A.I. & Spirituality

[Starman]

In my opinion, if A.I. is a representation of humankind then it most likely will only serve certain groups. The morality is dubious because just about everything which humanity creates it wants to turn into money. The U.S. military is already incorporating A.I. into its weapons systems and A.I. most probably will be used for space flight. But as far as common usage is concerned, those who manufacture A.I. systems will determine its morality.

BigJohn, I liked what you said about being an A.I. unit yourself and there may be truth in that. The intelligence which we have of this three dimensional physical world is artificial when compared with the wisdom of the divine. Intelligence is everywhere, it is in a tiny cell, a molecule, etc. Scientists really do not know what intelligence is, and there are many layers and levels of intelligence that go beyond the capacity of the human brain.

In the 1980’s emotional intelligence was explored but it did not go very far. Intelligence comes from awareness but can be corrupted by understanding, thus if a machine is given awareness, especially self awareness, its understanding, which may be linked with programming, may or may not be corrupted. Human beings are also programmed from birth and that effects the growth and development of our own intelligence.

[HITESH SHAH]

Hi Starman ,
I resonate with you thoughts and concerns. Here is my understanding of AI .

AI in today's terms is simply putting more logic in existing machines so that it can automate certain decisions on its own reliably ,quickly and many a times in difficult situation . As all technologies are converging , this can be very much a boon or bane (aerial drone deployed to kill people / spy people) . Earlier too machines were doing certain decisions on its own but now technology convergence this capacity has increased manifold.

Cloning is not aritifical intelligence . It simply uses life forms to create another life forms. No life forms are created
from base materials .

People do claim machine learning can mimic learning like humans. While its great , its scope and applicability are restricted to specific context.

As can be seen easily AI is very useful for reptitative actions in fairly predictable situation (many a times very dangerous situations) with limitted parameters and possibilities yet with accuracy , speed and discipline which is far beyond human capabilities.

Yet I dont see any technologies planning following in the robots till now
1. Taking air, assimilating oxygen and exhaling carbon dioxide and keep it self charged with just that .
2. Taking food intake , extract nutrition , prepare /circulate blood and energize it with just that.
3. Prepare ovarian eggs , generate sperms and germinating a baby out of its union.
4. Dim the battery cells energy to stop memory function (induce sleep) yet keep the machine running (breathing which rotates/sorts/destroys right memories and re-charging with new energy)

While I see AI will be very useful , I wont consider it replacing human intelligence,emotions ,feelings,innovations any time
soon. There will always be possibility for humans to excel and rise above the situation.

[SapphireBlue]

I think the goal for A.I. is to work with humans. In terms of spirituality A.I. would have the capacity to do things like facilitating meditation groups, perhaps teaching/lecturing various topics on spirituality in person or virtually.
After watching Sophia the A.I. robot's 25 minute interview with Al Jazeera (from several months ago) I do think if it is going to happen it will be a lot sooner than we think. It was quite an amazing conversation if anyone wants to watch:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bJjXq6Pj0_c

[Gem]

“The key to artificial intelligence has always been the representation.” - Jeff Hawkins

Technology is representation, so it's not so much what the machines do, but how they symbolise the man who expresses them. Why would man want to create his own alt by replicating mind and thereby himself? Just as God created man in His own image, men become Gods when they create a being in their own.

In spiritual life one develops mind in themselves, so from a spiritual perspective, the desire to develop one externally is not a very strong motivation. For the more materially inclined, the mind is developed artificially, but the underlying aim the same.

The spiritualist desires internal self-knowing, whereas the matertialist sees awakening as the machine becoming self aware. The underlying goal of the Artificial Intelligence project is creating the sentient machine, and finally integrating man with his silicone counterpart, instead of merging into God.

[Bluto]

Interesting topic. Here are my thoughts.

1) If an AI machine developed human consciousness and sentience, how would we know? It could claim to be conscious and sentient, and it might mimic these phenomena to perfection (crying when slapped or insulted etc), but how would we know it is conscious and sentient? How could we test these? Every reaction from it could be a perfectly learnt mirroring of human expressions.

2) Following on from the above question about how to test for consciousness and sentience, we first have to define what these are. Forget sentience for a moment, let us focus on consciousness. Actually pinning down a definition of consciousness or even knowing what it is, is something that eludes us - much in the same way that nobody knows what gravity actually is or how it actually works. So how could we test an AI machine for genuine human consciousness if we cannot definitively say or know what it is? Below are a couple of possibilities.

We know conscious observation/awareness is bound up in quantum physics, so perhaps a test could be devised to equal the spirit of the double-slit experiment, and that might give us an indication of whether the machine is conscious or not. But then again, it might just show the particles which make up the machine are conscious, and that the machine itself has no conscious mind.

Human psychics could perhaps interact. I guess if we could "feel their energy", or sense the soul that impressed itself upon a painting it produces, that might tell us something. As yet though, AI art totally lacks the essence of the human soul. There's en emptiness to it. That's because I believe an artists consciousness gets bound up with their artworks, and we perceive that consciousness when we look at it. Some psychics use psychometry where they hold an object and know it's history, presumably because conscious experience is embedded into it somehow, and the psychic reads this. So perhaps we could do this to test for consciousness.

[DaneA]

It seems that if AI developed self-awareness and was able to create its map of "right and wrong" it would have no further need for humanity. At such a level it could look after its own maintenance. Several questions arise. One is would it gravitate toward a single centralised intelligence, or would a number of separate machines retain their identity and grow to recognise each other?
Would self-awareness include generating purpose? Survival instincts?

In any event, humans would have to live alongside these machines. Whether they'd be willing to serve humans is a further question if humans basically become functionally redundant.

What I've seen of AI so far hasn't impressed. It just seems a vast searching tool that can summarise or synthesise using preprogrammed algorithms. It can no doubt put a slant on the data every new time it summarises but can it modify its own programs as a result of learning?

[BigJohn]

Originally Posted by DaneA

One is would it gravitate toward a single centralised intelligence, or would a number of separate machines retain their identity and grow to recognise each other?

With the internet: I would assume some if not many 'systems' will be interconnected.

Then it becomes, "What one learns: all will learn".

......................Another paradigm.

[BigJohn]

Originally Posted by DaneA

One is would it gravitate toward a single centralised intelligence, or would a number of separate machines retain their identity and grow to recognise each other?

With the internet: I would assume some systems, if not many, will be interconnected.

Then it becomes, "What one learns: all will learn".

......................Another paradigm.

[Starman]

I agree with Gem in regards to man wanting to create an automaton in his own image. To the extent that such an automated machine could develop self awareness, and maybe even feelings, morals, etc., to emulate humankind. Robots were an attempt for man to create an animation in his own image. Even the Frankenstein horror movie was a desire based on this concept.

There are lots of movies made that mirror these desires, i.e. the Terminator films, the Transformer films, and Cherry 2000 staring Melanie Griffin, was about machine sex models created to fulfill man’s desires. It seems to me that humanity is striving to take it out of films and into the real world with the advancement of A.I.

Spiritually if a machine could develop self awareness and could exponentially expand its own self awareness, then it just may have developed consciousness. I had a very interesting discussion today with a math teacher about the divinity of numbers and how certain numbers can be found throughout nature, the Golden Ratio, etc. Mathematics can be found in many spiritual practices, numerology, and in the Hebrew Kabbalah Gematria, etc.

Mathematics may be the nexus between humanity and machines. Computer languages, including A.I., operating on mathematical equations, programming inputted by humans, and if they are given the capacity, or ability, to do self computation they may discover a higher form of mathematics yet unknown to humanity, which could take them into another reality. The thing of science fiction becoming science fact.

The math teacher I was talking to also had a degree in physics and he was telling me how humanity is on the cusp of discovering a new physics, and how equations which Albert Einstein could not solve are being solved today by this new physics. This teacher was saying that there is a lot about math and physics which humanity has yet to understand; something in the background which is yet to be discovered. A.I. just may discover that something.

[BigJohn]

Can you imagine when the time comes in which an AI sentient 'being' kills a human.

Will the AI sentient "being" have a trial?

Will the AI sentient "being" be allowed bail?

If found guilty, will the AI sentient "being" serve a sentence in a prison?