57. Challenging Your Own Ideas Featuring Mohamed Nabil

Welcome to Derive Insights, the podcast where meaningful conversations, challenges, assumptions, inspire growth and encourage us, you know, to think more deeply about ourselves than the world around us, you know. And also welcome to a special series, Remind Me of Myself, a series built on, you know, one simple belief that sometimes the right conversation doesn't just teach us something new. It reminds us of the curiosity, courage and also the wisdom we have already possessed. And today's episode, you know, explores artificial intelligence, critical thinking, ethical pushing, publishing, democracy and what it means to seek truth in an age overflowing with information. And today's guest is Mohamed Nabi, an author, social innovator and also creator of Adopt AI Debates. Mohamed is also a creator of the philosophy of enlightened populism, a framework that encourages people to move beyond blindly trusting authority or simply, you know, following popular opinion by actively investigating evidence, engaging with diverse perspectives and also thinking critically. And lastly, he's the author of several books spanning philosophy, politics, fiction, artificial intelligence and also social reform. And he's passionate about, you know, exploring bold ideas surrounding ethics, education, democracy and humanity's future. Mohamed, welcome to Drive Insight. Thank you for the introduction. Okay, let's dive into our first question, which is titled, Why Challenge Your Own Ideas? You created Adopt, where you invite AI to innovate. You criticize your own publications and then publish those conversations without editing. What inspired this idea and why do you believe intellectual transparency is so important today? Because I believe people should have the right to follow the reasoning behind the conclusions, not only accept or reject conclusions provided by authors or provided by anyone providing public content. So this is highly connected with my concept of enlightened populism, which is a behavioral pattern of communication that involves listening. Listening to multiple experts, trying to understand how they reached certain conclusions and investigated the information to ascertain the truth. So ADOP, or A-I-D-O-P, which stands for AI Debates on One's Publications, involves a content creator prompting an AI tool to criticize their own content and publishing the entire unedited transcript of back and forth argumentation within 24 hours of the exchange. At its heart, it encourages enlightened populism. Are you there? Are you there? Yes. Okay. Yes. That was very powerful. And in addition to that, I want to ask, how has allowing AI to challenge your own thinking changed the way you write and develop your ideas? It didn't change the way I write, but it demanded a level of radical transparency and intellectual humility. From my side, I started publishing criticism against my own content while engaging in back and forth argumentation with AI tools. So I believe. That's pretty much wonderful. Let's now talk about what I've been doing for the past year and a half and a half. I've been working on a lot of AI content for the past two years. I've been working on a lot of AI content for the past year and a half. criticize my own content and engaged and i engaged in back and forth argumentation with these tools and published the entire and as transcripts according okay that's pretty much wonderful let's now talk about what i titled um enlightened populism versus following the crowd you distinguish between blind elitism ignorant populism and also enlightened populism can you please explain these concepts and why they believe and why you believe populism offers a headier way for people to engage with information well i define populism as anything attached to the masses so ignorant populism is an ignorant form of ignorant ignorance spread across the masses and enlightened populism means enlightenment spread across the masses so blind elitism entails blindly following an expert or an elite on a certain issue ignorant populism also involves the absence of investigation while relying on feelings or trends enlightened populism is a behavioral pattern of communication that involves listening to multiple experts trying to understand how they reach certain conclusions and investigating the information to describe the truth so it's it really matters how we engage with information at a very at the very basic level and this is why i decided to tackle the uh communication at this level the basic level of the behavioral pattern okay interesting so um if i come to ask you um in today's social media environment how can someone practically become a more enlightened thinker well social media relies on personalization showing each person content based on their historical interactions within the platform this ultimately creates a situation in which a person's use of social media is an endless state of voice confirmation even if the person doesn't suffer confirmation bias even search engines and llms can turn into echo chambers if not used wisely as they both rely on historical data of interactions using private incognito window mode occasionally while submitting queries through multiple search engines and digging deep for multiple sources is advisable same goes for llms with the additional feature of intentionally getting into a debate with the llm by prompting it to take a position opposing to yours so you may have certain opinions and beliefs in this world you can take a set of them introduce them into an ai tool and ask them to criticize what you believe to be true and then engage in back and forth argumentation hello hello hello hello yes hello can you hear me hello yeah sorry talk uh go down and i lost you for a moment i'm really sorry oh it's okay can you hear me yes i can hear you now okay let's um just uh continue for a year we stopped i'll try to you know um edit the episode together okay okay so uh we were at uh well i asked you about can you hear me clearly yes i can hear you please okay give me a moment please we're discussing um enlightened populism versus uh following the crowd can you please just you know take that a little bit just you know highlight um on that a little bit you distinguish between uh blind atheism non-populism and also enlightened populism you know just explain the concept and uh you know why you believe enlightened populism is an healthier way for people to engage with information well blind elitism entails blindly following an expert or an elite on a certain issue ignorant populism also involves the absence of investigation while relying on feelings of friends so these so these are toxic behavioral patterns of communication because they don't lead to anything close to the truth no one has a monopoly on the truth not me or anyone else yet we can get as close to the truth by practicing enlightened populism like populism involves listening to multiple experts trying to understand how they reach certain conclusions and investigating the information to describe the truth so we can see we can't guarantee the outcome but we can do our best we can do our best throughout the process by practicing enlightenment populism hello yes i can hear you yes in today's society how can someone you know become a more enlightened thinker in today's society yes did you get the question yes can you repeat the question please that's okay in today's society um how can someone become a more enlightened thinker well it uh it has to do with the economic aspects and sociological aspects these are covered across three books of mine that might be Humanities and the truth is sexy so uh I'll just focus on the media part of the question for now it has to do with how people interact with the abundance of information we're living in today so I believe people should use a pull strategy instead of a push strategy the push agenda comes from social media and the police agenda comes from uh search engines and other lamps that's where you actively pull the information you're seeking so I I think a balance between both is essential especially when you can rely more on the pull side of the question and use private or incognito mode to avoid having the llm or the search engine relying on historical data of interactions and you can submit queries through multiple search engines and dig deep for multiple sources and you can use getting into a debate with the alarm can you hear me yes i can hear you okay that was a wonderful explanation and uh moving forward let's talk about uh what i titled of ai education and the search for truth artificial intelligence is transforming education publishing and also research at a very credible pace and um how do you believe ai should be used ethically and where do you think to push your SSIS course on? Well, AI is just a tool, so it depends on how you use it. You can use it critically by letting the tool criticize your own thoughts. These tools almost have the sum of human knowledge because they are trained on huge data sets, so you can ask it to criticize any of your opinions or beliefs and then you can engage in back and forth argumentation. This way you can sharpen your own thinking, you can stress test your own ideas through AI, effectively making them sharper by responding to criticism, refine your own thoughts, simply accept criticism as valid or agreeing to disagree on certain points, and then there are people who use AI simply for idea generation or for ghostwriting in case of writers, or for any of that stuff. So in such case, you're just making your mind number and number over time because instead of using your own brain to come up with ideas, you're relying and becoming dependent on these tools. Okay. Do you believe AI will straighten critical thinking or will it make independent thinking more difficult? Well, AI doesn't do anything. It has to do with how you use it. So for instance, you may use it to generate questions on your behalf for this interview. In such case, over time you will use your own ability to create questions on your own because your mind will get used to the idea that someone else or something else is coming up with the ideas for you. Or you can use it to critically criticize your own thoughts and engage in back and forth argumentation, as we mentioned earlier, and in such manner it may help sharpen your own mind and may help increase your critical thinking. Okay. Wonderful explanation. I believe the explanation you give is very clear. You give disadvantage and also an advantage to critical thinking. And let's now talk about what I titled Big Ideas for Humanity's Future. You advocate for ideas such as citizen assemblies, democracy, universal human rights, and even a single global movement. What experiences or observations led you to think about the future of the human rights movement? What problems do you believe they could solve? Well, we live in a world with extreme wealth concentration on one side and extreme wealth inequality. These issues have been inherited over the years. And then we have climate change, which is an existential threat. And then we have potentially recurring pandemics in the near future. And we have billionaires taking shape and taking place all over the world and controlling policies all over the world. So, and we have hundreds of millions of people living under, below poverty line. So, the main idea is, is that we need to unite the world under a single government and put an end to all wars, abolish military industrial complexes, abolish monarchies, tax billionaires out of existence by setting a health cap at $999 million per person, introduce, use the money from these measures to introduce shelter, access to clean water and food, education, health care, speedy, stable internet connections as basic human rights, along with freedom of expression and freedom of movement. Well, it's very wonderful in terms of freedom of expression and also freedom of movement. And in addition to that, I want to ask, what role do ordinary citizens play in shaping that future? Well, ordinary citizens are the ones who are going to shape this future. It must be about a bottom-up transition. Enlightened populism doesn't rely on popular charismatic leaders. It must be practiced by the masses in order to succeed. Same can be said about establishing a global government. It may take multi-generational efforts, but it must be a bottom-up transition. So, people around the world need to actively push for this agenda. We need to collectively push for this agenda of ruling the world through citizen assemblies instead of the current corrupt representative democracy. In order to create a democracy spread around the world, we can, instead of voting for someone to vote on our behalf on many issues, we can vote directly on these issues as educated, enlightened citizens, and we can spread enlightened populism among us as the first step. Okay, this brings us to the last section of this segment, where we talk about the Tantalus series, "Remind Me of Myself." The series is called "Remind Me of Myself" because we believe every meaningful conversation about the Tantalus series can inspire us to do the right thing, which is to talk about the Tantalus series. After all your work exploring truth, AI, philosophy, and also society, what do you hope listeners are reminded about themselves after hearing this conversation? We should always remember that we don't have a monopoly on the truth. Not me, not you, not anyone else. Okay, that's very, very vital. And we've had a wonderful conversation today, and today's conversation has challenged us to, you know, think beyond easy answers and understand the truth. And Mohamed, you shared how intellectual honesty begins with the willingness to question our own beliefs. Why transparency can, you know, strengthen trust rather than, you know, weaken it. And how critical thinking remains one of the most valuable skills in the age of artificial intelligence. And whether or not we agree with every idea we discuss, the deeper invitation is clear: that growth begins when we become curious enough to investigate rather than simply react. And just before we wrap up, Mohamed, I would love to, you know, give you the opportunity to, you know, talk to my audience directly on where they can, you know, explore your books, learn more about IDOP, and discover your ideas on AI, democracy, and also ethical publishing. Well, readers and listeners can check out my website. It's mohammednabil.world. M-O-H-A-M-E-D-N-A-B-I-L. The books are also available through Amazon and Google Play. It would be helpful if you can add the link to the website in the show notes. Okay. Thank you once again, you know, for, you know, bringing your thoughtful and thought-provoking ideas to today's conversation. Without discussing artificial intelligence, education, or democracy, you have encouraged us to move beyond passive thinking and become more intentional about how we seek truth. Thank you for joining us today on Drive Insight. Thank you for having me. It has been a pleasure. Okay. And to our listeners, just before you brush up this episode, I have three wonderful questions I want you to ask yourself after listening to this conversation. And one of those conversations is, one of the questions is, how often do I challenge my own beliefs instead of only defending them? And the second question is, am I seeking truth or simply looking for information? And the third question after listening to this conversation is, what would change if I approached difficult conversations with greater curiosity than certainty? I believe you'll be able to, you know, find answers to these questions after listening to, you know, this episode. And once again, I want you to know that the future would not simply be shaped by, you know, technology. It will be shaped by how we choose to think, question, and collaborate, and also learn. May we become people who are willing to, you know, investigate before judging, to listen before concluding, and also to pursue truth with both humility and courage. Thank you for listening to another episode of Reminding of Myself. I'm Eitu Daniel, and you have been listening to Drive Insights. Until next time, keep learning, keep growing, and also keep becoming. I mean, one conversation at a time.