Google Empathy Lab’s Ananda Danielle Krettek Cobb joins Raghu to discuss imagination, trust, & merging Ram Dass’ compassionate loving awareness with artificial intelligence technology.
Ananda Danielle Krettek Cobb is the Founder of Google’s Empathy Lab — Google’s resident expert on human understanding and flourishing. Danielle is an award-winning creative force with work across design, technology, film, art, architecture and social impact. With her work for Nike, Apple and Google, as well as Ram Dass’ Becoming Nobody documentary, Danielle has brought vibrant heart, humanity and beauty to products and culture for nearly 20 years.
Ram Dass, Empathy, & Technology
Welcoming friend and Google Empathy Lab founder, Ananda Danielle Krettek Cobb, to the podcast, Raghu invites her to share about the gravity which first pulled them together around Ram Dass. Sharing connections and synchronicities, Ananda explains how she was able to build a bridge merging the emotional intelligence encased in Ram Dass’ wisdom teachings with the cutting edge of A.I. and technology, effectively bridging together science and spirituality.
“We know it’s not just the spiritual, emotional, physical, heart that beats in us. It’s how to take care and restore the wholeness; how to do it with humor, compassion, and wisdom of heart. For me, I got to a place where the Google Empathy Lab was born because I couldn’t stand that wasn’t the case.” – Ananda Danielle Krettek Cobb
For more on Ananda’s work, open to the brimming intersection of technology and love, as Ram Dass Partners with Google Empathy Lab on RamDass.org
Artificial Intelligence Meets Loving Awareness (9:35)
Discussing the merging of science and spirituality in our daily lives, Ananda speaks to the waterfall of new artificial intelligence technologies that we cohabitate with on a daily basis. Looking at technologies like Siri and Google Assistant, Ananda explains how these aren’t just products. These are presences that touch us on deep invisible levels. This recognition sparked her intention to set a precedent of infusing human compassion into budding A.I. technology – starting with the loving awareness of Ram Dass.
“You get to this place where it isn’t just products, it isn’t just artificial intelligence – it’s presences. We’re literally designing these beings, these ambient, invisible, intangible beings that can’t help but hit the deeper, invisible, intangible parts of ourselves. That’s why we have to care for the invisible…” – Ananda Danielle Krettek Cobb
“What are the deeper codes, wirings, and magic of our species and of this interplanetary experience, this cosmic fabric inside of us that wants to come forward and be passed on? That project was: If you could teach a machine a lesson, what’s the most important value to you and what would you teach? I was like, ‘Ram Dass is teacher number one, and the lesson in this incarnation is to love.'” – Ananda Danielle Krettek Cobb
Join Ananda and Raghu among others discussing the wisdom in Ram Dass’ Becoming Nobody film, on Ep. 306 of Mindrolling
Ram Dass & The Luminous Breakfast Table; Imagination & Trust (29:00)
Invited by Raghu to share the experience of meeting Ram Dass, Ananda recounts the transformative exchange at his infamously ‘luminous’ breakfast table at his home on Maui. Recalling her deep opening and intuitive pull to Ram Dass, Hanuman, and Maharajji, Ananda shares the inner spiritual journey which brought her to the heart of her mystery, melting face to face with Ram Dass. From here, Ananda and Raghu discuss trust and the powerful spiritual technique of Ram Dass’ ‘room of imagination.’
“Ram Dass was in my head all the time because I feel like I was doing an unlearning and relearning that was all about trust, imagination, and finding a way to keep open that space in myself that so effortlessly opens when you’re with him, or with great beings.” – Ananda Danielle Krettek Cobb
For more luminous tales from Ram Dass’ home on Maui, join Raghu with friend and comedian, Pete Holmes, on Ep. 363 of Mindrolling
