Hide ! The bots are coming…
Sometimes it is easier and perhaps better to be alone. away from all the chatter. away from everyone. reminiscing or perhaps looking ahead or maybe just being analytical of how things are presently. and sometimes just not to think.though its not easy not to think.we think about something or someone all the time. thats how we are. germane to us is this innate behavior of thinking.even while we sleep the body’s engine is taking us to wild adventures or plaintive walks. indian sages probably had figured all this out and felt the need to be aware of this involuntary act. an act that is onerous to avoid completely.we feel helpless when it seems unavoidable to think. even trying not to think will likely involve thinking. thats the beauty of it all. the circular nature of it.the philosophers have been thinking about thinking and not thinking. about thinking and being. its just fascinating how much valuable and relevant their insights are.today we feel obliged to use technology. feel so dependent on the internet. feel on our knees without our smart devices. but optimistically the present is just a fleeting moment ushering an era that is going to be amazing. where machines do our jobs and all we do is think (well not quite literally but you get the point). is that the human utopia ? is that the heaven that we are promised in the books (or the hell) ? will that be the life to live ? sounds wonderful and promising to me. but seems possible only when what elon musk calls “regulation” of artificial intelligence. now you must be wondering how i started with thoughts and thinking and ventured into artificial intelligence .abrupt at best. disruption is the key today my friend. but pause for a moment and ponder about the origin of life. inorganic substances and physical vents transforming into complex multitudinous organic substances through millions of years of agglomeration and coalescing . now turn to what is happening currently in the field of machine learning and artificial intelligence. mathematical “inorganic” equations , numbers , bits being “taught” like a child to identify complex cancerous malicious malignant cells , drive cars through multiplexing lanes, land rockets on turbulent waters. and that is not it! AI is creating music and paintings and what not.(thanks to thousands of years of knowledge base of humans.be greatful you machines!) .things unimaginable frightening and at the same time likely to be the harbinger of what i diverged from earlier — the utopian future or the doom so mentioned in the books. but let’s be sanguine about it and assume that we do all the right things along the way and end up with the future we “deserve” , a future indian philosophers would have loved and plato , oh plato — he would have been immensely pleasured and intoxicated in the thoughts that would probably become the currency of the future. now imagine. nothing to do. nothing. nill.null void.(again not technically but you…)
if thinking occupied most of our day what will become of us ? will there be poems about the intergalactic dust ? speculative thoughts about life elsewhere or will we finally start looking inwards.
one reason why i strongly feel that we will turn inwards is because of the almost impossibility of space travel.let’s not get into it because if that becomes possible, then the humans with their expansionist views will definitely adventure onto colonise whatever they can and we know universe is infinite so well that’s a possibility iwould like to live in denial of, but that’s exciting as well right ? you disappoint me.that’s the whole point my dear. the sum is to look inwards and not otherwise.and the infinite nature of the universe should be a clear enough sign. we cannot conquer all. then what’s our purpose ? why are we here ? or it is just that we are living the mistakes of those inorganic chemicals and now trying to justify the random nature and near impossibility of our existence?
