In this blog post we’ll take a look deep down the rabbit hole exploring our own actual abilities and potential vs. how we perceive those things. It is staggering to think how little is actually understood on the most important topic of all; our free will, our ability to actually make productive decisions. Let’s start this journey using a simple analogy and build from there, this is important stuff.
“If This Then That” (IFTTT) is a clever little computer app that allows users to automate simple tasks. It creates chains of conditional statements, allowing the user to automate actions based on those conditional statements, called applets. IFTTT is so elegant in its simplicity – it can do such things as tell a motion detector to turn on a light when it detects motion or automatically save photos from social media. The next level up is the Algorithm – similar to IFTTT, but more capable and a staple of computer programming. The idea behind these programs is logical problem solving that is ideally elegant (and efficient).
Artificial Intelligence is the next step up. It is IFTTT and algorithms taken to the next (ultimate?) logical progression, where ever-more complex systems of algorithms have the ability to learn, by being able to write their own algorithms in an effort to continue to solve more complex problems. It is all quite amazing and we have seen nearly exponential growth in these areas as technology improves and improves. None of this is new, however. These concepts have been imagined, pondered, written, and predicted since antiquity (around 2500 BC), all in an effort to simply push what is possible, driven by our desire, our curiosity – pushing the limits of math to hopefully one day digitally replicate a human brain and presumably beyond.
It is a fascinating thought as we realize we provide the inspiration, the model, as it were, for our future robot overlords. Don’t worry; this should not devolve into some mediocre Science Fiction. It is more the musings about the contrasts and parallels of the human condition and our attempts to replicate our intellect mathematically and logically when of course…we are neither.
Define consciousness. It has many explanations but no real definition other than variations of “self-awareness.” Somehow, we have this thing (awareness) that is the whole point of our existence, and we hopefully have a desire to make it meaningful. It is completely intangible…yet there it sits in the very center of our existence. Nothing mathematical at all or is there? Are we born with consciousness? Did we have it in the womb (and just can’t remember?). Did it or does it show up at some point as we grow and gain experiences and it just appears (evolves)? It makes me think of the amazing octopus who learns quicker than typical humans but only lives a couple of years. If an octopus lived a few decades, how smart could it become…at some point would it become conscious?
Applying that logic to Artificial Intelligence…how many algorithms before the spark of self-awareness hits? This, amazingly, cannot be answered, but… it does seem logical.
Are we simply an unimaginably huge number of IFTTTs and algorithms? It’s how we learn; you can clearly see the process in children. It is our base program, but unlike the computer that just sits there and needs everything to be imputed (programmed) and then takes it from there, we are jacked into the universe with five senses that, in some way, shape, or form, are continuously reading data – estimated to be around 11 million bytes of information per second. It has also been measured that we can consciously (vs. subconsciously) only process 50 bytes per second! Where does it go? This is the amazing part that makes us who we are.
Do you remember our ridiculously incalculable collection of IFTTT applets and algorithms? They are handling the 10,999,950 other bytes of information coming at us every second while we casually noodle or fret about the 50 bytes we are currently focused upon. Think of it as a massive filtering and sorting system that is completely automated except for the conscious 50 bytes per second. And we wonder why we say we are creatures of habit?
So, we exist almost entirely on autopilot. Think of walking, your heart beating, or breathing, all very automated. Almost everything we do…is completely automated. Think of phobias and the myriad of human quirks, flaws, behaviors – good and bad – that we simply do (automatically) and as response to stimuli (from our senses). Think of how little control we actually have over it and ourselves. Factor in time and how it compounds things because our “programming” gets so unwieldy and indecipherable over time that we lose any idea on how to change things (“can’t teach an old dog new tricks”). We do not have nearly the free will we think we do or should have. We (a bit lazily) rely on the autopilot and it makes it very hard to change behavior, whether that is quitting smoking or just trying to improve ourselves doing something we feel is worth the attention (why we feel that is another story!).
We get smothered, averaged out, inconsequential in our own existence. 50 bytes vs. nearly 11 billion (?); we never stood a chance. We have to trust our subconscious to decide which 50 to give us at any given second, but then when you realize how flawed the process has become over time, you are locked in, an emotional slave to your own mind, layer upon layer of accumulated best guesses.
Or are we?
Can we gain access and start to effect change?
YES.
But…most people shuffle through life without ever having a serious thought about anything ever in their entire lives. People joke and ponder about us living in a simulation, we absolutely do but it’s not the version in science fiction. The simulation is generated by our subconscious providing us with the simplest most acceptable version of every situation as it filters existence for us. Peoplejust follow the prompts from their subconscious, all day, every day and never stop to ponder “why.” You can have a pleasant “normal,” even happy, life never asking why…ignorance truly can be bliss. Finding why can be miserable and we are emotional beings (comes with the consciousness so, uh, sorry about that). I feel on some level we know, and therefore fear, what we might find and that creates a paradox that locks most of us in at roughly who we are. We are very good at making excuses and believing them so strongly that they become the pillars of our existence. It just makes everything so much simpler and easier.
“Why” is the most powerful thought in existence. It is the impetus, the motivation, the spark behind anything pondered, proposed and eventually proven or disproven. Without why we are automatons wasting precious air and space. Curiosity that fuels motivation that leads to understanding that eradicates fear is the journey any meaningful human being must take. What will you do with your 50 bytes per second and how far will you let it take you?
Perfection, just like true enlightenment, is unattainable; our flaws see to that. But the journey, oh the journey, is a life well lived.