The Mechanized Mind: AI’s Hidden Impact on Human Thought

The first crucial step toward cultivating a truly intelligent mind — and moving away from the automated thinking of machines — is to engage in what philosophers call “second-order cognition” or reflective self-awareness, recognizing the mind’s programmed patterns. Fortunately, the mind and mechanical thought aren’t the same, which means we have the

Discussions about how AI might influence our ability to live the good life and experience personal fulfillment are just beginning to take baby steps. AI ethics has expanded beyond simply figuring out how to use these technologies in moral or valuable ways. Yet, even these emerging conversations often miss the bigger picture, focusing mostly on whet

Krishnamurti, ever the visionary, laid out a series of bold predictions — almost prophetic warnings — about a future where humans might drift into obsolescence. With his characteristic intensity, he sketched a vivid scene of a not-so-distant world — “in about ten, fifteen years” — where AI would eclipse human intelligence entirely, reducing us to a

For Krishnamurti, AI demands a fresh look at intelligence itself. If we agree that true intelligence can’t be mechanical, then maybe it’s time to define intelligence as something beyond what any computer could imitate or simulate.

While we’re busy wondering whether machines will ever become conscious, we rarely stop to ask: What happens to us? How does it change us when we realize that even today’s mind-mimicking “weak AI” can already take over cognitive tasks and abilities we once thought were exclusively human?

If machines can rapidly weave together complex ideas from diverse schools of thought to uncover conceptual connections, would this type of academic activity still be deemed intelligent, and will the knowledge we’re boasting to have — our prideful capacity to activate our brain’s net of associations and comparisons — retain any significance?

Instead of asking whether machines will ever become conscious, we might ask whether humans can become conscious enough to outgrow the “artificial intelligence” both inside them and in the machines around them.

Resist the lure of the entertained mind and keep your mental gears turning by diving into the “vast recesses of one’s being.”

As smart machines and robots take over more of our thinking, the brain risks becoming lazy, unstimulated, and, frankly, bored. In a world where work and struggle are things of the past, our experiences might dwindle to nothing more than a search for entertainment and pleasure — a cycle of reacting to one shiny distraction after another. When we hit