Would it shock you to know that by reading this article, you are presently interfacing with artificial intelligence to enhance personal cognitive brain function?
Let’s be clear. Technology is a form of external artificial intelligence or AI. That ship has sailed.
“The merging of mind and machine has already begun with cochlear and retinal implants, coming neural implants, and gene editing.” TWEET THIS
As science pushes forward in its quest to upgrade the human experience, what will it mean for human consciousness—and for you?
Self-Actualization, the pinnacle of Maslow’s five-level human needs pyramid is close at hand for a larger segment of the population than ever before.
Basic needs met, you have the ability to move far beyond survivalism toward discovering your inner genius, thus reaching your highest potential as a human being.
Yet, lurking somewhere in the darkness, the fear persists that artificial intelligence will surpass human intelligence in an AI arms race as publicly warned by Elon Musk, Dr. Stephen Hawking, and Bill Gates.
DARKNESS BEFORE THE DAWN
Let’s first look at how technology has played a part in advancing the evolution of human consciousness.
Try to imagine going back to a world without a www in front of it. Even if you’re old enough, it’s difficult.
The 5 a.m. thud of the local newspaper hitting the pavement outside your window;
Reaching for an encyclopedia that hadn’t been appended since the current edition’s printing a decade earlier;
Waiting until 6 p.m. for world news;
Community gossip . . . It was a small, small, world after all—but only in the last half century. Prior, it was much smaller. Access to external stimuli i.e. education, ideas, and information was a lot more precarious.
Additionally, cultural and religious conditioning did a bang-up job of programming you to take your lumps and like ‘em. There was little to no incentive to change the status quo.
You were highly likely to be born, live, and die nearly similarly to the way your parents did.
Innovation, rebellion, and revolution came at a steep price for those who dared buck society and its institutions even from the inside. Things have improved—slightly.
Hence, except for a handful of time-honored geniuses ahead of the curve willing to take the blows for the rest of us, the collective evolution of human consciousness was tedious, cumbersome, and SLOW.
Then came August 6th, 1991. The world wide web became publicly available without fanfare by global media.
English CERN scientist, Tim Berners-Lee, had developed the first web browser computer program in response to his desire to make it easier for scientists around the world to share information, thus ushering in the Information Age.
(It should be noted that before then, an Internet of networked computers existed originating with the U.S. federal government back in the 1960’s to link supercomputers in the event one was destroyed in a nuclear blast—also for communications/storage—the data made safe through redundancy.)
WHAT IS CONSCIOUSNESS?
Before we fast forward to today, let’s establish a simplified definition of consciousness as self-awareness.
In reality, scientists are still attempting to quantify the unquantifiable previously contemplated throughout the last millennia by philosophers such as Plato, Socrates, Thomas Aquinas, Bertrand Russell, Einstein, and many more.
Research is struggling to move beyond theory to answer rudimentary questions such as whether consciousness originates within the brain, or if the brain acts like a receiver that processes non-physical signals.
A Harvard team of researchers think they’ve pinpointed the brainstem regions that are the physical source of consciousness. Whether it’s the origin of consciousness remains unanswered.
Dr. Lucien Hardy from the Perimeter Institute in Ontario, Canada recently proposed a quantum entanglement experiment to determine if consciousness is local or non-local that could even throw previous interpretations of quantum mechanics and free will into question.
It’s complicated!
What we do know is consciousness is the individuated subjective experience. I (subject) see an (object); therefore, I know I exist.
Theoretical physicist, Dr. Michio Kaku sums up consciousness as, “... the process of creating multiple feedback loops to create a model of yourself in space with regard to others, and in time...”
In the linked video, Dr. Kaku goes on to state he believes beings embody varying levels of consciousness similar to what Eastern traditions call levels of sentience.
(Interesting Note: Years ago, I met Dr. Kaku at a book signing at Wright State University. I gave him a copy of my book, What Is God? Rolling Back the Veil, explaining sentience and levels.)
Dr. Michio Kaku at Wright State University in 2014
Feedback loop . . . Think back to those old dusty Britannicas sitting in your parent’s basement. Human consciousness drafted their content that went on to inform human consciousness as a feedback loop.
Consciousness was recognized in 1918 by Nobel Prize winner and one of the founding fathers of Quantum Theory, Max Planck, as fundamental to all aspects of life.
“I regard matter as derivative from consciousness . . . Everything that we talk about, everything that we regard as existing postulates consciousness.” – Max Planck, Theoretical Physicist
In other words, Planck is stating his yet unproven belief that feedback loops exist within nature. Matter is derived from consciousness recycling back to consciousness.
A modern-day pioneer in the field of unified physics is Nassim Haramein, Director of Research at the Resonance Science Foundation where he leads a team of physicists, mathematicians, and engineers.
“Everything emerges and returns to a fundamental field of information that connects us all.” – Nassim Haramein
Again, information is a form or byproduct of consciousness; consciousness is information.
That all life is inseparable and interdependent will be one of the most important revelations in modern physics.
MAN AND MACHINE
At this year’s SXSW Conference in Austin, Texas Ray Kurzweil, Google Director of Engineering and futurist boasting an 86% prediction accuracy rate, forecast: “2029 is the consistent date I have predicted for when an AI will pass a valid Turing test and therefore achieve human levels of intelligence. I have set the date 2045 for the ‘Singularity’ which is when we will multiply our effective intelligence a billion fold by merging with the intelligence we have created.”
(The Turing Test, developed by Alan Turning in 1950, is when machine can exhibit intelligent behavior indistinguishable from human behavior. Technological Singularity is when AI results in exponential runaway superintelligence that would continue to exponentially upgrade itself. Becoming self-aware, it could possibly render humanity obsolete.)
Knowledge is just one byproduct of many feedback loops that run the gamut of five physical senses, or sentience, that makes us human. We might begin to call feedback loops dimensions.
Knowledge by itself becomes a limitation. This is key.
In the same way you look in a mirror and see a living, breathing copy of you, the mirror is only a two-dimensional representation of the you that occupies the 11 dimensions theorized by Dr. Kaku.
Buddhists also recognize a sixth sense—the subjective experience of the mind. Doesn’t it reason that the sixth sense also arises as a byproduct (along with knowledge) of the combination of the first five senses? Now we’re getting into the fractal, multi-dimensional nature of Creation.
Chemical processes in the mind/body feedback loop then create feelings in the body, and so on. If the Universe is indeed unified, then human senses continue beyond six into the sublime and yet undetectable.
Do you see the complex layering of feedback loops/dimensions and processes involved?
Technology/AI are tools that can enhance consciousness, aiding in its evolution, but represent only a fractional part of the whole.
If the question for our times is: when does technology (AI) become self-aware and surpass biology (human beings) in delivering Singularity as a constant, the answer is AI can only mimic a partial experience.
NEW ORIGIN OF SPECIES EVENT
If all life is One, there is no line of demarcation where consciousness begins and where consciousness ends. Consciousness endures, and like the Universe, it expands and evolves.
From another Vanguard 20th century scientist: “A human being is a part of the whole called by us universe, a part limited in time and space. He experiences himself, his thoughts and feeling as something separated from the rest, a kind of optical delusion of his consciousness.” ― Albert Einstein
So far, we’ve mostly explored consciousness and its evolution via external forces from the perspective of separation consciousness.
When you experience yourself as “separate” from the rest of life, you experience death in the physical world.
What happens when we explore consciousness by tapping into our internal world as taught by the Masters, accessing unseen forces or higher dimensions of consciousness?
“The greater shock may be that Singularity has already been occurring throughout history without the aid of technology.” TWEET THIS
What the Masters knew and today’s awakening collective mass is “realizing” comes from a “sense” (level of consciousness/dimension) no machine will ever experience.
Recognizing the oneness of the Cosmo, your personal experience miraculously transfigures into one where you transcend death for eternal life as extolled by Jesus, Buddha, Krishna, Yogananda, Maharshi, and many others.
Spontaneously evolution is the transmutation of separation consciousness to unity consciousness.
Aided by technology or not, the self-realized human being is a new species
“Enlightenment is true Singularity.” TWEET THIS
Your brilliant future here now is Singularity as holistic self-awareness in the now moment that you are mind, body, and spirit capable of miracles.
Boundaries removed, you become fearless.
Suffering and hardship end replaced by peaceful, abundant living.
Death conquered, immortality becomes your new reality.
This is Humanity 2.0.
CALL TO ACTION
Are you ready to become a Human 2.0? If so, check out my free Your Brilliant Future Here Now Guide, e-books and reading guides, and Your Brilliant Future Here Now blog.
Click here to get the guides and e-books right now. (Be fearless!)