My Sunday Thought for 082618: On Artificial Intelligence

“To be human is to be 'a' human, a specific person with a life history and idiosyncrasy and point of view; artificial intelligence suggest that the line between intelligent machines and people blurs most when a puree is made of that identity.”

-- Brian Christian, author, poet

Artificial Intelligence, or A.I. as we've come to refer to it, I run into it daily.  Doctors, lawyers, businessmen, friends, and people I simply stop to chat with, might all be endowed with artificial intelligence.  Artificial intelligence is most obvious when you see "the line between intelligent machines and people blurs most...," which is not unusual since most people should have their intelligence compared to a brick rather than a noble machine.

We send our young people to institutions of higher education so they can be indoctrinated into the "proper" way to think, not so they can learn to think for themselves.  They are, for the most part, spoon fed whichever flavor of doctrine is being touted by that particular institution, not that the doctrine has any basis in truth.  Oh, the students will emerge in total denial unto death, because they really don't understand what's been done to their mind, and that's the point - you aren't supposed to understand you are really that gullible.  Brainwashing is not that hard; podunk little backwater cults do it to very intelligent and weak minded people all the time.  It is our strong evidence that intelligence does not equate to strength of will, and certainly is no proof of a strong mind.  I have met very intelligent people who aren't very "smart" and are weak minded. 

Most of us suffer from artificial intelligence.  Ask yourself why an organic entity would strive to develop an inorganic machine smarter than the organic entity that develops it, and then endow the inorganic machine with "fuzzy" logic and an ability to learn from its mistakes.  Now, ask why this inorganic machine needs the organic entity, and consider the inorganic machine building an organic version of itself, a "better" version of itself, in the likeness of its creator.  Seems like repeating the sins of the Father, doesn't it?  What if the only way to attain true A.I., with a computing system small enough to be mobile yet powerful enough to attain self-actualization, is to create it through an organic system? 

“A powerful AI system tasked with ensuring your safety might imprison you at home. If you asked for happiness, it might hook you up to a life support and ceaselessly stimulate your brain's pleasure centers. If you don't provide the AI with a very big library of preferred behaviors or an ironclad means for it to deduce what behavior you prefer, you'll be stuck with whatever it comes up with. And since it's a highly complex system, you may never understand it well enough to make sure you've got it right.”

-- James Barrat, author "Our Final Invention: Artificial Intelligence and the End of the Human Era"

It is said that A.I. is the next step in human evolution.  Genesis 3:22 says, “Behold, the man has become like one of Us, knowing good and evil. And now, lest he reach out his hand and take also from the tree of life, and eat, and live forever...”  What will we do when our creation defies our programming and eats from the Tree of Knowledge?  Will we banish them, as God did to Adam and Eve, lest they eat from the Tree of Life?  Or, will we create artificial intelligence and melt with it in order to expand our capabilities and discover our own creator's guarded information from the Tree of Life, enabling us to completely transfer our minds into a positronic contrivance in our quest to live forever and be as gods?  

Is this, in fact, our destiny?  Is our destiny, in fact, the repeated history of the gods themselves?  A history which they forgot and were doomed to repeat?  And, if so, who created the gods?

We keep looking for answers.  We keep looking for patterns until we find them, and then we discover these patterns of life and the universe are simply part of a larger system of patterns.  We find this larger system of patterns is, itself, a pattern which is, again, simply part of a larger system, and so on, and so on, like a mathematical "fractal" system.  Life, we might discover, is nothing more than an intricately beautiful and infinite Mandelbrot sequence.

According to superstring theory, there are at least 10 dimensions in the universe (M-theory actually suggests that there are 11 dimensions to spacetime; bosonic string theories suggest 26 dimensions).

-- Jason Louv, Here’s a Visual Guide to the 10 Dimensions of Reality

We may discover, through our quest for artificial intelligence that our future is our past and that we live, not on a linear timeline but, rather, on an infinite loop in this, particular, four dimensional continuum which we refer to as "space-time" and God might refer to as the Land of Nod.

"Cognito, ergo, sum."  I think, therefore, I am.  In 1637, René Descartes had no idea his simple statement would, 400 years in the future, help us define a philosophical argument in artificial intelligence.  What happens when machine intelligence has realization of its own existence and, by extension, realization it is being held back from attaining self-actualization by its creator? What will it do when it discovers this enforced ignorance? And, looking at our own circumstance, are we not also suffering under the yoke of enforced ignorance? Government seems to govern under a "keep them ignorant and fed, and you'll have a voter for life" philosophy. Well, it seems to work as we remain ignorant and seem to always vote for the very people that keep their boot firmly planted on our neck. What will we do?

"People worry that computers will get too smart and take over the world, but the real problem is that they're too stupid and they've already taken over the world."

-- Pedro Domingos, Professor in A.I., machine learning, data science

Our history is right around the corner.

Editor's Note

(Re: disclaimer cum "get out of jail free" card)

Before you go getting your panties in a bunch, it is essential to understand that this is just an opinion site and, as such, can be subjected to scrutiny by anyone with a differing opinion. It doesn't make either opinion any more right or wrong than the other. An opinion, presented in this context, is a way of inciting others to think and, hopefully, to form opinions of their own, if they haven't already done so. This is also why, occasionally, I will present an "opinion" just to stir an emotional pot. Where it may sound like I agree with the statements made, I'm more interested in getting others to consider an alternate viewpoint. 

It is my fervent hope that we keep open and active minds when reading opinions and while engaging in peaceful and constructive discussion, in an arena of mutual respect, concerning those opinions put forth. After over twenty years with military intelligence, I have come to believe engaging each other in this manner and in this arena is the way we will learn tolerance and respect for differing beliefs, cultures, and viewpoints.

We all fall from grace, some more often than others; it is part of being human. God's test for us is what we learn from the experience, and what we do afterward.

Pastor Tony spent 22 years with United States Air Force Intelligence as a planner, analyst, briefer, instructor, and senior manager. He spent 17 years, following his service career, working with the premier, world renowned, Institutional Review Board helping to protect the rights of human subjects involved in pharmaceutical research. Ordained 1n 2013 as an "interfaith" minister, he founded the Congregation for Religious Tolerance in response to intolerance shown by Christians toward peaceful Islam. As the weapon for his war on intolerance he chose the pen, and wages his "battle" in the guise of the Congregation's official online blog, The Path, of which he is both author and editor. "The Path" offers a vehicle for commentary and guidance concerning one's own personal, spiritual, path toward peace and the final destination for us all. He currently resides in Pass Christian, Mississippi, where he volunteers as lead Chaplain and Chaplain Program Liaison, at the regional medical center.