What’s the longest word in the English language? Until a few moments ago when I looked up the answer (don’t do it yet), I would have said: “supercalifragilisticexpialidocious.” Because of the surge in its popularity in elementary school and my limited vocabulary at the time, I followed the sheep in believing that it was the longest word to exist. So, what actually is the longest word in the English language? I’ll give you 30 seconds to look it up. Recognize it? Yeah, me neither. It would be much easier to say “a lung disease caused by volcanic ashes” than to attempt to pronounce “pneumonoultramicroscopicsilicovolcanoconiosis.”
It was never a matter of whether “supercalifragilisticexpialidocious” was truly the longest word. It was always about how fast you could say it without messing up and whether or not you could spell it correctly from memory. It was always a competition.
I remember going to the Scholastic Book Fair in the third grade and being captivated by the Guinness World Records books—the 2011 edition and its blazing sun cover, the 2012 edition with the holographic water droplets. Record-breaking facts! Fascinating human achievements! Unimaginable natural wonders! The content ranged from the generic (most career soccer goals scored), to the weird (most Jell-O eaten with chopsticks in one minute), to the absurd (largest Smurf meeting ever). Any title or topic you can think of, the Guinness World Records probably has covered it. Or, if it hasn’t, you can record it on your own and send in a submission—more competition.
Most activities can be turned into a competition: the annual Nathan’s Famous International Hot Dog Eating Contest on July 4th, competition reality television shows (Dance Moms, Masterchef, Dancing with the Stars, Survivor), the Olympics. Although the stakes of a hot dog eating contest and a gold medal match in the Olympics may differ in scale, all forms of competition can be characterized by high intensity and a high-pressure environment.
There is an expectation that to be exceptional, you must be the first to accomplish something or to do something differently. The first to discover a breakthrough in CRISPR gene-editing therapy able to treat sickle cell disease. The first to launch a Cybertruck, unique in design and appearance from a traditional pick-up truck. If it’s already been done, it’s not interesting enough to repeat it. Everyone remembers first place, but few remember the runner-up. World records in track and field, swimming, and other sporting events are meant to be broken. The fastest man alive, Noah Lyles, might be the third or fourth fastest by 2028. At this rate, the qualifying time for the men’s 100-meter dash could possibly even be five seconds by 2048, precisely half of the current 10.05-second qualifying time.
How can we keep striving for more while preserving our sanity? What is the human limit? Is there a human limit?
Maybe there’s not a clear one. Automation has made our lives easier in many ways; maybe humans are now actually looking for more responsibilities to take on. In fact, it’s become simple and effortless to the point where I can have AI read and summarize a 90-page historical document for me in five seconds rather than spend five hours scrutinizing it myself. Our society is so enthralled by the idea of efficiency that the upcoming presidential administration has even proposed a Department of Government Efficiency. Oh, and they appointed two billionaires to lead it! The dystopian worlds that we’ve read about in books like Brave New World and seen in shows like Black Mirror episodes have arrived.
But, perhaps this is exactly where we’re supposed to be, and this is the motivation we needed to take advantage of the now and pursue our goals before the apocalypse takes over. Run your personal best in the mile, be a pioneer in computational intermolecular physio-biochemical engineering, do it all before the record books are inundated with names that look like “%&(*$(01001110)!>>” because there might come a day when a robot can say “supercalifragilisticexpialidocious” faster than you.
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During my time at Brown and as a computer science concentrator, I’ve taken some machine learning, deep learning, and natural language processing classes. The basis for the ways these various AI programs have become so powerful is that they all undergo a structured regimen of training and learning to get better at the task they want to perform. In a way, we as humans have also been conditioned to perform certain tasks under similar discipline. We are told to follow the traditional path: go to primary and secondary school; then pursue higher education in university or further graduate and PhD programs; then get a job where the only “acceptable” and “profitable” industries are finance, technology, consulting, or some combination of the three; then if not immediately funneled into Corporate America after graduation, complete years of medical school or law school to become particularly trained (and fine-tuned) on specialized tasks within those fields. Even so, unless you are an expert in a specific niche, you are at risk of having your job automated by AI. All of those laborious hours spent writing an 80-page thesis, preparing for multi-round interviews, and studying for the MCAT and LSAT will have culminated into unrealized dreams.
Perhaps it’s not that we’re competing with AI but rather, maybe the process of working towards our futures is ironically turning us into machine-like models. Routines in college can seem robotic, especially as finals season approaches and there’s nothing to do but study for exams, write 10-20 page papers, and code elaborate final projects. To improve on a goal or to become better at a task requires repetition. It also involves competition, whether with ourselves or with others.
It’s mid-November and the heaters across campus have turned on. The temperature outside is colder. The trees are bare. The plague has begun to run through campus, literally in the form of sickness and, figuratively, as burnout. Attendance in lectures is dwindling, and assignments are piling up. It might feel like you’re behind on schoolwork and, just generally, in life. However, despite the sun setting at 4:30 p.m., we still have plenty of hours of daylight to allocate towards our daily tasks. Set realistic and achievable goals, switch up your study spots for a change of scenery. Take breaks in between. Some researchers have reported that, scientifically, humans need more sleep in the winter months, roughly an additional two hours compared to summer months, so give your body grace if you oversleep for a few hours or if you wake up from your “power nap” to complete darkness around you. It’s all about balance. It’s easy to lose motivation when the end is near, but let the end be a motivator in itself. Sometimes the only way to fix a crashing system is to reboot it. Let Thanksgiving break be the rest we all deserve, and we’ll come back in December with our bodies and minds recharged.
