Sunday, 23 September 2018

Humans and Partners.,


Humans and Partners.

 

When I was a child, on a farm by Armageddon in Israel, we had a horse and a mule to provide farm horsepower and transportation. The horse was a tall white female named Cloud, and the mule was dark, stubborn and had big ears. The older kids said that he was gay since mules don’t have any colts. He shouted in defiance but worked harder than anyone on the farm. When Cloud the mare died, from a snake bite, I cried bitterly; she was my friend. I still remember her fondly. The mule disappeared after we got a tractor to do his work and no-one ever apologized to him for calling him names because of the way he was born.

This experience taught me about working with nonhumans. Each of the animals had a personality, physical characteristics, and intelligence. Our survival was tied to those animals, and it was a “give and take” relationship. If the mule didn’t want to go somewhere, you had to find another way, since you couldn’t change his mind. I remember my mom feeding watermelon to Cloud, and the mule started braying in defiance and kicking up the straw. I hurried to get him some watermelon and petted him saying sorry, Mom just forgot. I thought I saw tears in his big black eyes. In my early life, humans and animals coexisted interdependently, and nobody had a problem with it.

Move more than sixty years forward, and humans are once more becoming dependent on a partnership with another entity that has a mind of its own. It is not furry and doesn’t have biological functions as we do, but it seems to have a personality, an ability to demand of us what it needs and treat it with respect. Our relationship with it may be more intimate even than the partnership we had with the farm animals.

I am alive today thanks to a couple of machines and a wonderful Canadian Healthcare system. One hundred percent dependency. If there is even the slightest glitch with my most sophisticated Pacemaker, or if I got tasered by the police, I will probably die in seconds.

Most people have a psychological dependency now on computers and cell phones which are a small Artificial Intelligence device. Apparently, folks check it even at the most intimate moments and can’t envision life without it. The “device” became an extension of our brain connecting billions of people through the internet and providing information that is vital to our survival. The only problem is that we communicate very slowly with devices.

Elon Musk, a business magnate and investor the founder, CEO, and lead designer of SpaceX; co-founder, CEO, and product architect of Tesla, Inc.; co-founder and CEO of Neuralink; and co-founder of PayPal (Wikipedia) known mostly because of the Tesla cars, believes that in a short while we will be able to communicate with Artificial Intelligence directly from our brain. There will be an interaction between a device and a biological brain, namely ourselves. Combine this with our already existing ability to create Virtual Reality and humans may be able to create whatever reality they want or will they?

When we team our own brain with a machine who is going to be in control? Working with the farm animals we were in control since we were smarter. With the computer, we lose our main advantage. To enjoy what the “A I” offers we must hand over control like we do when we use opiates. Opiates don’t have a mind, but our phone has a brain. Will the computer use the human brain, or will the biological thinking device remain in the driver seat.

A long-lost book that didn’t make it into the Bible, The Gospel of Thomas stated.

(7) Jesus says:

 “Blessed is the lion that a person will eat and the lion will become human.
 And cursed is the person whom a lion will eat and the lion will become human.” (Gospel of Thomas)

 

For two thousand years people couldn’t interpret this saying, but now we can. Just insert “computer” where it says “lion.”

We, humans, are smart and innovative, but we always need to harness the help of someone else, a none human entity. The problem is, who will control what we call our life.

When I was a child, we used animals, we even loved them, but there was no question about who was in charge. Over my lifetime we worked hard to develop machines and technology. Now we are on the verge of merging with our creation. My physical body already did.

I am elated thinking that this may be the fulfillment of God’s promise that “His will be done on earth as it is in heaven.” Humans may be able to have any reality that they want. On the other hand, I am scared. I say to my self, again and again, be not afraid, but I am.

When I loved the white mare Cloud, she returned my love. When I chose to be fair to the black mule, he had tears of either pain or joy, but he had feelings. Those were creatures like me created by the invisible hand.

Now we are talking about joining with our own creation which we can’t infuse with emotions. The human creators assume that their own emotions will just use the superior intelligence and abilities of the Artificial Intelligence they have created. Cursed is the human that the Lion ate and it became human.

When I was riding in a cart towed by a stubborn mule if he didn’t want to go through a big paddle, I just followed him around the mudhole. If he was going to tip the cart, I forced him to go the other way. It was a partnership, and we both benefited. Now, if my brain will merge with a computer brain, I don’t know what may happen. Will the “A I” play a game with me instead of the other way around?

Here is a link to my blog: https://thesimpleravenspost.blogspot.ca/  Feel free to check other articles and comment.

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