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WEEKLY COMMENTARY

Blindly trusting AI deprives us from telling and sharing our own stories

Last week, according to newspaper reports, two sisters who were visiting an area to the west of the Island of Hawaii as tourists, unaware of both the route and the place of destination, decided to follow the instructions of the satellite navigator (GPS). And they did it so well that they ended up sinking their truck in the water.

The sisters trusted their GPS so much that they strictly complied with the instructions, even driving at high speed down a boat ramp to the sea, surprised (they later said) by the number of boats on that ramp and by the signs and gestures that people made to them.

Worse still, the sisters said they did not understand why their vehicle had suddenly filled with water, to the extent that although other tourists came forward to help them get out of the car, the sisters initially refused to do so. Only later, when the situation became almost untenable, did they abandon the vehicle just a few minutes before the van sank.

In interviews with the local media, the sisters' explanation was simple: they wanted to go to the other side of the harbor and the GPS told them that this was the shortest way. Therefore, they blindly obeyed what the GPS said. And that is, dear readers, our problem: blind obedience to technology.

The case of these two sisters is far from unique. For example, a few years ago dozens of motorists were stranded for long hours on muddy rural roads when the GPS told them they could get to Denver International Airport faster that way. Clearly, that was not the case. There are dozens of similar cases.

But that blind faith in GPS, so blind that it obscures common sense and prevents it from processing both warning signs and true danger, is no longer limited to GPS. Now, for example, ChatGPT is uncritically trusted. And before you think I'm exaggerating, consider what historian and philosopher Yuval Noah Harari recently wrote on YNet News.

We already know that GPS and social networks dominate our mind and our emotions, to the point that we stop thinking. To that unavoidable reality, Harari adds another (perhaps) unavoidable reality: that ChatGPT and its friends, relatives, and descendants manipulate human language in such a way as to create stories so compelling that we will accept them without thinking.

In other words, while in the past the poets of Greece wrote their myths and the prophets of Israel their scriptures, now ChatGPT will write (an AI, not us) the new myths and scriptures that we humans will use to guide every aspect of our life: relationships, art, music, laws, religions, politics, ideas, and cultures.

As Harari rightly says,  AI is an ET that now inhabits the earth. And there are two options: either we regulate the AI or artificial intelligence will regulate us. And what if the AI regulates us by making us believe that we are regulating it? Plato’s cave and Buddha’s Maya seem painfully real.  

 

The galaxies form an immense cosmic river, to the delight of Heraclitus

A recent announcement (April 24, 2023) by NASA indicates that the James Webb Space Telescope revealed that galaxies form an immense river of cosmic proportions, a finding that would have delighted the Greek philosopher Heraclitus, who 2,500 years ago expressed a similar concept.

More precisely, as explained by Benedetta Vulcani, from the National Institute of Astrophysics in Italy, the new images from the space telescope allow " distant galaxies like small drops of water in different rivers", adding that "eventually (those drops) will all become part of one big, mighty river”.

To claim that a Greek thinker who lived two and a half millennia ago in some way anticipated a 21st century scientific discovery seems, without a doubt, an unreasonable claim. But is not.

It should be remembered that a century ago Werner Heisenberg, a German theoretical physicist and one of the main pioneers of the theory of quantum mechanics, emphasized in one of his books that " modern physics is extremely near to the doctrine of Heraclitus."

In fact, Heisenberg said, “If we replace ‘fire’ by the word ‘energy’ we can almost repeat his statements word for word from our modern point of view.”

For this reason, respectfully expanding the thought of the renowned German physicist, we can say that, in some way, Heraclitus anticipated those "galactic rivers" when he spoke of reality itself as a constantly flowing and changing river ("You cannot step into the same river twice.") and the interconnection between all the elements of reality (logos).

The new discoveries reveal that galactic rivers represent "the greatest concentration of mass in the known universe" and that this mass "distorts the very fabric of spacetime." In other words, the galactic rivers are constantly flowing (Heraclitus' panta rei) and, therefore, the same river cannot be studied twice, because it has already changed.

How important is it to us what Heraclitus said 2,500 years ago? From a certain perspective, in this time of deep superficiality guided by ephemeral "influencers", none.

But from another point of view, the fact that someone, using only his mind, has anticipated modern discoveries indicates that we, if we think, could do the same. But we don't.

Heraclitus is one of those thinkers whom we have not yet been able to overcome, not because he has to be overcome, but because we continue to think as he thought, but only up to a certain point, because if we really thought as he thought, then today we would be anticipating discoveries that will only be achieved around the year 4500 (although knowledge no longer grows sequentially, but exponentially.)

But Heraclitus paid a high price for the audacity of his thought: it was not understood and, worse still, it was misunderstood for millennia. For this reason, his wisdom, although frequently repeated, went unnoticed and was "recovered" as such only in our time.

I wonder who (if they exist) the greats of our age are. those who will be celebrated and remembered for their wisdom 2,500 years from now.

 

 

Disconnection from the other leads to the dangerous path of aggressive irrationality

In recent days, there have been events in different cities in the United States that exemplify the disconnection between human beings (we no longer see the other as “another one like myself”) and, therefore, highlight the dangers of falling into irrational aggressiveness, that is, seeing another human being only as a threat to be eliminated.

Obviously, there are wars, conflicts, and massacres in (unfortunately) many other places in the world, but we chose the examples we will now share because in all cases the victims neither did anything wrong nor threatened the homeowners who, without saying a word and with no warning, shot the victims.

In one case, a 20-year-old girl was killed in a remote area in rural New York when the vehicle she was traveling in used a driveway to turn back onto the correct path. The 65-year-old property owner said he "didn't like" anyone using his driveway and, therefore, decided to kill the young woman.

In another case, a 6-year-old girl went to get her basketball in front yard of her neighbor's house when a 24-year-old young man living at that house, upon seeing the girl and the girl's father, went out to the street and shot them, causing serious injuries to the father and minor injuries to the girl.

And finally, in Missouri, a young musician went to pick up his siblings and unknowingly rang the doorbell at the wrong house. (His siblings were at a similar address a block away.) The 84-year-old owner shot the young musician from inside the house though a closed door, wounding the young man twice.

In all these cases, an alarming pattern of behavior is clearly seen: “the other” is considered a threat just for being in o near “my territory”, which I must defend with violence even if “the other” only made an innocent mistake (turn on the wrong street, ring the bell at the wrong house) or was just playing (running after a ball.)

This disconnection with the other is as old as Western civilization itself, as evidenced by the complaints the philosopher Heraclitus shared 2,500 years ago. In fact, it could be said that our civilization (which is most certainly about to collapse) is based precisely on an isolating individualism that in our time has been transformed into intolerant narcissism.

When talking about this connection on a social, spiritual, and even universal (nature) level, Heraclitus used the word "logos", which, among many other meanings, means both "logic" and “reason”. In that context, for Heraclitus, the disconnection from the other and, consequently, from nature and from ourselves, was something both illogical and irrational.

The few fragments and anecdotes that remain from Heraclitus make it clear that he understood the social consequences of disconnecting from the other, including, for example, electing incompetent and corrupt leaders, something that it did happen at election time in his hometown of Ephesus. 

Two and a half millennia later, nothing has changed, or perhaps we should admit that now we are much worse off.

Careful! What we think of as “junk” may be something of real value

For many decades modern researchers have wondered how the cement used by the Romans two millennia ago could last longer than the cement of our time, since Roman cement contains a not insignificant amount of rubbish. Answer: that "garbage", far from being it, was the key ingredient to give cement durability.

That well-known story came back to mind when I read a recent article (April 12, 2023) on BBC Future stating that over the last 20 years more than $3.7 billion was invested in determining how 98% of the 3 billion “letters” in human genes were just “junk” (scientists used that word, not me.)

In other words, we could keep only 2% of our DNA because that is where the “instruction manual” of our genes is kept, and get rid of the rest, considered as “material without meaning or purpose”. But that was before. According to new discoveries, what was thought to be 98% of "junk" in our DNA is now thought of now as "the place of processing and response to external information."

The article explains that the repeated sequences within our DNA, known as transposons, were initially ignored in genetic studies, until it was determined that they are "elements so extremely ancient" that they could be considered among "the earliest forms of life."

In short, without those elements previously considered "garbage" or “junk”, not only we humans would not be alive, but possibly there would be no life at all. That “junk” was something (is something) of the highest value.

As this column is not a genetics lesson, interested people can look up the full story on BBC Future. But the lesson for practical life is clear: simply because we do not understand something, or because that "something" does not fulfill a function that we can detect, that does not mean that "something" is garbage.

Even more, it is very possible that this "garbage" is precisely the central element, the cornerstone, the key to understanding what is being studied, or what is being lived.

Just as scientists claimed that Roman-made cement was full of junk, only to find out later that it wasn't junk at all, and just as scientists said 98% of our DNA was junk, when it wasn't, either, the In the same way, in our daily life we quickly classify as “junk” everything that we do not understand or appreciate.

One could argue that "junk" is a relative term. It is said that what is trash to one person is treasure to another. And it's true. But what we are suggesting is that sometimes, perhaps almost always, we are quick to dismiss something, say an idea or a suggestion, simply because we don't understand it.

Instead of being honest and saying, "This is something I don't understand at this point in my life," we say, "This is complete rubbish." But, contrary to what scientists who continue to investigate and change their minds do, we seldom go through discarded “junk” in case we misjudged its value. 

 

Careful! What we think of as “junk” may be something of real value

For many decades modern researchers have wondered how the cement used by the Romans two millennia ago could last longer than the cement of our time, since Roman cement contains a not insignificant amount of rubbish. Answer: that "garbage", far from being it, was the key ingredient to give cement durability.

That well-known story came back to mind when I read a recent article (April 12, 2023) on BBC Future stating that over the last 20 years more than $3.7 billion was invested in determining how 98% of the 3 billion “letters” in human genes were just “junk” (scientists used that word, not me.)

In other words, we could keep only 2% of our DNA because that is where the “instruction manual” of our genes is kept, and get rid of the rest, considered as “material without meaning or purpose”. But that was before. According to new discoveries, what was thought to be 98% of "junk" in our DNA is now thought of now as "the place of processing and response to external information."

The article explains that the repeated sequences within our DNA, known as transposons, were initially ignored in genetic studies, until it was determined that they are "elements so extremely ancient" that they could be considered among "the earliest forms of life."

In short, without those elements previously considered "garbage" or “junk”, not only we humans would not be alive, but possibly there would be no life at all. That “junk” was something (is something) of the highest value.

As this column is not a genetics lesson, interested people can look up the full story on BBC Future. But the lesson for practical life is clear: simply because we do not understand something, or because that "something" does not fulfill a function that we can detect, that does not mean that "something" is garbage.

Even more, it is very possible that this "garbage" is precisely the central element, the cornerstone, the key to understanding what is being studied, or what is being lived.

Just as scientists claimed that Roman-made cement was full of junk, only to find out later that it wasn't junk at all, and just as scientists said 98% of our DNA was junk, when it wasn't, either, the In the same way, in our daily life we quickly classify as “junk” everything that we do not understand or appreciate.

One could argue that "junk" is a relative term. It is said that what is trash to one person is treasure to another. And it's true. But what we are suggesting is that sometimes, perhaps almost always, we are quick to dismiss something, say an idea or a suggestion, simply because we don't understand it.

Instead of being honest and saying, "This is something I don't understand at this point in my life," we say, "This is complete rubbish." But, contrary to what scientists who continue to investigate and change their minds do, we seldom go through discarded “junk” in case we misjudged its value. 

Nothing works when the lie enjoys greater credibility than the truth

I recently needed some rather urgent electrical repairs at my home. The electrician I hired told me that he was half an hour late because I was at the wrong address. In fact, he suggested that I should check the title of my property because, he said, surely that important document was wrong.

I explained to this man that he had gone to the wrong address and that, after living in my house for decades, I had no doubts about the validity of the title to my property. The man did not believe me and decided to leave. (The next day another electrician came. He was on time, and, in a few minutes, he fixed the issue.)

For the first electrician it was easier to assume that I, the owner of the house, was wrong about the address of my own house than that he, who has never before been in the house, was wrong. This is a clear example of how a lie, a falsehood, and misinformation are so entrenched in our lives that they all enjoy greater credibility and acceptance than the truth (regardless of how we want to define it).

In my case, the "misunderstanding" was irrelevant. It was just a bad moment due to the electrician's stubbornness to admit his mistake. But in other cases, accepting lies and deceit, and refusing to abandon them despite evidence to the contrary, creates very unpleasant and even deadly situations.

For example, earlier this month there were three incidents in the same week where the lie prevailed over the truth for a long time before being exposed.
In the first case, FBI agents arrived at a Boston hotel, entered a room, arrested a man, and interrogated him for two and a half hours before discovering that they had gone to the wrong room and hotel. Obviously, the agents ignored the explanations that the man gave them saying he was innocent.

In the second case, Harvard University police arrived at the residence of four African American students at 4 am after receiving a call that those students were armed and that they were threatening other residents in the same building.

The call was false (a hoax), but again, the police believed the false call more than the truth. The students were arrested and interrogated for hours before being released. The students were reportedly left 'traumatized and horrified', with no explanations or apology from the police.

And in the third case, in Farmington, New Mexico, police, responding to a domestic violence call, forced their way into a home (around midnight) and killed a man, only to discover later that they had entered the wrong house. The real criminal, it was found out later, was in the house next door and managed to escape.

When we believe so sure of ourselves that we don't question our actions or our thoughts, when we don't listen to the other, when our thoughts are the only one we accept as valid, then nothing has any value.

 

 

What will be the last truly human element to disappear?

I can't find any other way to start this column than by sharing a question that is being heard more and more frequently, but to which little attention is paid and which, in my opinion, continues to be ignored by most people: which truly human element will be the last one to disappear? And what is that element?

There is little doubt that in the next few decades (and probably even in the next few years) humanity as we know it will disappear, either because there will be no more humans, or because humans will come under the control of superhuman intelligences, or some partial combination of those. and other scenarios.

And this is neither science fiction nor an unfounded concern.

In her recent book The Battle for Your Brain, Dr. Nita Farahany states that advances in neuroscience and neurotechnology, while potentially of great benefit in curing or remedying brain diseases, are likely to become a threat to privacy of our thoughts.

In fact, according to Farahany, we are on the threshold of the disappearance of cognitive freedom, since in a short time all our thoughts will be "universally controlled" by new technologies, so that in a matter of years everything we think will be known by artificial intelligence and, therefore, we will no longer have self-determination.

And this is not a science fiction book, but a warning issued by the highest global authority on ethical and legal issues of emerging technologies. (Farahany is a professor at the Duke University School of Law.)

At the same time, a report published last February by the Pew Research Center indicates that there is "general agreement" among a large group of experts consulted by that organization about the fact that by 2035 humans will have lost our ability to make decisions on their own. our account, that is, our personal autonomy will have disappeared.

That same year, experts said, artificial intelligence will reach such a level that it will make its own decisions without intervention and with little chance that humans can participate in those decisions.

In other words, within a decade humans will neither be in control of our lives, nor will we be able to control the technology that we are now creating. Or, to put it technically, the technology "will have become opaque even to its creators."

While all this is brewing, there is a possibility, according to Ray Kurzweil, that in 2030 two incredible events will coincide (and not coincidentally): the technological singularity (artificial intelligence greatly surpassing human intelligence) and human immortality (achieved thanks to technological advances). (Kurzweil, 75, is a American computer scientist, author, inventor, and futurist.)

So, what options do we humans have to continue being human? What exists within us that makes us truly human and that nothing and no one can take it from us? Which element manifest to the fullest what it truly mean to be a human being?

Paradoxically, technology cannot answer those questions, but it can prevent us from thinking about them.

 

How much confusion can we accept before seeking clarity?

Although all the evidence indicates that the future is no longer a continuity of the past and that we are not prepared for this new future, even so, there is an insistence on returning to a "normality" that was never normal because, if it had been, it would have allowed us to build a future, instead of languishing and dying amid the whims of a few.

We live, without a doubt, in that time of which Lao Tzu warned us millennia ago, the time in which the wicked destroy the world to satisfy their desire to reign, even if it means reigning over the ashes.

But how did we get to this moment? How is it possible that the unproductive people of society (manipulators and accumulators who sell themselves to the highest bidder, as Erich Fromm said) are the most recognized and best rewarded in society?

How is it possible that we confuse reality with fantasy, opinion with truth, perception with reality, the map with the territory, the part with the whole, the tree with the forest, the superfluous with the necessary, believing with thinking, and knowledge with wisdom?

A recent article by the Spanish philosopher Carlos Javier González Serrano offers a clue: we lack our own criteria. Or, in other words, we don't think for ourselves.

For example (my example, not González Serrano's), just two hours after the recent Oscars ceremony ended, stores ran out of dresses and hats that were very similar to those worn by the most famous actresses during that event.

The question then arises: Why do we no longer think for ourselves or have our own criteria? Because, as González Serrano rightly says, hyperstimulation, that is, the "noise" that constantly surrounds us, prevents us from developing the autonomy, independence, and judgment proper of a mature person.

I remember reading a report a few years ago about how the loud noise generated by large machines in remote places (mines, oil wells) affects the health of birds, because it prevents them from detecting the presence of predators and, therefore, the birds don't even leave. to look for food nor can they take care of their young.

Another “noise”, that of social networks, has a similar effect on us. González Serrano explains that the “noise” of a conflictive attitude, aggression towards others, divisive politics, and the excessive use of technology “has us cornered” and prevents us from “having intellectual arguments”.

In short, yes to memes, no to thinking.

Another Spanish philosopher, Daniel Innerarity, in a recent article, describes our time as the age of "harmful ignorance", that is, we have elevated the ignorant to high political positions from where they cause incredible damage for not seeking proper advice. There are plenty of examples of that kind of “superficiality”, “naivete” and “gullity” among people in government. 

As a result, knowledge is no longer appreciated, says Innerarity. That’s something so old that the prophet Isaiah already complained 2800 years ago about those who intentionally call good evil and light darkness.

 

At what point does technology become magic? When we become irrational

Although only a few decades have really passed, I remember those now prehistoric and obsolete times when I first saw a color television, used a photocopier, enjoyed a hologram, and held a cell phone in my hand (which was the size and the weight of a brick).

But none of those advances, which at the time seemed wonderful and insurmountable to me, can be compared with current technology that, due to its achievements (read: artificial intelligence) is getting dangerously close to magic.

Arthur C. Clarke had already warned that any sufficiently advanced technology would be indistinguishable from magic. In other words, at some point in technological progress, technology begins to be perceived as a mystical and supernatural force that generates inexplicable phenomena.

Or, to put it another way, technological advances blur the lines between advanced technology and magic, causing those usually neatly separated concepts to intersect in such a way as to become nearly indistinguishable.

Consider, for example, the possibility of an imminent artificial intelligence superior to human intelligence. Or the ability to edit (manipulate) our DNA. Or the fact that, due to technology, humanity is evolving into four different species of human beings, including synthetic humans and digital humans.

At some point, machines (for example, airplanes) achieved what was previously considered impossible. The same is now happening with artificial intelligence and quantum computers. And, in many cases, that fact of achieving the impossible generates exactly the same "mystical effect" that previously generated spells, incantations or potions.

In this context, we must not forget that some of the early modern inventions, such as telephones and the photographic camera, were initially created to communicate with the other world and to document it visually, respectively.

Be that as it may, the arrival of virtual reality (increasingly real than reality itself) takes the intersection of technology and magic to a new level, because now we can interact with a "parallel world", which does not exist in the physical realm. , but that is not why it is less real. Within that "magical world" we can be what we want and be where we want.

There is no doubt, then, that although technology and magic are still separate concepts at this time, their growing interconnectedness makes it increasingly difficult to separate one from the other. Is ChatGPT a new oracle for our time? Will we have a magic wand that cures everything?

But where does this “magical thought” come from? As the Argentine historian Ariel Petruccelli explained in a recent essay, we are in an irrational age and that is dangerous:

"In our scientific-technical world, magical thinking is a guarantee of subordination to those who dominate science and technology, thus creating a high risk of disaster if those who control the techno-scientific complex allow themselves to be won over by magical or irrational beliefs," says Petruccelli, citing the example of well-known tyrannies and devastating wars in the first half of the last century.

Godlike technology, “magical” beliefs, irrational thinking. What is happening to us?

 

We no longer know or cannot distinguish the true from the false

I remember reading some time ago the story about Dolly Parton entering one day a Dolly Parton look-alike contest. She lost. In fact, they told her that she didn't imitate Dolly Parton well enough and gave the award to a man dressed like her. That story illustrates a key element of our times: we prefer imitation to the original.

This topic is obviously not new. It could be said that it is as old as our civilization and as humanity itself. Human beings, it seems, have always had the desire to separate reality from illusion, the real from the imaginary, knowledge from opinion, and the actual from the fictional. But rarely have we been successful.

Repeating and paraphrasing an ancient teaching that already appears in the Talmud, the French novelist Annais Nin expressed the last century that "We do not see things as they are, but as we are." Or, if you prefer, as Ramón de Campoamor said, “Everything depends on the color of the glass you are looking through”.

It could be said, following Campoamor, that this disappearance of the line between reality and illusion is only possible "in this treacherous world", that is, in a world in which "nothing is true or false", thus anticipating in the 19th century the post-truth era of the 21st century.

In this context, one cannot fail to mention the tango Cambalache (Secondhand Store), written by Enrique Santos Discépolo in 1934, where he correctly affirms that we live in the era when "Everything is the same, nothing is better / The same an ignoramus as a great teacher."

In other words, we live in a time when it is not the case that the truth has disappeared, but that the truth (and, therefore, the lie, because they go together) has become irrelevant.

So, not only do we see things as we are, we not only accept that nothing is true or false, and we not only believe that everything is the same and nothing is better, but we are not interested in how things truly are. We have become arrogantly ignorant, that is, we know we are ignorant, but we don't care. In fact, we believe we have the right to be.

In this situation, the appearance, the shadow, the illusion, presented uninterruptedly before our eyes on any screen to which we have access and repeated ad nauseam in each post and message on social networks, becomes our reality, because, as Carl said Jung, reality is that from which we cannot be separated.

Even more, Jung maintained that we cannot heal what we cannot separate from, thus inviting us to distance ourselves from what happens to us and our response, reviving a teaching already taught by the Stoics: our “humanity” resides between our reactions and our responses.

Two millennia ago, some rabbis claimed that the only difference between heaven and hell is our own attitude. Perhaps, then, our mind and heart have become so ossified that that is why we live in hell.

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