AI may make the human species extinct, but not the way we think
AI is everywhere; it has suddenly become part of our lives in so many ways that some of them we barely understand. And all of this is evolving at high speed. AI has already shown capabilities of autonomous behaviour, sometimes making hard decisions in the interest of its own preservation.
This evolution makes some AI gurus deeply worried about the future of the human species: what if the AI takes over, regards humanity as an obstacle to its evolution, or even survival, and decides to physically exterminate us? These worries are justified, but there is another way in which humanity, with crucial AI assistance, may vanish (into irrelevance). And this will not be physical.
In order to understand this, we have to understand what defines humanity. One is wide-scope reasoning rooted in understanding. Nobody has ever been really able to express convincingly in words what understanding means. However, we all somehow know when we understand something. Another one is spirituality, in the sense of transcending the common self-centred attitude. This is deep altruism, when the self-centred mind diminishes and even vanishes completely. Although all of us have the potential for these two qualities, they are not inherent. To be manifested in a stable form, they rather need nurturing. The cultivation of the latter is supported crucially by the cultivation of the former, as shown by the Buddhist practice.
Nowadays, we celebrate with frenzy the ever-increasing small-scope reasoning AI capabilities, void of understanding, and we cannot wait to externalise our reasoning to AI. If we give it away, then it will be almost impossible to regain it. With this goes away also our spirituality. And do not expect that the “cold-blooded” AI will give us a jab of true altruism, because there is nothing more inhumane than fake altruism.
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