mind and machine

the eternal debate

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

Because technology is a repository of human desire, a full critique of any machine needs also to be a critique of human desire. We’re the machine’s makers before we’re its victims.

Nicholas Carr • Botched Little Animals

For Krishnamurti, mind and mechanical thought are worlds apart. And when he talks about exercising the brain, he’s not referring to crossword puzzles or sudoku. He’s pointing to a human mind with an immense, even infinite capacity — one that remains unknown as long as it’s bogged down by knowledge, specialization, and material concerns.

Big Think • Mechanized Minds: AI’s Hidden Impact on Human Thought

Is an online relationship as honest, open and palpable as a face-to-face relationship? Does the absence of taste, touch, smell – or blood, sweat and tears for that matter – make a difference in the quality of what is experienced? Is immersion in a video game or chat room the same as playing a game on a wet grassy field, or congregating with an in-p... See more

Kirk Schneider • Tech-vexed: how digital life threatens our capacity for awe | Aeon Essays

The year 1980 was a turning point for the philosophy of artificial intelligence, even while AI itself was still finding its feet. Philosopher John Searle introduced his now-famous Chinese Room thought experiment, arguing that machines could produce impressive results without a shred of genuine understanding.

Big Think • Mechanized Minds: AI’s Hidden Impact on Human Thought

In the course of writing Superbloom over the last few years, I found myself losing patience with the prevailing critique of social media and the internet, the one that portrays the technology as something imposed on us by an imperious external force (progress or capitalism or Big Tech or what-have-you) and that in turn depicts us as the hapless, he... See more

Nicholas Carr • Botched Little Animals

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.

We build all these systems and we complain about them as if they’re out of control, as if they’re controlling us, but we build them.