President's Full Message 

Hello, Humanists!

Let me start by thanking everyone who was able to get to the Annual Members’ Meeting. And even if you weren’t able to attend, thank you all for continuing to support Humanists New Mexico.

I also want to thank the new officers and board members - Jay Rogers (Vice President), Kenny Jones (Secretary), JayDe Donnelly (Treasurer), and Marie Trigg (Director-at-Large) - for making the extra commitment to help make our organization even better.

And finally, let me join you in thanking the people who ended their board roles after doing so much to make this organization what it is today - Cynthianne Yabut, Richard Grady, Paul Babb, and David Stelle.

I’ve been thinking lately about the degree to which a sense of inevitability impacts our capacity to envision a better future, and our motivation to work for that future. I have a couple of particular examples of this in mind that have sparked my ongoing thinking about this.

The companies promoting "Artificial Intelligence” are using the idea that creation of a synthetic, conscious, intelligent digital machine is inevitable (and imminent). In fact, many of the people working on and promoting this work apparently believe it has already happened. I see this as a particularly clear example of something that people have been doing for centuries when they can exploit a technology or social structure to their advantage. By convincing everyone (including themselves) that the situation is inevitable, they cement their advantageous position over their less fortunate peers. Breaking through that sense of inevitability creates opportunities to do things that help everyone, not just the lucky few.

The other case works in the other direction. I first noticed it when, many years after I first heard the words, I began to wonder whether the description of the “moral arc of the universe” quoted by Martin Luther King, Jr. were actually true. Is it inevitable that our societies will become more just? The more I’ve thought about it, the more this seems to me to be a kind of wishful thinking - projecting out into the world my own hopes and wishes for the future. If morality comes from human minds, as I believe it does, then the moral arc will go where humans take it. And more broadly, we humans are the ones who will make the future whatever it becomes.

I’m sure there’s a lot more to say about this, and I’d be happy to talk about it with anyone who’s interested (maybe over a beer at the Pondering at the Pub SIG?). My point in bringing it up here is to open up some space where we can begin to imagine, and then take steps to start to create a better future in New Mexico, the United States and the world.

I’m looking forward to going there with all of you!

Pete Dickinson, President