A talking toaster than can say good morning, ask you if you want your toast light, medium, or dark, and provide the toast. No one would say that toaster was conscious. Scale the code up on the toaster to millions and millions of lines of code so it becomes indistinguishable from talking to a person. It is still just a hunk of metal and wires running an algorithm. It is not conscious.
when you wrote "It seems obvious that we can mimic consciousness with AI, but I don’t believe consciousness itself cannot be copied into a machine."
Thanks for another piece of your wonderful writing.
And speaking of Tesla........SPACEX JUST PUNCHED A HOLE IN THE IONOSPHERE: On the evening of July 19th, SpaceX launched a Falcon 9 rocket from Vandenberg Space Force Base in California. Sky watchers from southern California to Arizona witnessed a magnificent exhaust plume. At the San Francisco Volcanic Field north of Flagstaff, photographer Jeremy Perez saw something extra.
I must say doctor, that you are better versed in modern culture than I am. Though I DID see Westworld.
However, it pains me to see such well-intentioned people puzzle over a mystery that has already been solved! That is not to say that you, knowing the data I know, would likewise consider the mystery solved. But, at least you would be aware that someone had attempted it and in fact devoted over half a lifetime to it.
The "solution" starts with the discovery that each of us is an immortal spiritual being. Though this has been a religious teaching for thousands of years, it was only only in the 1950s that this became a scientific finding. The first work was done outside of academia, by a man named Hubbard. He had already been rejected by the Academy, and continues to be to this day.
But his discovery has since been validated in the Academy by researchers like Ian Stevenson, in his studies of past life recall in children. Past life recall has been validated in several different ways over the years, and this phenomenon clearly indicates that the personality (and its memories) can separate from the body, which it does at death, subsequently moving on to a new body.
The next step of research was to ask people for more past life memories. Of course this is difficult for most people, but various techniques were devised to overcome the problem. The result has been a rather large body of knowledge concerning our past history, which includes many clues as to why we are the way we are and what can be done about it.
Noah Yuval Harari is an extremely cynical, if not demented, being. Yet he may be spouting lies he totally believes are true. Human beings are very predictable, and can be "programmed" (hypnotized) to do many things they would normally never think of doing. Look at the performance of any modern stage hypnotist if you doubt this.
However, a being can be brought out of his (her) hypnotic daze and rendered significantly immune to it. 25% (roughly) of the population have this ability already. Stage hypnotists know to look for such people and avoid them while doing their act.
So while Harari holds the specter of total "remote" control over all of us, he's going to be lucky to ever hit that target. Tying to bypass the being by using direct brain stimulation is the current fashion, but dangerous. It can kill people (if that's not what it is intended to do). And if a being starts to realize that his is being manipulated to do things that would be against his better judgement, he can get VERY angry. This is a common reaction to the attempted manipulation of a nearby psychopath. And riots have been known to occur when an entire group of individuals feels unjustly taken advantage of.
That said, there are beings that CAN control machines. And if you create a machine (a robot) that is lifelike enough, you might find a real living being jumping into it and taking it over. This is why I see the whole subject of AI and robotics as they are currently practiced as very dangerous. Because these scientists do not know that they are ignoring the existence of spiritual (non-physical) beings in their work.
The most simple and basic answer to most of your wonderings is the fact that we are actually non-physical beings. The details can be derived from this basic fact.
Great article.
A talking toaster than can say good morning, ask you if you want your toast light, medium, or dark, and provide the toast. No one would say that toaster was conscious. Scale the code up on the toaster to millions and millions of lines of code so it becomes indistinguishable from talking to a person. It is still just a hunk of metal and wires running an algorithm. It is not conscious.
Dr Haider, did you mean Can instead of Cannot,
when you wrote "It seems obvious that we can mimic consciousness with AI, but I don’t believe consciousness itself cannot be copied into a machine."
Thanks for another piece of your wonderful writing.
And speaking of Tesla........SPACEX JUST PUNCHED A HOLE IN THE IONOSPHERE: On the evening of July 19th, SpaceX launched a Falcon 9 rocket from Vandenberg Space Force Base in California. Sky watchers from southern California to Arizona witnessed a magnificent exhaust plume. At the San Francisco Volcanic Field north of Flagstaff, photographer Jeremy Perez saw something extra.
https://spaceweather.com/
yes, thank you, my editorial skills are lacking, I'll edit that.
Your writing is terrific - editorial skills are good, but time consuming.....not as important in my opinion.
I just wanted to make sure I understood what you intended to say!
I must say doctor, that you are better versed in modern culture than I am. Though I DID see Westworld.
However, it pains me to see such well-intentioned people puzzle over a mystery that has already been solved! That is not to say that you, knowing the data I know, would likewise consider the mystery solved. But, at least you would be aware that someone had attempted it and in fact devoted over half a lifetime to it.
The "solution" starts with the discovery that each of us is an immortal spiritual being. Though this has been a religious teaching for thousands of years, it was only only in the 1950s that this became a scientific finding. The first work was done outside of academia, by a man named Hubbard. He had already been rejected by the Academy, and continues to be to this day.
But his discovery has since been validated in the Academy by researchers like Ian Stevenson, in his studies of past life recall in children. Past life recall has been validated in several different ways over the years, and this phenomenon clearly indicates that the personality (and its memories) can separate from the body, which it does at death, subsequently moving on to a new body.
The next step of research was to ask people for more past life memories. Of course this is difficult for most people, but various techniques were devised to overcome the problem. The result has been a rather large body of knowledge concerning our past history, which includes many clues as to why we are the way we are and what can be done about it.
Noah Yuval Harari is an extremely cynical, if not demented, being. Yet he may be spouting lies he totally believes are true. Human beings are very predictable, and can be "programmed" (hypnotized) to do many things they would normally never think of doing. Look at the performance of any modern stage hypnotist if you doubt this.
However, a being can be brought out of his (her) hypnotic daze and rendered significantly immune to it. 25% (roughly) of the population have this ability already. Stage hypnotists know to look for such people and avoid them while doing their act.
So while Harari holds the specter of total "remote" control over all of us, he's going to be lucky to ever hit that target. Tying to bypass the being by using direct brain stimulation is the current fashion, but dangerous. It can kill people (if that's not what it is intended to do). And if a being starts to realize that his is being manipulated to do things that would be against his better judgement, he can get VERY angry. This is a common reaction to the attempted manipulation of a nearby psychopath. And riots have been known to occur when an entire group of individuals feels unjustly taken advantage of.
That said, there are beings that CAN control machines. And if you create a machine (a robot) that is lifelike enough, you might find a real living being jumping into it and taking it over. This is why I see the whole subject of AI and robotics as they are currently practiced as very dangerous. Because these scientists do not know that they are ignoring the existence of spiritual (non-physical) beings in their work.
The most simple and basic answer to most of your wonderings is the fact that we are actually non-physical beings. The details can be derived from this basic fact.