Changing metaphors follow along with technology and our attempts at understanding the meaning of being human. Farming offered the maxim of planting seeds and tending with care for the future harvest. We aligned with natural processes. Then comes the steam engine and we were “full speed ahead” or if things weren’t going well, we’d “blow off some steam.”
Later, natural systems of human beings focused on a common vision were conceptualized as cogs within a much bigger and more powerful machine, churning out whatever the mission may be. Determined, measured, well-oiled, and each part replaceable.
Further, the computer age has stuck in our metaphors and doesn’t seem to be going anywhere soon. We talk about temperament as “wiring,” the “hardware” and “software” of our nervous systems, and “deleting” deleterious self-talk. Input garbage, output garbage. “Unplug!”
Lurking ahead is the “singularity,” a point in time when artificial intelligence becomes “smarter” than humans. Some futurists mark their calendars for 2045. God willing, I’d be in my second millennium and hope to be a bit smarter by then.
Other than robotics or technology helping with the quality of life, I wonder about anything artificial having intelligence. I guess it’s how you define it. Sure, a program can beat me at chess, but can it get up and walk away from nonsense? Or stop at the store on the way home to pick up a rose for the love of your life?
Quality is a continuum and part of being human. We come into this world fallible and on a continuous quest to develop character based on an innate ideal… We possess a compass deep within us and it whispers in our ears. Good and bad, light and dark, up and down are not just labels but the dual aspect of mind that we are born with. Hence, we make mistakes, come up short, and miss the mark. And sometimes we have perfect moments, awe-inspiring experiences that flow naturally and fill us to the core.
If I’m around when the “singularity” arrives, I still wouldn’t want an artificial Hazel or Lurch (hint: 60’s trivia) to care for my great-grandchildren. What seems missing in the artificial missive is what little ones, even before their first words, can sense intuitively in every cell of their being. Genuine love and resonance with another. You see me. You get me. I breathe you in my soul.
For they (and we) were born of this.
I can’t help but think that the journey to the “singularity” is based on something more than being smarter than humans. Perhaps it’s the artificial perfection, the lack of fallibility, the end of broken hearts, the silencing of longing, and an algorithm for every piece of chaos that makes natural life worth standing up for even when you’ve fallen flat and hard. For in this suffering, we grow and become more.
Nothing artificial about that.
Credit:
Photo by Possessed Photography on Unsplash (robot)
Photo by Ameen Fahmy on Unsplash (rose)
