Friday, August 11, 2023

THE TRAIL OF AI

 I often get the best insights when I’m watering the garden, and then forget them when I get near the computer. I’ll try to dredge up a few: Today I saw what an amazing education humanity is being given. Of course, ignorance, fear, and whatever self-protection we are conditioned to react with comes out first. People are very polarized about the cures for their fears, and there are plenty of theories to choose from. There is a lot of creative thinking going into some of these theories about what is wrong and how it should be dealt with. My experience is that, if we knew what was needed, we wouldn’t be creating theories (no offense to creative thinking). Creative thinking is very important but usually comes from an amalgamation of ideas developed to defend against the spell induced by the problem we are trying to solve. As Einstein said: “No problem can be solved within the system in which it was created.” He must have said this many times, because it is quoted in a number of word combinations, but that is the gist of it. We are being pushed to knock our calculating abilities up a notch, but also our undeveloped emotional reactions.  I’m increasingly shown by life, that humanity’s big brain, is operating without backup from the heart, which has an important intelligence of its own, and I’m not talking about maudlin sentimentality, which is the result of an undeveloped alienated heart.  

Actually, all of the chakra points control an aspect of intelligence, the heart happens to be at the center, like the Sun is the center of our planetary system. I believe we are undergoing the need to develop an inclusive and balanced inner planetary system. Each chakra must hold its proper place, or compensatory reactions occur. Our hearts which are at the center, are vulnerable, undervalued, reacting to fear and misinformation, and don’t have a voice, just as small pre-verbal children can’t articulate their reality. In the immature stage of our development as heart aware humans, most of us are children. Our culture reflects this by keeping us focused away from the heart and other underdeveloped areas of perception.

One of my neighbors has several large dogs enclosed in a small area surrounded by a fence. They bark for attention, they bark out of boredom, and they bark at every bit of outside noise that offers an excuse to react with their marvelous canine ears and nose. When their pent-up energy flows over the top, they attack each other. Their people love them, feed them well, settle disputes and now and then talk to them, but no one takes them out to run.  One day last week, one got loose, stormed over to my house, knocked over and broke the water dispenser I put out for the cats, and chased the cats, who were fortunate enough to have speed and good claws that took them over the fence. I can’t help but see an analogy with what happens to humans whose passions and potential are fenced in. These owners may interfere to break up dog fights, but they don’t give them the chance to develop and live as their ancestors prepared them to live. They would be at peace only if they devolved. I believe we humans are undergoing a similar threat to our acquired abilities. Our bodies and lesser minds are being overfed, but our heart, high intelligence and amazing bodies are in a technological enclosure.  Artificial Intelligence (AI) is a shrinking kennel. But it’s a product of a soulless, heartless concept of humanity. I am always amazed when highly intelligent scientists refer to the human body and human intelligence as a biological machine, when actually the biological entity invented the machine. To become more artificially intelligent is to become less not more. However, the egos of those who are launching it are both proud and scared. I think they are sensing the looming cliff this path is headed for.

I regard my own life as a work in progress and a chance to learn how to be a sentient being in a world that is lacking in heart, gut, and solar plexus intelligence and their basic life qualities.  We need to develop a sound sense connection to these before we can be trusted with the higher vibrational chakras above the heart. Scientific Materialism went after true gold instead of a dangerous and demeaning false spirituality but then threw out the gold with the dross. Perhaps we have been here before. Is that what the legends about the fall of Atlantis tell us. I hope that we can make it through this narrowing passage to a higher, more fear-free way of responding.

 I remember a dream I had many years ago when I was faced with a threat to some of my core beliefs. Although I don’t remember why, I was walking a tight rope over what I thought was a deep chasm, but it was too dark to know for sure. I wasn’t very good at tight rope walking and was terrified. I made it halfway across but then lost my balance. I was sure I was going to die but landed three feet down.  I had a slightly skinned knee but was shocked to find that all of my intensity and fear were pointless.

We are made to fight for our life, and fight for the lives of those we love, and the principles we believe from the heart will support those lives, but in the end, there is no end.  In the Hindu tradition we are nearing the center of the last round of a great cosmic cycle, the Kali Yuga. https://youtu.be/6JHFad4I7f0 In this tradition positive/negative are the generators of creation and the evil that surges in the Kali Yuga is preparation for the next cycle of creation built on the purification spawned by exposing the deception and falseness of evil. Through this battle the cosmos evolves.

2 comments:

  1. Thank you Marti for this relevant eye opener. Yes, we all feel caged when engaged with tech., Iiving in crowded cities....and feel freedom in nature.
    Also true about AI shrinking....I always relate this to depression, which so many of our youth are experiencing.
    The series 'under the dome', shows us the frustration of living in a caged society.
    Lots of love and hugs.

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  2. Thank you. I think we're all having the dream of the “caged dog.” We not only empathize, but we're “empathic”. At the same time, we're just as blind as the dogs' owners. I have a neighbor who tells me to “stop feeding those damn squirrels” (including birds and raccoons) because they get into her garden. What's wrong with this scenario?? For myself, wildlife is my refuge and my family, my companions – and --she could do several things to protect her garden. But her “perfect” world would be a "dead" silent yard with a “perfect” garden. And, like the dog owners, she thinks of herself as "tuned" with nature. This scenario is a metaphor. People “love” wildlife but poison squirrels and call them “tree rats.” The same with raccoons and some native birds. If it weren't s so dire, tragic, and hypocritical, it would be amusing.
    I'm sure Einstein was saying that solving a problem within the system that created it – is "not" creativity. By definition, creativity means “bringing something into being.” Which means to always be coloring outside lines, busting out of the known into the unknown. So “creative thinking” never comes prepackaged in an “amalgam of ideas.” It's always a step ahead of ideas, shaking loose of ideas, and defending nothing. We get bogged down in semantics. I think of it as a “death” in the same manner as a saint/guru saying “I am your death.” That's why we consign it (creativity) to only one (safe) place – the arts – where we can muse about it and nothing more.
    Marti, you're so right about AI. It's a “shrinking kennel.” Even its inventors are backing down – temporarily at least. Bezos and others are saying, “My God, what are we doing?!” They "tug" at themselves - two sides - conscience and ambition. Like the addict who knows he's an addict.

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