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Word Gems 

exploring self-realization, sacred personhood, and full humanity

Quantum Mechanics

Dr. Frederico Faggin 

The urge toward self-knowledge distinguishes human beings from machines

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from https://besharamagazine.org/science-technology/consciousness-as-the-ground-of-being/

The Promise and the Dangers of AI

Richard: As I understand it, you believe that this urge for self-knowledge is what  distinguishes human beings from machines; you think that it could never manifest in any form of artificial intelligence.

Federico: Many physicists believe that consciousness is just an epiphenomenon of the brain, and this crucial misunderstanding is at the root of the idea that artificial intelligence will eventually be more intelligent than we are. The thing we need to remember about AI is that we created it, and we did this for the same reason that I have already mentioned – because deep down, we want to understand ourselves. If we don’t understand this, then we are doomed.

Jane: Why doomed?

Federico: Because then we believe we are machines instead of spiritual beings. And if we believe that, there can always be better machines which eventually can dominate us – especially since we also have come to believe that evolution is about the survival of the fittest. With these two beliefs combined, there will always be war between human beings and machines, and humans will likely lose because we have forgotten and discarded what makes us more than a machine can ever be.

Richard: But from what I have read, it seems that you very much draw upon the idea of technology in your vision of the future. You see a way for humanity to interface with computers, using methods which are at present unknown but theoretically possible, and in doing so, bring out more of our potential.

Federico: Yes, absolutely! But only if we acknowledge and develop our spiritual dimension. Technology is the greatest gift and it has complementary aspects to our own abilities, but it can be beneficial only if it is used to deepen the understanding of who we are as spiritual beings. Otherwise, it may be used to enslave the rest of humanity by people of evil intent, and end up destroying even them. We are beings of light that can know other dimensions of existence way beyond what algorithms can do.

The linking of human beings and technology is already happening. Elon Musk is already trying to create interfaces – direct interfaces – between biology and computers. Can it work? Of course it can work. Our body is physics. There is nothing non-physical about it. What is non-physical, or perhaps I should say ‘extra-physical’, is our consciousness, our identity and our free will.