AI is on the rise. Microsoft has Cortana, Apple has Siri and Google has Google Now. The Big Three technology companies are all vying for supremacy to provide you with a software assistant that knows your wants and needs and can help you get the most out of your day. Personally I use Google Now and I'm impressed by how much knowledge about me it extracts from my emails, texts, calendar bookings and telephone calls. I like it.
This is the current experience of artificial intelligence (AI) and it's been getting a lot of press recently. Eric Horvitz of Microsoft and the people at Google say there is some reason for caution but nothing much to worry about. Stephen Hawking (a physicist and all round clever person) says it a big threat to humankind, and dear old Clive Sinclair says AI will replace humanity - along the lines of many science fiction stories. Terminator anyone?
I want to ask...what is it to be human exactly? Sure computers can gather vast amounts of data, apply analytical rules to it, extract conclusions and even act on them. Is that all that we mean by 'intelligence'? If so, then yes, the computers will take over the world. The Net will reign supreme and we will be reduced to slaves. Dystopia. But wait a moment...
I'd like to add to the conversation. To be human is to be an integrated body, mind and spirit. Some atheists and humanists poo-poo the idea of the spirit, and they are welcome to their opinion. However, I notice that the people that suicide are usually intelligent thinking people, and not always acting on mental illness or momentary grief. Sometimes these troubled souls are responding to despair and hopelessness that transcends reason and rationality and even just feelings. There is more to being alive that the mind and the emotions. There is the connection to God, the Universe or the Higher Power - however you like to nominate whatever it is that is beyond yourself to which we sense a deep connection. This connection is deeper than memory or imagination (both activities of the mind), bigger than emotions - also activity of the mind. It effects our bodies, affects our emotions, and provides deep motive, relationship and peace.
We religious/spiritual people have vocabulary to talk about this - not that we understand it all, but having words helps. Spirit - our spirits and God's Holy Spirit, worship, awe, praise, the night of the soul, the mountain top and the valley.
If the 'net' or my smart phone or computers can help me deal with the busy-ness of life great, but they will never be able to take on the essence of being truly alive - the connection we have to each other, to God, to ourselves and to creation. To be alive is about so much more than intelligence. It is about relationship, and that involves all of ourselves. There is more to consciousness that intelligence.
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