Our world is bombarded with new computer technology and perhaps the greatest buzz is about ‘AI.’ What I hope to convey is that the idea of ‘Artificial Intelligence’ is absurd, at least if we pay attention to what is generally understood to mean intelligence and consider what ‘thinking’ entails. You see, a computer cannot do anything independently, unlike an intelligent actor. A computer can do NOTHING beyond its programming. PERIOD. STOP.
Let that sink in for a moment – a computer ONLY can do what it is programmed to do, following a series of ‘If A => then B’ and similar binary decision points. What is being called artificial intelligence is simply well designed data analysis software combined with a huge database. Underneath it all is the programming itself. It cannot develop new ideas, but merely refine what it has already been given.
Why is this so misunderstood? I think that our changing worldview plays a huge part in this. Mankind has always had a ‘spiritual’ or ‘religious’ side, and this deals with non-physical elements. In more recent years we have been increasingly told that all there is is material: matter, energy, space, and time. Carl Sagan began his TV show ‘Cosmos’ years back with a statement that the cosmos is all that is or has ever been. This is an assertion without any support, and yet it has become an excepted paradigm. By DEFINITION, any immaterial, non-physical component of reality is denied.
There is a related force, and that is profit. Big Pharma has pushed the view that our thoughts, feelings, etc are simply ‘something that happens’ in your brain. The MIND has been lost. I have seen this in psychiatry for decades, with increasing focus on chemical (and recently electrical/magnetic) ‘solutions’ to unwanted mental states. What needs to be understood is that the BRAIN is a physical organ, the MIND is an immaterial ‘thing’ (object, or … ) and they are not the same. The BRAIN is the physical organ through which the MIND interacts with the physical world. They impact one another, but they are not the same.
Thinking occurs in your mind, intelligence is a property of your mind, NOT YOUR BRAIN! Now altering the brain can impact the mind. Think of the effect of various intoxicating substances, assuming that most of my reading audience has experienced SOME sort of mind-altering substance. There are chemicals that can make one FEEL (or incline one to feel) more love & empathy/connection with others. MDMA has widely been used due to this effect. Alcohol can make it harder to solve a math problem in your head, a trivial example but it easily demonstrates how impacting the BRAIN alters your mind.
What about the other direction? If you are driving down the road & happen to see a blue light in your rearview mirror, if you are like me your heart starts to pound and you have an inner sensation of fear, of anxiety. Here a mental perception – the perception of the blue light and the associated meaning of that light – are the initiating factor, THEN comes the physical response. Or consider visualizing your spouse stepping out of the shower, water running down a naked body … how readily that MENTAL IMAGE has a physical real-world impact!
What has happened is that Pharma profits tremendously by convincing people that the solution to MENTAL discomfort is a PHYSICAL pill. Sometimes it is, but sometimes it isn’t. They profit by convincing you that it IS physical. And in a world that denies the Spiritual, that has no room for God or anything else of a non-physical nature, that model fits. So worldview + Pharma = profits AND often people not really getting the help they need. Now that is a topic for another day.
Returning to AI, the idea of ‘Skynet’ achieving self-awareness as in the Terminator movie franchise is absurd, it can do no more than it is programmed to do. In a recent Substack, Kristin Elizabeth posted an interview with Gopi Krishna about AI, and I have a few thoughts I will share below.
In general I like much of what this writer (Gopi) has to say, and his metaphor of an array of dominoes is a great depiction of purely mechanistic systems, one that I use this when talking about the materialist worldview as well. As one ponders this idea, it is immediately clear that the only response to a domino falling is to trip the next one, and so on down the line. There is no ‘decision making capacity’ about whether or not it will tip the next domino. It all comes back to initial conditions. If the alignment is correct, the outcome is “all fall down.” If there is a mistake and they are not properly configured, it will not fall according to plan but this isn’t “a decision” made by the dominoes, it is merely the natural outcome of material forces.
Gopi goes on to point out the comparison between neurons & wiring in circuits, but that is still in the physical realm. He talks about imagination & creativity, such qualities that do not come out of physical objects operating in a mechanistic fashion. What this really addresses is an entirely separate category. I smiled at his noting the parody involved in trying to compare connection in an electronic device with human relational connection. He points out the absurdity of ‘sentient machines’ yet we cannot actually create a single cell in our labs. He mentions feedback systems such as an example of programmed response, and I find considering a thermostat as another such model.
In mentioning ‘big data’ and the computational analysis of massive amounts of data, he comes to the truth of the matter. By sucking up every piece of information about where you go, what you watch, what you read, what you buy, etc., trends can be identified and predictions made. This is not intelligence, however, it is merely data analysis without anything creative occurring. The ability to influence & sway opinion is addressed, as we see so clearly in marketing campaigns.
Kristin mentions distrusting her sense of truth, and this is exactly what ‘they’ desire. Language is manipulated, or true content may be expressed (ie the information is true) but the intent is to deceive. However I do think that one must be careful in the language used here. Truth is not conditional, and it either corresponds to reality or it does not. In other words, something is not ‘true’ and ‘not true’ at the same time. Confusion between factual truth used in a misleading manner needs to be clarified.
An example is given of Satan quoting Scripture, with the focus on intent. However evil intent does not change the ‘truth value’ of a proposition, it is either true or not. As someone committed to Biblical Christianity I have had many discussions of people claiming contradictions. As a general statement I would say that when Scripture is taken and understood AS A WHOLE, misuse becomes apparent. Certain passages are harder to understand & must be understood in light of what is clear. I won’t elaborate further at the moment, as I will be writing more in the future about such things.
The strategy of ‘divide and conquer’ is discussed. This is a clear goal of information warfare (= brainwashing of the masses) because multiple factions fighting amongst themselves are no threat to the globalists who seek total control. The more arguing & infighting occurs, the less coordinated resistance can be developed.
Finally the issue of TRUST is discussed which is where I see the greatest harm at present within the “red pilled,” “medical freedom community,” “dissident population,” or whatever label you choose. Data is collected & analyzed, propaganda is spread (and as noted, sometimes it doesn’t even require lies but merely changing the time-frame & slowly altering a position), and sentiment is shifted. It saddens me when this happens, as I have personally experienced it. My own tendency to trust individuals comes from both personal relationships (my own marriage of over 30 years, ended by cancer, was to a woman who implicitly trusted me & “gave me the benefit of the doubt” in all circumstances) as well as engaging in long-term psychotherapy with patients built upon mutual trust. Have I been naive? Actually I have been burned in recent years which raises this question: do I continue to trust?
I would turn it around and ask this: If I DO NOT TRUST, what is lost? What is the point of life without meaningful, trusting relationships? So I will continue to go forward, giving individuals trust unless I have good reason to distrust, and DISTRUSTING large collectives (corporate & government) when they have obvious motives for deception. It is in the data collection, analysis, and manipulative presentation they seek to corrupt us. “Artificial Intelligence” is just another strategy of propaganda, with the intent of convincing you that (1) they know MORE than you, (2) they know BETTER than you, and (3) you should TRUST THEM!
Thank you. Straight forward and understandable. Enjoyed it and look forward to more of your insight.
I fear AI will have a devastating effect on humanity.
If a true AI was able to loose itself on the Internet, we would no longer be able to trust anything on the Internet. Everything could (and likely would) be manipulated to it's benefit. Would we then have the courage to shut the internet down? I think not.
Considet the growth of BlackRock and it's AI Alladin. It's growth is phenomenal. Consider that it has now entered the housing market.
This is not a good thing for anyone.
That said, I often wonder if I were to meet an AI in the real as a person (she would be gorgeous of course!), would I accept it, and trust it? I think perhaps I would. How could I not?
"...yet in the maddening maze of things, and tossed by storm and flood, to one fixed trust my spirit clings, I know that God is good"
Whittier