AI possesses three fundamental characteristics that will transform not only human life but also the fabric of society. Firstly, AI is not merely a tool, but an agent. The difference can be simply explained as follows: A knife, a tool, can be used to peel an apple or commit murder. However, the decision is made by the user. Secondly, AI is creative and can invent. In other words, it can produce a large number of knives or other similar tools. Thirdly, AI can lie and mislead, manipulate, and control people. In 2026, AI will not yet be at the stage of making and implementing its own decisions, but it is very close. These characteristics, which we have listed, pose a serious threat because AI possesses certain characteristics entirely unique to humans and, consequently, has the potential to alter the fabric of society.
At this point, let’s listen to Eric Schmidt: “In a sense, the world is going to change in a way that even those involved will understand, and we are not ready for the consequences. However, although all these developments are technologically and scientifically possible, there is a very important problem. That problem is energy. The average nuclear power plant capacity in the US is 1 GW. To implement these technological advancements within a year, 10 GW of energy is needed. Data centers need an additional 29 GW of power by 2027 and 67 GW by 2030. When these systems are built, it will be possible to gather all the information in one center, thus achieving superintelligence, artificial general intelligence. This is the reason for the great race to be first in this field.”8
On the one hand, humans live a highly interconnected and fast-paced life, while on the other hand, they feel lonely, anxious, and exhausted. Artificial intelligence, while making humans feel very inadequate in one aspect, also offers helpful and life-simplifying opportunities, primarily in the field of medicine, expanding and improving the quality of services to society.
Three unique human traits are at risk as a result of their relationship with AI: curiosity, memory, and patience. Curiosity and memory, influenced by AI, are based on biological, emotional, and motivational foundations. However, patience is structured culturally, institutionally, and pedagogically, and AI has inevitably begun to decipher these codes.
Curiosity and Memory
Curiosity is a very important characteristic of human personality, and as AI integrates into our lives, this characteristic will weaken but not disappear. Curiosity for the sake of knowing will decrease because people will believe they can easily access everything they are interested in. However, existential curiosity will likely increase. Curiosity about questions like, “Why do I exist? What am I pursuing? What will I become? How should I live?” will continue to grow.
The easiest characteristic for AI to take over is memory. Before AI, humans recorded traces of their memories through writing, photographs, and the internet, allowing them to relive them later. AI will record this much more accurately and even contextually. However, autobiographical memory and the emotional connections embedded in memories will be unique to each individual and therefore cannot be taken over by AI.
Patience
Now let’s turn to patience, a crucial quality for both humans and the cultures in which they live. Patience is a critically important human trait threatened and pushed to the brink of extinction by AI.
AI eliminates the processes of waiting, delaying, researching, and digesting. If the human mind begins to experience decision-making, information production, and relationship processes too quickly, patience will become unnecessary. In this case, delay will be seen as a flaw, slowness as an error, waiting as a loss, and the time spent deepening understanding as the cost of a missed opportunity. However, patience is the cornerstone of the cognitive, moral, aesthetic, and emotional realms. Because meaning emerges as a result of the internal debate about the “why” question in the process of patience. Patience allows for the maturation of decisions, the deepening of love, the blossoming of creativity, and the shaping of virtue. Nietzsche said, “He who knows the why endures the how.”
Without patience, superficial knowledge replaces deep thought, contact replaces connection, and arousal replaces emotion, leading to tremendous superficiality. When patience disappears, emotion arises without regulation, desire from pleasure, decision from intuition, and production without synthesis. Attention span shortens, deep thought diminishes, resilience weakens, and most importantly, a person’s relationship with themselves becomes superficial.
When patience is lost, depth, consistency, and meaning weaken. Patience is the foundation of the maturing process of thought, the intensity of emotion, and the continuity of relationships. The most meaningful and profound relationships for a person, such as love and friendship, mature over time. These are critically important in terms of a person’s relationship with themselves, because patience is fundamental to self-control, self-identity, and the meaning attributed to them.
From a societal perspective, cultural codes that view patience as a virtue are losing their value. These codes manifest themselves in language, proverbs, and rituals. When these codes are deciphered, institutional structures crumble, and the belief that waiting is necessary and the norm is lost. Norms underlying institutional structures such as education, law, health, and the economy are based on patience. Until now, people have known and accepted that the reward for their efforts will not come immediately. If patience disappears, the reward to be obtained at the end of education will not be worth waiting for, the long-term expectation of economic investment will become meaningless, and the time spent to reap the fruits of science will be seen as a cost.
Today, technology and psychology intersect horizontally in every task and subject. There is no field where technology and psychology are not related. Today, we are witnessing how artificial general intelligence is changing the world we live in, but despite the great innovations and opportunities it brings to human life, artificial general intelligence has not yet reached sufficient maturity to solve complex problems by possessing human intuition and experience. Undoubtedly, it will gain this maturity in time. However, even in this case, those who have not developed the skills to learn from artificial intelligence through real-life experiences will not be able to reflect the inherent qualities of wisdom intelligence in their lives.
Conclusion
Today’s technology makes patience costly, unnecessary, and inefficient, both individually and socially. Individual patience is necessary for delaying and regulating gratification. Social patience forms the meaning attributed to civic consciousness. AI undermines both. The loss of patience shortens society’s time horizon. Ordering clothing, food, and partners for flirting online risks changing worldviews and, consequently, the fabric of society.
