Needs, Desires, Fantasies
I need to exercise, by working out or playing sports, every day. I desire to do so outdoors. I fantasize about being super fit, having time to exercise, improving at my work, and simultaneously having time to make all the contributions to life I believe I can. Sorting out which temptation is a need, a desire, or a fantasy is necessary to prioritize my day.
Needs must be met. Healthy food, sleep, exercise, family and friend connections, and work productivity are needed in my microcosm of the world. I realize how lucky I am to have just those needs while so many others have safety, subsistence, and the basics of survival at the forefront of every moment.
Having this good fortune, relationships and productivity become ways to honor my unique privilege. Blessed with more than the basics, I look around and think about how I can make everything I touch better: every interaction, every patient visit, every surgical procedure. Medical science, in my view, is still so nascent that there is unlimited opportunity for improvement.
The problem with this mindset, though, is that there is never enough time. So much of it is rushed or late, overbooked and overcommitted, that any feelings of inadequacy I might have must be squashed as I go about each day. Fortunately, my inner drive is equal to the task, and my ego is so large that impostor syndrome rarely pokes its head up. Why shouldn’t I be able to figure out how to improve everything? I have the curiosity, the intellect, the background, the fearlessness, and the arrogance to try. In that sense, work is both my obligation and my opportunity.
Desires are both consumptive and productive. If I desire something unhealthy or risky, the cost may be trivial or fatal. Whether a food, a sport, or a relationship, the risk/benefit analysis changes as I age. Earlier in life, my sense of invincibility and personal power drove me to push everything and everyone around me. My desires were reined in by good judgment (most of the time) and consideration of whether what I wanted was a need or a desire. Judging if the desire affected me alone, or others — either unexpectedly or unwillingly — also protected me.
Fantasies can be both personal and global. Can I experience something forbidden? Can I invent something to solve a problem that affects millions of people? Can I sense deeply? Can I impact broadly? Can I imagine a world no one else yet sees, and actualize it? Do I spend enough time thinking about the future, whether in five minutes or five years? Spending time in audiences of dreamers, doers, and intellectuals helps. The smartest people I know are uniquely positioned to prompt new ideas. Yet the ideas come from everywhere.
Ideas backed by data are bursting onto the scene with the augmented intelligence boom. Will AI agents become my continuous mental friends, vastly expanding my access to data-backed fantasies? Soon, everyone will have an AI agent. It is clear to me that no one will see a doctor without their agent reminding them of their complete medical history, while the listening doctor has all the world’s knowledge. Our AI agents will monitor our email, texts, and voice calls, record all our quantified wearables, and prompt us to eat, exercise, and love when we are supposed to. They will even warn us of impending doom. What happens to my careful balance of needs, desires, and fantasies when what I can think can happen instantly?
Will my needs, desires, and fantasies merge so rapidly that the augmented me will still be productive for society and attractive to you? And you to me?
