Permaculture farmer Chau Quang Duong explains how the microbes that support life make up only 5% of the organic matter in living soil. Using artificial means, such as chemicals, for speed and efficiency can readily destroy those microbes making the soil dry, hard, and lifeless. In the same way, Chau cautions, when we give up our inner wisdom in total reliance on AI in the interest of speed, efficiency, and “perfection,” we risk destroying the living culture and knowledge of a local place from which life and our own inner wisdom grows – the 5% that AI can never provide. He suggests the need to continually replenish the soil of the soul through deep connection, such as immersion in a garden. “Just as the soil can recover when we stop damaging it and begin to care for it, our inner lives can become fertile again when we give ourselves time, space, and a deeper connection with nature.” “When the mind releases its need to control everything, a quiet, open space appears. In that space, our inner voice can begin to speak again.”
