Mindful Intelligence

A recent tête-à-tête with my nine-year-old son during a drive to a birthday party gave me a surprisingly simple definition of Mindful Intelligence.

Me: I want to talk to you about something important

Son: Ya, sure

Me: I’ve decided not to work a job anymore and to start my own business

Son: Wow. That’s amazing!

Me: It also means I’ll have to be careful with our expenses

Son: Ya. You should not buy unnecessary stuff!

Me: Yes. But it also means I might not be able to buy everything you ask for. You’ll probably hear more ‘No’ from me

Son: Humm… Okay

(pause)

Son: Are you building an app?

Me: Maybe. I am working on solutions for mindful productivity and mindful int…

Son: What does that mean?

Me: I want people to feel happy in their jobs and enjoy working with others – just like you enjoy playing with your friends

Son: That’s nice! But it should also make sure people don’t lose their jobs. That’s not nice

Me: I agree. When yo…

Son: [Interrupts] Hey! I have an idea. You should build an app that helps people communicate immediately

Me: What do you mean? There is WhatsApp, email…

Son: No, not like that. It should use #ArtificialIntelligence. It knows you so well that it communicates instead of you typing, without you opening the mobile

Me: You mean it mimics me and knows what I’d type?

Son: Exactly! It just knows you. It immediately responds to your messages.

Me: Okay… but why would people use it when we already have so many apps?

Son: So people don’t have to look at their phones and can talk to each other. Mobile phones will do all the work. People can aaram se (comfortably) talk now!

—

That statement struck me. Imagine a world where machines handle all digital communication, leaving humans free to interact meaningfully with one another.

Mindful Intelligence is just that – a purposeful and conscious approach to technology. It is a gateway to aligning ethical principles, emotional intelligence, social well-being, and intentional interactions to drive AI.

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“It turns out, by the way, intelligence is not a very good guarantee of wisdom.” – Daniel Ellsberg in the Netflix series – Turning Point

But here’s the thing: 90 seconds is enough to realize wisdom from intelligence. Want to try?

Close your eyes and focus on breathing for 90 seconds.
Feel each inhale and exhale at the tip of your nose.
Set a timer and begin. You can read the rest later.

If those 90 seconds felt like a battle between focusing on your breath (consciousness) and the chatter in your skull (subconsciousness), you’ve just experienced the essence of Mindful Intelligence. Much of what we call intelligence is habitual and biased thought patterns instead of intentional and non-judgmental decision-making.

And there is a hack to get there.