In Yuval Noah Harari’s book 21 Lessons for the 21st Century he explores our increasing reliance on algorithms to make decisions for us.
Artificial Intelligence is being deployed in health care and warfare ; it’s helping people make music and books ; it’s scrutinizing your resume , judging your creditworthiness , and tweaking the photos you take on your phone . In short, it’s making decisions that affect your life whether you like it or not.
The danger (according to Harari) is that if we invest too much in developing AI and too little in developing human consciousness, the very sophisticated artificial intelligence of computers might on serve to empower the stupidity of humans. He explains. . .
To avoid such such a thing, for every dollar and every minute we invest in improving AI, it would be wise to invest a dollar and a minute in advancing human consciousness.
We are creating tame humans that produce enormous amounts of data and function as very efficient chips in a huge data-processing mechanism, but these data cows hardly maximize the human potential. Indeed, we have no idea what our full human potential is, because we know so little about the human mind. And yet we don’t invest much in exploring the human mind, instead focusing on increasing the speed of our internet connections and the efficiency of our big data algorithms.
Consciousness is everything you experience. It’s a gentle, soft kiss on the lips, the sweetness of chocolate melting in your mouth, the throbbing pain of a stubbed toe, the unconditional and endearing love for your child and the deep sadness that eventually all feelings will end.
There are many scientific theories about what consciousness is or might be. Read more What is Consciousness? in Scientific American.
I remain conscious that I am the sole author of my conditions.
The circumstances, which a man encounters with suffering, are the result of his own mental inharmony. The circumstances, which a man encounters with blessedness, are the result of his own mental harmony.
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