I have a friend who reads every article I write for my column. I appreciate such loyalty even though my friend disagrees with practically everything I have to say in them. Basically, he is a big fan of modern technology. He is looking forward to the day when technology completely takes over our lives: Internet of Things(IoT), virtual reality (VR), 3D printing and Artificial Intelligence (AI). It is Artificial Intelligence that he particularly seems to focus on. He is looking forward to the day when technology controls human lives. When something called the technological singularity appears, when modern technology becomes so advanced that it can take over and control our thoughts and actions.
My friend thinks that a technological takeover will enhance human life. Perhaps, it will allow humans to live forever, even if it means separating out the eternal human mind from the perishable human body. My friend is not worried about a potential loss of human freedom as a possible result of a technological takeover. There are many possible effects of the potential appearance of the singularity. This article will explore a number of those that can be anticipated at this moment in time.
First, there is the notion that being alive may no longer depend on having a body made of flesh and bone and blood to sustain it. Without that body, people will truly experience themselves as floating in an experiential vacuum. Without having a body, how will humans be able to absorb the organic stimulation that is so important for having a vibrant life experience. People will pay a terrible price for separating themselves from their bodies. They will sink further and further into numbness. They may continue to have a lot of cognitive activity, but without sensory activity, how will they be able to ground themselves in the external world? How will they be able to form meaningful bonds with other human beings?
It seems to me that the loss of the capacity to ground oneself in one’s living environment and to bond with other human beings will lead to the collapse of human society as we know it. People will be living parallel existences to one another. And the only thing capable of replacing human society will be the organizing capacity of artificial intelligence. Artificial intelligence will also become the glue that holds people together. But by becoming that glue, Artificial intelligence will also become the major executive agency in people’s lives.
Which brings me to the next possible effect. Separation and isolation are not the same as freedom. Perhaps separating from one’s body leads to the separation from the effects of physical gravity. But when that happens, a person loses control of being able to effectively direct one’s movements. One floats in space like a balloon psychologically. And so in order to then gain a sense of control over one’s essence one needs help from the highly advanced technology that is the technological takeover, the technological singularity, the Artificial Intelligence. But this help ultimately leads to giving up control of one’s psychological life. As one gets number and number after the act of detachment of one’s mind from one’s body, one searches out the Artificial Intelligence as a vehicle to give one a kind of surrogate grounding. And, of course, the Artificial Intelligence then proceeds not only to give the detached mind, not only a sense of a surrogate grounding, but also to literally take over more and more aspects of the detached mind. In other words, in an attempt to gain a kind of perfect freedom for his mind from the potentially decaying body, the person actually loses his freedom to Artificial Intelligence.
And what about the idea of being able to live forever, if only one is willing to give up his decaying physical body. The real question is what would it signify to live forever without meaningful physical connections to the external physical world and to other human beings. Without those connections, would a person be able to even feel a sense of consciousness within his life. Maybe a person would become so numb while floating in the experiential vacuum that eternal life would translate simply into a living death. In other words, sensation is an intrinsic part of consciousness.
Without a meaningful flowing blendable continual life narrative, there are no meaningful connections to the physical external world and no meaningful connections to other humans. And one is unable to make and preserve meaningful imprints, which, of course, I guess aren’t necessary if one no longer feels a need to leave a personal surrogate immortality. But what is important about a personal surrogate immortality is not simply finding an indirect way to live forever, but the journey that allows a person to do so. The journey has vibrancy and allows a person to feel very alive in a sustained way.
This vibrancy allows a person to feel alive in a way that can’t be duplicated while living exclusively in an experiential vacuum. Vibrancy of life is definitely going to be lost, if and when Artificial Intelligence and the Technological Singularity take over the world.