I love scuba diving. Apart from meditating when no-one is home, it’s the one activity where I experience complete serenity – no meaningless conversations (I am an introvert), no cell phones, no social media and no emails that need to be responded to because my obsessive-compulsive disorder will not allow me to have even just one unread email in my inbox.
My love for (the idea of) scuba diving started as a little boy, watching the adventures of Jacques Cousteau on television. I dreamed of his life, travelling the world and dropping into the ocean to see what lies below. The Jaws movies, rather than keeping me on dry land, further deepened my fascination for the sea. Many a childhood holiday was spent with mask and snorkel, splashing about in lagoons and rocky bays, pretending to be Jacques C on another deep-sea adventure.
My journey to realising my dreams of exploring the big blue sea was a rather indirect one but that’s the amazing thing about being human, life is full of twists and turns.
Growing up in Johannesburg was not that conducive to a career under water, or so I thought. The truth is, Gauteng is literally the headquarters of the scuba diving industry. But I discovered this (as most things in life) in a roundabout way – by managing a rock band. You see, back in the 90’s, before side hustles were invented, I had a side hustle. I was enjoying a burgeoning career in Media sales but loved the alternative rock music scene in Johannesburg. I started taking photographs of bands in the late 80’s, both on stage and behind the scenes, and a long story short, through the network I developed doing this, ended up managing one of the most talented bands of the time.
As it turned out, the band went to Mauritius to record the first tracks of their debut album. One day, after hours in the studio, we were chilling in the house rented for us when the landlord popped in to fetch some scuba diving gear in a storage cupboard. As we were chatting, he asked if any of us would like to go diving the next day. Of course I said yes. In the morning he picked me up and, while driving to get gear to fit me, gave me instructions on what to do and what to expect. We stopped at a local dive instructor’s house north of Grand Baie to fetch air tanks and we jumped into his pool for some quick lessons on the basics and, less than two hours after leaving the apartment, I was 15 meters underwater, staring at fish on a coral reef. Mind blown!
This was the start of an incredible journey. On returning home I convinced my girlfriend and my best friend to sign up for a scuba course at a local dive shop. Seeing the awe and wonder in other divers’ faces sparked a major shift for me and another side hustle was seeded – I spent the next four years doing course after course and working part time for that dive school to log the hours and experience to eventually become a specialist scuba diving instructor. Why a dive instructor and not just a diver? Whilst I love the serenity and beauty of life under water, what gave me the most joy was seeing the expressions of people’s faces as they too discovered this incredible world. And this joy continued long after the dives were over as we discussed what we saw and poured through books and the internet identifying our discoveries. So many memories were made and some of the people I met over my diving years have become lifelong friends.
What’s this got to do with AI? Well, I’ve always maintained that AI has a role in enhancing our lives (like the pocket calculator or a GPS navigation device) and when I look back to when I learnt to dive, the course was entirely instructor led. As ‘technology’ progressed, theory was learned through video with instructor review. More recently, we have moved to online learning and review, including fully automated exams and results. Machine learning has taken on the theory elements of the scuba diving learning process and I can see a role for AI in the theory delivery. What about the practical lessons in the pool? Maybe at a stretch we could use simulators to learn skills like mastering buoyancy or self help in stress situations but when it comes to the real thing? And when students’ progress to open water? Who is recognizing the awe and wonder in their eyes, or perhaps the fear and anxiety of an unfamiliar situation, especially in a non-verbal environment? There is something reciprocally human when, at 30m below, surrounded by sharks, you can look into someone’s eyes and in a moment, discern fear or pure joy, and react accordingly. Or, they see confidence in your eyes, trust you and their training and enjoy the moment.
When I was learning to be a scuba diving instructor, I spent many hours as an assistant to the dive team – to the course instructor, the dive master, the boat skipper, the shore team, and even sorting out catering and accommodation. This is where AI can play a role, I’m sure – as an assistant to do all the menial tasks and process management. However, nothing replaces human insight, or what I call Natural Intelligence.
I am not only a firm believer in Natural Intelligence (NI), I’m an advocate for it. Every day I am confronted with content about how AI will replace a whole host of functions and, as a result, people’s jobs too. I use AI every day but I haven’t replaced a human with it. As humans we are natural problem solvers, we dig deeper to find the insights others miss because we are inherently competitive. We have the ability to look into another humans’ eyes and detect emotions and that’s why, for me, AI can’t teach you how to scuba dive.
Andre Steenekamp