Seema Burman
Children have taken to Artificial Intelligence (AI) like ducks take to water. Parents are worried that kids prefer playing with AI rather than with real children. AI is becoming an integral part of medicine and patients are benefiting in terms of treatment, diagnosis and costs. In the military, countries are employing drones, robotic soldiers, intelligence systems, and web portals in strategy and action. In the automobile world, semi-automatic cars have been around for long. In agriculture, drones spray water and pesticides on crops; robots are ready to manage cows and milk them. A day might dawn when we will treat AI as co-species.
Can AI enter the religious/spiritual field? Robots can be inserted with a programme containing the best scriptural teachings but seekers will not connect with it as they do with a guru, saint or motivational speaker. AI may come up with robotic priests to conduct rituals and patrons will be amused but cannot have shraddha (devoted engagement) with the proceedings. The eager spiritual seeker might not evolve spiritually even if the robotic guru guides perfectly because the flesh-and-blood guru’s aura, blessings and guidance will be missing. Yet, some may prefer ‘Swami Robot’.
Chat bots are being given human names so that human beings can relate to them. An IBM super computer named ‘Deep Blue’ was given a chess programme and made to play with the then world chess champion, Gary Kasparov. The first match was played in Philadelphia in 1996 and won by Kasparov; second match was played in New York City in 1997 and won by Deep Blue. The win signified that AI could defeat one of humanity’s great intellectual champions.
Kasparov stated, “I am not writing any love letters to IBM, but my respect for the Deep Blue team went up, and my opinion of my own play, and Deep Blue’s play, went down.” Kasparov was dismayed, the leader of the team that made Deep Blue, scientist CJ Tan, was overjoyed, but Deep Blue showed no reaction or emotion because it was a mass of wires and digits without a Self, without Chetana, Consciousness. It had won because chess masters had put in a sophisticated programme and the computer simply processed it.
The difference between a chat bot and human being is in the mind. Science fiction has been depicting conscious robots and consumers romanticize it but no amount of advancement in science can create conscious robots. Having neither mind nor ego, it remains unaware of its existence. In 1999, the film ‘Bicentennial Man’ explored an android’s endeavors to become human as it gradually becomes emotional. Certainly, robots cannot evolve into humans as they do not have Atman but people are getting de-humanized due to technology-dependence. Instead of worrying about whether machines can become humans, we should be wary of humans becoming robotic.
Even the most updated robot cannot meditate or achieve Self-realisation since there is nobody to be enlightened, there is no consciousness, no ego. Man will always remain superior to machines due to mind and Atman. During meditation, one withdraws from one’s outer being and senses, contemplates on inner Self as point of energy, concentrates on a higher power, on the Creator. One dissolves the thinking process by concentrating on breath but a machine cannot perform any of these. Robots can be given artificial intelligence but humans have been given the divine gifts of chetana and chaitanya – perception and consciousness.
DISCLAIMER
The views expressed in the Article above are Author’s personal views and kashmiribhatta.in is not in any way responsible for the opinions expressed in the above article. The article belongs to its respective owner or owners and this site does not claim any right over it. Copyright Disclaimer under section 107 of the Copyright Act of 1976, allowance is made for "fair use" for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship, education, and research. Fair use is a use permitted by copyright statute that might otherwise be infringing."
Courtesy: Times of India: The Speaking Tree: 16th May, 2019
Seema Burman
Children have taken to Artificial Intelligence (AI) like ducks take to water. Parents are worried that kids prefer playing with AI rather than with real children. AI is becoming an integral part of medicine and patients are benefiting in terms of treatment, diagnosis and costs. In the military, countries are employing drones, robotic soldiers, intelligence systems, and web portals in strategy and action. In the automobile world, semi-automatic cars have been around for long. In agriculture, drones spray water and pesticides on crops; robots are ready to manage cows and milk them. A day might dawn when we will treat AI as co-species.
Can AI enter the religious/spiritual field? Robots can be inserted with a programme containing the best scriptural teachings but seekers will not connect with it as they do with a guru, saint or motivational speaker. AI may come up with robotic priests to conduct rituals and patrons will be amused but cannot have shraddha (devoted engagement) with the proceedings. The eager spiritual seeker might not evolve spiritually even if the robotic guru guides perfectly because the flesh-and-blood guru’s aura, blessings and guidance will be missing. Yet, some may prefer ‘Swami Robot’.
Chat bots are being given human names so that human beings can relate to them. An IBM super computer named ‘Deep Blue’ was given a chess programme and made to play with the then world chess champion, Gary Kasparov. The first match was played in Philadelphia in 1996 and won by Kasparov; second match was played in New York City in 1997 and won by Deep Blue. The win signified that AI could defeat one of humanity’s great intellectual champions.
Kasparov stated, “I am not writing any love letters to IBM, but my respect for the Deep Blue team went up, and my opinion of my own play, and Deep Blue’s play, went down.” Kasparov was dismayed, the leader of the team that made Deep Blue, scientist CJ Tan, was overjoyed, but Deep Blue showed no reaction or emotion because it was a mass of wires and digits without a Self, without Chetana, Consciousness. It had won because chess masters had put in a sophisticated programme and the computer simply processed it.
The difference between a chat bot and human being is in the mind. Science fiction has been depicting conscious robots and consumers romanticize it but no amount of advancement in science can create conscious robots. Having neither mind nor ego, it remains unaware of its existence. In 1999, the film ‘Bicentennial Man’ explored an android’s endeavors to become human as it gradually becomes emotional. Certainly, robots cannot evolve into humans as they do not have Atman but people are getting de-humanized due to technology-dependence. Instead of worrying about whether machines can become humans, we should be wary of humans becoming robotic.
Even the most updated robot cannot meditate or achieve Self-realisation since there is nobody to be enlightened, there is no consciousness, no ego. Man will always remain superior to machines due to mind and Atman. During meditation, one withdraws from one’s outer being and senses, contemplates on inner Self as point of energy, concentrates on a higher power, on the Creator. One dissolves the thinking process by concentrating on breath but a machine cannot perform any of these. Robots can be given artificial intelligence but humans have been given the divine gifts of chetana and chaitanya – perception and consciousness.
DISCLAIMER
The views expressed in the Article above are Author’s personal views and kashmiribhatta.in is not in any way responsible for the opinions expressed in the above article. The article belongs to its respective owner or owners and this site does not claim any right over it. Copyright Disclaimer under section 107 of the Copyright Act of 1976, allowance is made for "fair use" for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship, education, and research. Fair use is a use permitted by copyright statute that might otherwise be infringing."
Courtesy: Times of India: The Speaking Tree: 16th May, 2019