IN A NUTSHELL Author's note…The radical and rapid emergence of AI as a force for shaping business and our lives in general, has gathered momentum in the last few years and created a tsunami of disruption in the world. In the long term, AI may prove to be a positive force for change and improvement, allowing people to save time and effort on those menial, repetitive and boring tasks, which were often the backbone of employment in previous decades. However, this transition to better times seems likely to be very painful, and the upheaval it generates has already impacted countless lives across the world…
By Dr. Brian Johnston
Performance Data Analyst
London, United Kingdom
By the same Author on PEAH: see HERE
Allostatic Load in the age of AI
In 1927, Sigmund Freud wrote; “It goes without saying that a civilization which leaves so large a number of its participants unsatisfied and drives them into revolt neither has nor deserves the prospect of a lasting existence.” Almost a century later, our world is a vastly different place, yet his words still resonate and, in many ways, are more relevant today.
We live in a world where human beings appear increasingly out of step with the physical, emotional, and mental demands placed upon them on a daily basis. As a species, we evolved from creatures that adapted over thousands of generations to a hunter-gatherer lifestyle, before adopting agriculture and embracing the “benefits” of civilisation and urbanization. As time progressed, the challenges placed on people changed and humans adapted to their new environments and conditions. Today, however, the rate and magnitude of the changes experienced by human beings is unparalleled in human history, and our ability to cope is being stretched to its limits and beyond.
When faced with such stressful conditions, human beings activate neural, neuroendocrine and neuroendocrine – immune systems, through a process called allostasis, in which adaptive systems provide a flexible response to stressors, designed to promote resilience and the effective regulation of physiological processes. Occasionally however, these systems become maladaptive or overstimulated, leading to allostatic load (AL), and sometimes to chronic disease over time.
The current picture is dark. Life expectancies have increased in recent decades in many countries, but the quality of life for billions of people remains low, despite monumental leaps in science and technology. Major advances have been made in healthcare, as well as our understanding of disease and epidemiology, yet major killers like cancer and cardiovascular disease stubbornly persist. Obesity is on the rise in many countries, and pandemics retain the power to bring our societies to their knees.
Evidently, we still have much to learn, but in a curious way our increased knowledge engenders an arrogance which makes us blind to this fact and instead gives us an unrealistic (and perhaps overly optimistic) belief in our ability to control our destinies and the world around us. Greater knowledge does not always lead to greater wisdom.
In a world where social media is omnipresent, expansive, and intrusive, loneliness and social isolation are now on the increase. We have more channels to communicate with each other, but seemingly few opportunities to engage in real human contact. Quality of interaction is frequently overwhelmed by quantity, and deep and meaningful communication replaced by superficial and inane content. Undoubtedly this paradox of being lonely in a crowded, noisy room can have detrimental effects on our mental health.
Running parallel to this cacophony of content is a perfect storm of environmental and social stressors. We live in an increasingly uncertain world, where change, not necessarily for the good, is driven by AI. People are insecure in their jobs, poverty and economic hardship are pervasive and deep rooted, whilst war, famine and displacement of people, are constantly in the news. All this plays out against a wider background of impending climate catastrophe and political ineffectiveness.
The radical and rapid emergence of AI as a force for shaping business and our lives in general, has gathered momentum in the last few years and created a tsunami of disruption in the world. In the long term, AI may prove to be a positive force for change and improvement, allowing people to save time and effort on those menial, repetitive and boring tasks, which were often the backbone of employment in previous decades. However, this transition to better times seems likely to be very painful, and the upheaval it generates has already impacted countless lives across the world.
In the world of work, AI has quickly and radically redefined the skills necessary to succeed in many areas of employment. Highly trained professionals have found that what they do is increasingly being replaced or automated through implementation of AI. The threat of job insecurity and redundancy looms large in many workplaces, where management have adopted AI solutions with little thought of the human cost of such “efficiencies.” Add to this the development of working environments characterised by low control, ever-increasing demands, an imbalance between effort and reward, and the structural uncertainties surrounding a gig economy, and we have a potent blend of psychosocial stressors, likely to increase allostatic load (AL). Such employment conditions may have long term implications for many millions of people. Indeed, as a recent study shows, chronic stress during working life is linked to poor health, whilst patchy careers and cumulative disadvantage over long periods, is associated with AL, due to physiological processes from chronic stress reactions.
From a different perspective, since the mid-20th century the frequency of natural and climate-related environmental disasters has increased substantially. This has caused devastating human and economic costs, and whether due to floods, wildfires, major storms, or climate change, they all lead to elevated levels of stress, negatively impact mental and physical health, and damage the well-being of entire communities. Naturally, disasters also tend to increase allostatic load, since stress is an almost universal response to traumatic events. Since deprived communities tend to experience higher levels of chronic stress, effective measurements of allostatic load could be added to the arsenal of tools used to fight health inequalities, by helping to identify individuals more likely to be adversely affected by stress. In this way, assessments of allostatic load could theoretically be used to effectively target interventions aimed at reducing stress, improving health outcomes, and reducing inequalities. More research is however needed to improve the effectiveness and standardization of metrics for AL.
At a societal level, government policies that improve housing, make working life less unstable, provide adequate safety nets during periods of unemployment, and reduce deprivation, will help reduce the upstream causes of chronic stress, and thereby tend to reduce AL. Similarly, effective public health messaging about healthy use of AI, as well as legislation aimed at promoting the “socially responsible” and “human friendly” adoption and integration of new technology, may go a long way to reducing stress in modern life. In this way, change can be more effectively managed, advances in AI can complement and enhance the world of work, human fallout can be lowered, and the toxic effects of allostatic load can be reduced.
Related to this, at the level of the individual, workplace stress management, stress reduction programmes (involving mindfulness, cognitive behaviour therapy etc.), sleep therapy, relaxation and related interventions, could be used to address rising levels of AL. In addition, advances in digital technologies, such as wearable devices and smartphone apps, may provide a way for AI to mitigate some of its negative effects by deepening our understanding of the relationships between stress, AL and the development of chronic illness.
AI is here to stay and its potential for good is enormous, if it can be harnessed as a complement to human endeavour, rather than a challenge to people’s health and potent source of allostatic load. We have a golden opportunity to enhance humanity and manage the change created by this new technological revolution if we can adopt the right mindset and take effective action now.
