by Mahanth S. Joishy. This is part 4 of a series; ICYMI the previous 3 parts are available here. Please play the short song below while you read this piece.
Part 1: What is Being Human When AI is More Human than Human?
Part 2: The Flywheel of Doom in American AI Ethics & Governance
Part 3: Our Toddler Might (Not) Grow Up to be a Serial Killer!
When I traveled across the country speaking to audiences about environmental sustainability practices in vehicle fleets and transportation (or the glaring lack thereof), I’d often start my presentation by asking for a show of hands.
“Who here is a parent…grandparent… aunt… or uncle?” Predictably, many hands go up among the men and women assembled. Then I’d shock them, wake them up, grab their attention, whatever you want to call it in a gambit I drilled for regularly.
“Today when you go home I want you to tell them that you do not love them!” I’d say, trying to make eye contact with members of the crowd. Just as predictably, the range of reactions from all these strangers looking at this curious Indian-American guy they came to see floated somewhere between shock, confusion, and perusing through their programs to research what other speakers were on tap. Then I’d say the line that nobody has once ever argued against while the PPT showed apocalyptic, real-life and current photos of wildfires, hurricanes, flooding, record heat waves, war, and drought.
“We obviously don’t love them because every single adult in this room is part of a generation leaving the planet in worse condition than we found it. I’m sick of tired of coming to these conferences where everyone talks about how great everything is going. Wake up! It’s not! We’re losing!” This was part of a practiced formula, breaking down the dialogue with the crowd before building it back up with how we could fix it if we really wanted to.
As of late 2026, I have done a complete pivot personally, and in my own areas of focus in reading, writing, and listening. The death race is on. We’re all the way in it. The reasoning for why we hate our progeny is even more stark. The only thing that matters now is whether we develop AI safely or not in time to halt the accelerating destruction of our future planet before it’s too late. That’s a big ‘if’ wrapped inside another big ‘if.’ The problem of AI is more urgent according to many experts.
Whatever is going on in this AI age, I’m very much a part of it. Although as a writer I have steadfastly (maybe even stupidly) refused to employ AI to assist me in my craft, and you can be assured every word of this came from my typing fingers alone, I recently made a musical album of Hindu devotional heavy metal music (and the cover art) with AI assistance (see above). And then something happened recently that scared the $hit out of me.
Could it be?
Yes, my own AI-prompted music has most unexpectedly given me an earworm. I had never imagined before that I could play around with making a song with artificial intelligence that would give myself an earworm. Here is where Hindu art, spirituality, and philosophy all converge with this story. The earworm is not about lyrics the AI and I created together; rather the Sanskrit (dead ancient language) lyrics to my earworm were developed many thousands of years ago.
What I did use Make Best Music for was to make my favorite-ever version of the Gayatri Mantra personalized to my maximal possible liking, for me and others, which in theory is helping repeat the mantra in my head at various expected and unexpected times of the day every day. With an English translation for anyone who wants to hear one interpretation of the words’ meaning. Now I’d ask you to read Part 3 if you have not already, because it’s getting creepy how it might all fit together, how maybe I sent myself a subliminal message in the Vedantic non-dual sense.
Like this was meant to be, this Indian-American fem-bot heavy metal version of the Gayatri Mantra earworm. More human than human indeed…
