Weaving my Faith into a conversation on AI
We are more connected than we think. The question is: what will we build together?
It’s been a little while since I’ve written here.
The campaign trail has a way of consuming every spare hour. But before I go any further, a quick public service announcement:
If you live in Texas, early voting starts on Tuesday, 17 February. Have a plan. March matters. Check out commercial that just dropped called, “Fighting Forward.”
Now back to the reason for this newsletter.
I recently joined my friend Brett Hurt — Austin entrepreneur, investor, philanthropist, and host of the podcast Love Conquers Fear — for a wide-ranging conversation about AI, consciousness, spirituality, entrepreneurship, and public service.
It may have been one of the most personal interviews I’ve ever given.
And I’d love for you to watch it and tell me what you think.
You Are the Average of the Five People Around You
Early in the conversation, Brett asked:
How do you prevent yourself from being programmed?
I’ve told audiences for years:
You are the average of the five people you spend the most time with.
If you’re constantly angry about politics…
If you believe the world is falling apart…
If everyone around you reinforces that belief…
Pause.
Look left. Look right.
The people around you may be amplifying your fear.
And fear is profitable. Algorithms reward outrage. “If it bleeds, it leads” didn’t start with social media — but social media perfected it.
If you want to deprogram yourself, don’t start with technology.
Start with your relationships.
Spend time with people who see the world differently.
Break the echo chamber.
Choose curiosity over certainty.
Faith, Loss, and the Unexplainable
Brett and I went deeper than AI.
We talked about faith.
I shared two moments that changed me.
The first was when our firstborn, Keaton, was an infant. One afternoon she was in her crib, babbling — but it wasn’t random baby noise. It sounded like a conversation. A rhythm. A response. As if she were talking to someone.
No one was there.
But it didn’t feel imaginary.
The second was the night my father died.
I had spoken to him on the phone. Something felt off. Deeply off. I told Amy I thought it might be the last time I’d hear his voice.
That night I woke up in a startle from a dream — an ambulance coming straight toward me. Minutes later, the phone rang.
He was gone.
You can call that coincidence.
You can call it grief.
You can call it subconscious processing.
Or you can call it something else. I call a believe in a higher being. I call him God. You might have a different name, but I’ve been a big fan of God and Jesus for a long time.
I’ve come to believe we are more connected than our five senses allow us to perceive.
Science is starting to hint at what faith traditions have whispered for centuries:
We may be connected in ways that defy our current vocabulary.
Flatland and the Fourth Dimension
In the podcast, I described an idea that has stuck with me for years.
Imagine a two-dimensional world — “Flatland.” If you place your hand through it, the inhabitants would see five separate lines. They would not see the hand that connects them.
What if we are like that?
What if our three-dimensional selves are shadows of something more?
Quantum entanglement tells us particles can be connected across vast distances. Spiritual traditions tell us we are one body.
Maybe those are not competing ideas.
Maybe they are describing the same reality from different angles.
AI: God’s Final Exam?
Brett asked me about artificial intelligence and abundance.
Here’s what I believe:
I am a 99% AI optimist.
(That last 1% is reserved for the 2006 movie Idiocracy.)
AI is a tool — like fire, electricity, or the printing press. It can accelerate destruction or unlock abundance.
But here’s what’s different this time:
The rate of change.
When Bret Boyd and I wrote Catalyst, we argued that change itself isn’t what disrupts societies — it’s the speed of change.
AI is moving at breakneck speed.
Used wisely, it could:
End scarcity in energy.
Transform healthcare.
Personalize education.
Increase productivity beyond anything we’ve seen.
Used poorly, it could amplify fear, division, and concentration of power.
Which brings us back to something spiritual.
With great power comes great responsibility.
Love conquers fear — or fear conquers us.
Those are the only two long-term options.
Texas, Humanity, and Abundance
Brett asked me what I hope for Texas.
My answer:
Let Texas be Texas — at its best.
Texas has always been a place of misfits, entrepreneurs, immigrants, risk-takers, oil wildcatters, technologists, and dreamers. It is a crossroads state.
But we must remember:
Your success is not my loss.
We can build abundance — in energy, in education, in opportunity — if we stop believing that someone else’s gain diminishes us.
That applies to Texas.
It applies to America.
And it applies to humanity.
The Real Question
The real question isn’t whether AI will change the world.
It will.
The real question is:
Will we use it to deepen connection — or to widen division?
Will we become more thoughtful?
More empathetic?
More aware of one another?
Or will we allow ourselves to be programmed by fear?
We are entering a moment of enormous technological acceleration.
But the deeper shift required is a heart shift.
I’d love for you to watch the full conversation.
What do you think is the long-term impact of artificial intelligence on society?
Are you optimistic? Concerned? Somewhere in between?
Reply to this email or blog with your comments. I read them all.
And if you live in Texas — vote.
— Joseph