Human is the New Vinyl: Presence and Connection

Will AI replace humans? This question is on the minds of many people these days. Micah Voraritskul gives us a new and compelling metaphor for this question in his recent book “Human is the New Vinyl: Why Human Creativity Still Wins In The AI Revolution.” He argues: Human is to AI as vinyl is to digital music. Digital music is “cleaner, more portable, and more durable” and vinyl is “delicate, inconvenient, expensive, it skips, it wears out, it’s a hassle.”¹ Yet both exist and are “thriving” today:

Vinyl offers something digital can’t: texture tangibility. A record has weight. Grooves. Two sides. You drop the needle. Hear the crackle. Study the cover art. Read the lyrics. You don’t skip around. You sit with it. You stay. Vinyl asks something of you – your presence. And in return, it gives you something rare: a sense of connection².

In this world of AI, humanity is craving presence and connection.

Throughout the book, Voraritskul wrestles with existential questions around how AI shapes and changes how we see humanity and the value we bring to the world: what is humanity and its value in the world of AI? How will AI shape and change how we see humanity? He states that the AI revolution does not need to sweep us away mindlessly or unquestionably because “enduring revolutions help us remember where we’ve been, recover what we’ve lost, and redefine what’s worth holding onto.”³ As someone who lived through the age of technology, works with creators, and loves music, Voraritskul argues that humanity has always, and will always, have a place because it keeps us grounded and connected to each other. In trying to optimize efficiency and speed, we lose tilt: “that invisible lean of personality, presence, and perspective that seeps into everything you touch.”⁴ The metaphor of vinyl and other creative art forms remind us of our humanity, and Voraritskul calls us to remember that.

Religion also calls us to remember our humanity through our past, present, and future. It connects people across time and each other. For example, prayer is a core component of Judaism, specifically the Amidah. This central prayer of Judaism begins with a call back to our ancestors as individuals to connect us all to God across time. This prayer is both said individually and communally connecting us to ourselves, those around us, and across generations. One focus of religion is presence with yourself, others, and the world beyond our understanding. A term I heard recently, spiritual quotient or SQ captures this idea. SQ is similar to intelligence quotient (IQ) and emotional quotient (EQ). Instead of looking up a definition, I decided to sit with it and talk to my friends, including rabbinical students (students studying to become clergy members for Jewish spaces). Most of the rabbinical students, including my husband, said that their goal was to increase their SQ and help others (their congregants) do the same, but they were “speechless” otherwise. After many conversations, the definition we settled on is: the ability to connect to something other than yourself and beyond your understanding.⁵ It contains two pieces:

• The want and importance of the connection and the impact it can have, and
• The application and fulfillment of the connection and its impact on the world, including yourself.⁶

SQ is about oneness: remembering that we are all connected. We all crave stimulation and presence with others. The opposite of this is solitary confinement or a total lack of stimulation. In our virtual and global world, how many of us are lacking human connection and presence? How is the digital world and AI affecting our spiritual quotient?

AI is not all bad, but trading efficiency for distance is dangerous as seen in historical examples of creative works. “Human Is The New Vinyl” takes the reader on a three part journey: (1) the history and revolution of music (2) to other creative art forms including writing, visualizing, singing and plays, speaking, and teaching and learning (3) to the human mark and humanity’s endless creativity all around us. Voraritskul outlines a recurring pattern that creative innovations tend to follow. He describes a staged framework in which a technological innovation evolves from its initial invention to full societal saturation and eventual human pushback, using the history of digital music as an illustrative example (see Table in the Appendix for more details and an example). It traces how innovations gain language, spread, amplify, digitize, and become compressed and portable, eventually shaping identity and becoming universally accessible. As ownership shifts to platforms and the internet produces overwhelming saturation, creators struggle to stand out. AI then leverages this abundance to optimize and personalize experiences, raising concerns about authenticity, fairness, and erosion of creative integrity. Ultimately, people turn back toward human presence and authenticity—such as live performances and creator advocacy—as society grapples with uncertainty, generational differences, legal battles, and the question of how to protect both creativity and humanity in an era of rapid technological change. As Voraritskul argues in the book, the AI revolution is inevitable and leaves the creators/experts and consumers at a loss for words.

For Voraritskul, music is the best example of this. Music has had a troubled past. From live performances to records to CDs to tapes to computers. From consumers owning music (records, CDs, tapes) to stealing music (e.g., napster) to leasing music (e.g., spotify). The music industry has grappled with similar problems before. There is a trade-off between accessibility and market value. Accessibility is the ease of availability and usability of something. Music is ubiquitous: in stores, when on hold during phone calls with companies, and in everyone’s ears. Market value is the amount people are willing to pay for a product. When accessibility is low, market value tends to increase. When accessibility is high, market value tends to decrease. Digital music is easier and cheaper and more accessible to the masses, whereas vinyl is more expensive and less accessible. The AI revolution is a step towards optimizing accessibility, convenience, efficiency, and market value. In this process, it is changing the presence of creativity and the human connections in music⁷.For example, with AI today anyone can make music and artists are concerned for their careers and livelihoods.

Voraritskul situates AI in a long line of tools, setting up why it is here and how it could change us. He may not have all the answers, but he has good questions:

Is lowering the barrier for everyone worth the risk of degrading what counts as “really good music”?

Will professional skills slowly erode?⁸

AI is creating distance between people, and Voraritskul’s metaphor of vinyl reminds us to connect and be present with one another.

Voraritskul asks, how does AI differ from past disruptions? “Most past disruptions changed how we make things or move them around. But AI can now sit in the maker’s seat, bump the human aside, and say ‘I’m making this for your audience. You’re just here to help.’”⁹ Even though AI seems uncertain and exponentially bigger than previous tools, Voraritskul looks to the past to help us answer some of the questions and reminds us that we have been here before many times over. In sum, change is hard. In most of the examples Voraritskul gives, it takes years or even decades before the innovation is adopted by the masses because people have always resisted change. Change by definition is not familiar and it can lead to positives including greater speed, accessibility, and connectedness, but at what cost? For Voraritskul, AI can have a high cost to our humanness if we let it.

The cost of AI is trust. “Trust is a fundamental force in human life. It is the very foundation of the global economy, creative relationships, and nearly every decision we make in the modern world”¹⁰ and it has been significantly eroding over time¹¹. Trust runs the world: everyday we trust that drivers will stay in their lane and that pharmacists will give us the correct medication dosage, and more.¹² Most people are honest, and we generally do not get rid of systems for the small percentage that are not. Further, broken trust hurts everyone from journalism to healthcare.¹³ Voraritskul aims to bring back trust through his endeavor of VerifiedHuman¹⁴ where trust is seen as a “transaction of mutual generosity”¹⁵ and the policy is trust but verify.

Voraritskul reminds us of why vintage tools are in these days: presence and sensory experience. Vinyl, pencils or pen to paper, film cameras, and more require us to slow down, and use our senses; to be human. For example, English professors at Yale are starting to require printed readings.¹⁶ Many things are good about new technology. Voraritskul gives us a good warning to remember our humanity in the process. “Human Is The New Vinyl” is a story of hope and humanity. I highly recommend the book to everyone as a reminder of our humanity in the AI revolution.

Appendix Table:

References:

1. Human is the New Vinyl, page 2 [/efn_note]
2. ibid
3. page 3
4. page 222
5. my friend Tali
6. husband Josh
7. One could almost say that AI is changing the Spiritual Quotient of music…
8. page 168
9. page 226
10. page 265
11. https://desapublications.un.org/policy-briefs/un-desa-policy-brief-no-184-erosion-trust-threat-social-progress
12. page 219
13. page 267
14. https://www.iamverifiedhuman.com/
15. page 267
16. https://yaledailynews.com/articles/english-professors-double-down-on-requiring-printed-copies-of-readings

Views and opinions expressed by authors and editors are their own and do not necessarily reflect the view of AI and Faith or any of its leadership.