AI by Hand: Why I’m Trading Algorithms for Astrolabes (and Why Slowness Might Actually Save Us)
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I stumbled across the “AI by Hand” project last week and honestly, it stopped me mid-kettle boil. The whole premise—building intelligence the old way, deliberately, painfully, beautifully slow—hit me right in the chest. As someone who spent years in marketing chasing engagement metrics and now spends my days leading a little breathwork circle at the Manchester community centre, I’ve felt that friction up close. When we automate everything, including our thinking, what exactly are we outsourcing? And more importantly, what happens to the inner alchemy that only happens in the waiting room of a thought?
Carl Jung kept reminding us that the psyche demands engagement, not a bypass. You can’t outsource shadow work to a chatbot and expect transformation. When I teach breathwork, I always tell my group: the shift isn’t in the exhale, it’s in that two-second hold where everything feels unresolved and uncomfortable. That’s the crucible. That’s where the base metal actually turns. If we hand that tension over to an algorithm, we’re basically skipping the great work entirely.
Tarot gets this instinctively. Look at The Hermit. He’s not holding a device that gives instant answers. He’s holding a lantern, taking one careful step at a time, trusting that the light only reveals what he’s willing to walk toward slowly. Astrologically, we’re drowning in a Mercury-dominant culture that rewards rapid-fire consumption over Saturnian depth. I’ve started asking myself: what if slowness isn’t a bug in our modern lives, but a feature we accidentally deleted? What if deliberate friction is actually the spiritual practice we’ve been starving for?
I’d love to hear how you all are navigating this. Do you feel that sense of spiritual atrophy when things just “work” too fast? Have you tried any practices that force you to sit with the unknown instead of Googling it? I’m genuinely curious what you’ve found. And if you’ve got a ritual, a book, or even just a stubborn habit that keeps you grounded in the slow stuff, I’m all ears. Manchester’s grey skies have a funny way of making you look inward anyway, but I feel like we’re all craving that manual override. What do you think we’re losing when we stop building things with our own hands and minds?
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