AI is here to stay, and human common sense must evolve with it. Only in this way will we achieve synergistic intelligence
Voltaire said that “Common sense is the least common of the senses”. And he was right: what seems logical to some may be absurd to others. Common sense is not universal knowledge, but a synthesis of experiences, emotions and learning that the human brain accumulates to adapt and survive. However, this natural gift—the fruit of thousands of years of evolution—today faces a new challenge: artificial intelligence (AI).
Common sense is the way our brain interprets reality without the need for complex reasoning. It arises from observation, memory, empathy and bodily experience.
When we feel a lump in our throat or a racing heart, our body is giving us information that complements rational judgment. That ability to listen to the body —through interoception and proprioception— is an essential part of common sense.
Descartes said that we are all endowed with good judgment, but that the key is to use it well. On the other hand, Voltaire ironically said that it is the least common of the senses. Today’s humanity moves between both extremes: we have knowledge, but we apply it little. We know that we should take care of our health, breathe better or use technology with purpose, but many times we do the opposite.
AI attempts to replicate that human ability, but it cannot sense or understand the emotional or moral context behind each decision.
An AI system may recognize a coffee cup, but it doesn’t understand its cultural history or know that it also serves as a tea cup or a paperweight on a windy day.
This wealth of interpretations arises from the unspoken wisdom of the human being: learning from mistakes, physical contact, language and emotion.
Therefore, scientists try to create “artificial common sense” using basic axioms, such as:
- “Hard things can damage soft things.”
- “Flesh is softer than metal.”
- “To possess something implies to possess its parts.”
By combining those rules, a machine can deduce that if a car hits someone, someone is responsible. But it is still far from understanding the why moral or emotional of that responsibility.
The challenge is not that AI will replace human common sense, but that both are enhanced. Human intelligence provides intuition, empathy, purpose and ethics; the artificial, precision, speed and calculation capacity.
Like breathing, which can be automatic or conscious, AI should be an extension of human thought, not a substitute.
Just as reading transformed the brain and enabled mass education, AI can transform collective thinking. But only if we use it with meaning and purposeto improve life, health and knowledge.
Medicine prolonged the years of life; AI can extend the quality of those years. The problem is not the technology, but the lack of meaning with which it is sometimes applied.
Human beings, in their technological career, have been losing virtues that made them exceptional: the ability to observe, listen, empathize and reflect. We become technical before we humanize ourselves.
The body—through its gestures, postures and breathing—continues to be our first language. Those who do not know how to read it, do not know how to listen to their own mind either.
Relearning to use the body, emotions and thought with full attention is the first step to recovering lost common sense.
Just as in the past those who did not know how to read were left out of progress, today those who do not understand AI will be excluded from the future.
But mastering AI is not programming it, but understand it, guide it and give it human purpose.
Common sense—that inner “Sancho Panza” that keeps us grounded—must guide artificial intelligence like a modern, idealistic but sensible Don Quixote.
AI is here to stay, and human common sense must evolve with it. Only in this way will we achieve synergistic intelligencecapable of uniting reason, emotion and technology at the service of well-being and life.
