enhance and replace people’s work. This includes agentic systems, that do not require the input of people in the process at all. I have written many times about some of the evidence around the evolution of Homo sapiens, the fact that they seem to have had lower testosterone levels which allowed them to live more collegiately, working together in larger communities. Society could be argued as a distinctive mark of human beings. With society comes a shared sense of rights and wrongs. We fundamentally share values but could be in danger of missing out on the quality of discussion that applies these into our world. If humans give away the arbitration of ethical decisions to AI systems developed by profit driven corporations, are we not giving away our defining characteristic?

The other thing we should remember about us humans, particularly at this time of year, is our enormous potential for curiosity, discovery, adaptation, and narrative. The neocortex in the human brain gives us these superpowers. And when I say curiosity, I am not talking about the definition, used in the business world, I mean the curiosity you see in a baby and young child. The staring look at new things, the poking in of fingers, the taking things apart, the putting things in the mouth (not suggesting this literally). An unbridled fascination to sense and learn from the world around them. The neocortex also holds the story of our lives and you could argue that each of us, and mankind itself, is simply its story.

As we start 2026 what will be the next chapter in our individual story and the human story? In creating a good story for ourselves we can be part of a great and continuing human story. This may only happen though if we recapture that wide-eyed wonder we had as a baby and combine it with investigation and clarity of thought, along with the determination to find and do good and stand up to the wrong around us.

We have a whole new year to make progress in the right direction.