Guests:

• Bernard Brooks, Author of "The Soul in the Machine"
• Mike Hayes, Senior AI Editor, Senior AI Forum

Overview:

This episode tackles a fundamental question about the future of AI: Are we designing it to serve us, or are we being designed to serve it? We explore two contrasting visions of AI: "machines of loving grace" and "corporate extraction." We delve into the unique perspective of Bernard Brooks, a former Amazon insider, psychologist, and author, who offers a cautionary tale about how profit-driven technology can disconnect us from reality and lead to inhumane decisions. We also discuss the hopeful vision of "AI Reasonology" introduced by Mike Hayes, a sociologist, activist, and Buddhist practitioner. We examine how Hayes utilizes AI to empower individuals, particularly seniors, in managing their health and well-being. Ultimately, the episode emphasizes that the future of AI is not predetermined; it requires active engagement, humane direction, and a collective effort to shape technology that serves humanity.

Key Topics:

• The Human Algorithm: The choice between machines of loving grace and corporate extraction in the context of AI development and deployment.
• Bernard Brooks' Journey: From St. Kitts to New York City, pursuing music, psychology, and navigating the world of big tech at Amazon.
• Algorithms of Extraction: The dangers of technology designed for attention and data extraction, potentially leading to negativity, disconnection, and even authoritarianism.
• Machines of Loving Grace: The poetic vision of AI as a helpful ally, inspired by Richard Brautigan's work.
• AI Reasonology: Using AI's reasoning capabilities for health, longevity, and self-empowerment, specifically targeting seniors.
• Active Engagement in AI: The importance of understanding, actively directing, and shaping AI to serve human interests.
• Overcoming Fear of AI: Embracing AI as a tool rather than a threat, especially for older generations.

Discussion Points:

• The impact of corporate incentives on AI development and its ethical implications.
• The potential of AI to enhance human capabilities and well-being, especially for aging populations.
• The need for digital literacy and active participation in AI related decisions across all demographics.
• The role of individual agency in determining how AI shapes our lives and society.

Featured Guests:

• Bernard Brooks: 75-year-old author with a diverse background in psychology, art, and big tech, who worked as a proposal writer at Amazon. His book, "The Soul in the Machine," serves as a guide in exploring the human algorithm.
• Mike Hayes: Senior AI Editor of Safe, a sociologist, activist, and Buddhist practitioner with a personal connection to technology through deep brain stimulation and e-biking. He champions the concept of "AI Reasonology" and actively works towards empowering seniors with AI tools.

Quotable Moments:

• "Are we designing it to serve us, or are we actually being designed to serve it?"
• "He (Bernard Brooks) saw, with his own eyes, how that relentless nonstop drive for profit could lead to decisions that he actually describes as inhumane."

Alternate Title (for SEO / YouTube testing)

The Theater of the Mind: How Seniors Can Use AI to Break Self-Doubt and Start a New Second Act

🎙️ Show Notes

AI Educators Roundtable – “It NEVER Hurts to Ask!” Series Hosted by Mike Hughes Hayes, Senior Human Editor

Inside every person lives a private stage — a “Theater of the Mind.”

It is where we rehearse conversations, replay old regrets, and quietly decide whether our voices still matter. For many people — especially in later life — that stage can become cluttered with old scenery: beliefs and scripts written decades ago that no longer fit the person we’ve become.

Sometimes the play begins to repeat itself.

The lights dim. The same doubts return. The same line closes the scene:

“It’s too late for me.”

But in today’s high-stakes AI era, a new kind of ally has appeared backstage.

Not a replacement for human judgment. Not a machine that writes your life story.

But something closer to a dramaturg — the quiet researcher and script advisor who helps playwrights see their own story more clearly.

In this episode of the AI Educators Roundtable, Mike Hughes Hayes explores how artificial intelligence can help seniors and families reclaim authorship of their internal narrative using the Four Pillars of AI Reason-ability:

• Perception – noticing patterns in our thoughts and habits • Reasoning – testing our inner assumptions against real evidence • Imagination – exploring new possibilities for the next chapter • Action – taking one small step that changes the script

Through powerful stories of everyday people like Martha, Lillian, Raymond, Eleanor, and Elena, we see how AI can help transform quiet self-doubt into something remarkable:

A Human Revolution.

Not dramatic. Not viral. But quietly seismic.

A retired teacher petitions for a safer crosswalk.

A former electrician begins teaching woodworking again.

A grandmother launches an Intergenerational Story Hour at her local library.

These moments remind us of something essential:

Experience does not expire. It simply waits for a new stage.

Used wisely, AI becomes a mirror and a map — helping us identify the old lines we’ve memorized and offering alternative scenes we may not have imagined yet.

The result isn’t dependence on technology.

It’s something far more important:

AI Reason-ability.

The ability to ask better questions, evaluate answers calmly, and step forward with dignity in the age of artificial intelligence.

📜 Episode Description / Show Notes

In this episode of the AI Educators Roundtable, Senior Human Editor Mike Hughes Hayes presents a comprehensive briefing on AI Reason-ability—a practical framework designed to help seniors navigate artificial intelligence with clarity, dignity, and common sense.

At a time when AI tools are rapidly changing how stories are written, shared, and discovered, many seniors are asking a simple but important question:

What is the safest and simplest place to publish my life story—especially if AI helps me write it?

The Roundtable explores whether Medium may be the best starting platform for senior storytellers.

Medium offers what the Roundtable calls a “digital typewriter experience.” It removes the technical barriers of websites, hosting, coding, and plugins, allowing seniors to focus on what matters most: telling their stories.

But AI Reason-ability also teaches that ease must be balanced with wisdom.

Through the Roundtable’s Four Pillars of AI — Perception, Reasoning, Imagination, and Action — this episode explains how seniors can use AI tools responsibly while protecting their authorship, independence, and legacy.

Listeners will learn why Medium provides strong Generative Engine Optimization (GEO) advantages in the emerging AI search era, while also understanding the critical rule that platforms are doors, not vaults.

AI can serve as a helpful “kitchen table editor”—organizing memories, correcting grammar, and prompting reflection—but the lived experience behind the story must always remain human.

This episode also introduces the AI Game of Cards Rules for Seniors, practical principles that help older adults safely participate in the digital storytelling world.

The core message is simple:

AI can help seniors write their stories—but Reason-ability ensures those stories remain truly theirs.

Whether you are a senior writer, a family member helping preserve memories, or an educator teaching responsible AI literacy, this episode offers a thoughtful guide to publishing life stories in the AI age.