mind and machine
the eternal debate
mind and machine
The inwardly turned, narcissistic ego with purely subjective access to the world is not the cause of social disintegration but the result of a fateful process at the objective level. Everything that binds and connects is disappearing. There are hardly any shared values or symbols, no common narratives that unite people.
NOEMA • All That Is Solid Melts Into Information
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
... See moreBig Think • Mechanized Minds: AI’s Hidden Impact on Human Thought
ours is an era of decline that has turned from the outward to the inward obsession with identity and “authenticity,” both personal and tribal, fueled by digital connectivity. Paradoxically, social media in this sense is antisocial, leading to the disintegration of community through a kind of connected isolation.
NOEMA • All That Is Solid Melts Into Information
But there’s a deeper, unasked question that lingers in the background, one introduced by the unconventional thinker Jiddu Krishnamurti in the early 1980s: “If the machine can take over everything man can do, and do it still better than us, then what is a human being, what are you?”
Big Think • Mechanized Minds: AI’s Hidden Impact on Human Thought
Krishnamurti also questioned whether thought, in its inherently mechanical nature, could ever produce real intelligence. After all, if our thinking operates like a machine, can it truly be called intelligent?
Big Think • Mechanized Minds: AI’s Hidden Impact on Human Thought
According to Krishnamurti, the ultimate response to super-intelligent machines is the cultivation of a genuinely intelligent mind — a mind guided by non-thought intelligence. He envisions this mind as one that isn’t rooted in memory.
Big Think • Mechanized Minds: AI’s Hidden Impact on Human Thought
Non-Thought Intelligence in Human Cognition: Non-thought intelligence refers to cognitive processes that occur without conscious reasoning or deliberate thought. This includes skills like intuition, emotional understanding, and pattern recognition, which allow individuals to make quick decisions or solve problems based on instinct and experience. Such forms of intelligence play a crucial role in daily life, influencing how people interact with their environments and navigate social situations.
The human brain itself — that mysterious maker of metaphors — has through the ages been portrayed as (a) a hydraulic pumping system, (b) a clock, (c) a telephone switching network, (d) a digital computer, and, now, (e) a large language model. In constructing machines, we also construct ways of seeing the world, and ourselves.
Nicholas Carr • Botched Little Animals
Resist the lure of the entertained mind and keep your mental gears turning by diving into the “vast recesses of one’s being.”
Big Think • Mechanized Minds: AI’s Hidden Impact on Human Thought
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.