I went to see a documentary by JS Bron, Cinq Nouvelles du Cerveau (Five News from the Brain). It was constructed from five interviews with materialist scientists, convinced that the brain, and it alone, produces consciousness. All we need to do is mathematically translate the functioning of the brain and then ingest these mathematical calculations into a robot machine, and we obtain a "roboid" perfectly imitating human behavior but with superior cognitive intelligence. Research is now focusing on how to endow these robots with emotional intelligence, by imitating human behavior: appearance without substance. Researchers are also wondering how these robots could learn on their own, in short, become autonomous. They do not ask themselves the question of spiritual intelligence because, for them, it does not exist.
Their scientific hypothesis is simple: Consciousness, and therefore life, what drives us, is produced only by the brain; the brain (and life) is a machine composed of a set of observable neurons and therefore reproducible and then disposable. The soul in this scheme no longer exists because bodily death means the death of consciousness.
Not all neuroscience researchers have the same approach, but this is not mentioned in the documentary. I am thinking of research on consciousness and therefore on the soul as pursued by David Böhm or Ricardo Kastrup. The documentary describes the progress on artificial intelligence and its advances. They paint portraits of a type of scientist that sends shivers down the spine, because they are convinced that they hold the truth, sometimes forgetting that the evolutionary engine of science is doubt and not certainty. Ethical and moral questions, as well as the contributions of traditions, or even testimonies of life after death, are ignored or quickly dismissed. Their objective: to advance research and the progress of science, sometimes bringing comfort to certain sick guinea pigs but not asking the question of the well-being of humanity. The horror of Hiroshima (mentioned by one of the researchers) will not have served to teach us much!
A fact to ponder: All the scientists interviewed were "white"; four of them were men. There was only one woman, the only one of these scientists who refused for ethical reasons to work for the so-called GAFAs (Google, Facebook, etc.) for the use they could make of it in terms of manipulating the brain to make us consume more. All were from Western culture.
The majority of these scientists, at best, announce the replacement of the human race by a mixed race between humans and robots, at worst the disappearance of the human being in favor of a more evolved robotic being, which one of them does not doubt, and especially more controllable. In any case, they hope so because all admit not knowing too much about how the brain works. Of course, it will take time but progress is moving quickly thanks to the billions of business giants.
And this is worrying because no public debut is organized on this subject by our politicians. Indeed, these scientists explain to us that thanks to their work, it would be simple to take control of any brain, or even several, the dream of dictator politicians and the realization of the visions of science fiction producers. The world of business and politics allying to finally control an entire population without their knowledge. It is not surprising then that these uncontrolled advances, by the scientists' own admission, revive fears and warnings from critical people called 'conspiracy theorists' by the political powers in place.
So it is the story of the Golem that scientists want to revive.
Do you know this myth of Jewish mysticism? “A golem (Hebrew : גולם, "embryo", "formless" or "unfinished") is an artificial being, generally humanoid, made ofclay, incapable of speech and lacking free will, shaped to assist or defend its creator. It eventually becomes uncontrollable and is eliminated[1]).
Scientists admit that they do not know what could happen regarding the autonomy of these robots, which they would endow with all human capacities but in a super-multiplied way. We have seen throughout history what these capacities have caused in terms of destruction, war, violence on an increasingly large scale. It is difficult to imagine how far "roboids" could go, towards what refinements of barbarism even worse than those that history bears witness to. The documentary showed terrible sequences during which the same scientists predicting the death of humanity thanks to their research financed by GAFAs and encouraged by politicians eager for more power in the short term, perfectly aware and indifferent to their role in this disappearance, were at the same time mourning the death of their dog (which, rest assured, it immediately replaces as for their computer) or affectionately stroking their robot dogs.
Terrible images!
And so many questions: Is consciousness reduced to a set of neural connections? How can we explain the differences between people if we are reproducible, controllable, manipulable, and disposable because we can be replaced by machines? How can we control scientific advances in a world dominated by money and political corruption?
More broadly: what have we learned from history? What remains of the teachings of ancient and sacred traditions?
So many questions whose answers belong to everyone, especially to those who want to see.
Finally, an anecdote that happened to me the same day. I had to cross a street but with the sun in front of me, I didn't know if the pedestrian signal was red or green. I decided to wait until I could see better, especially the change in color. In fact, the signal was green and a couple walked past. In the meantime, the signal turned red. The woman who had arrived on my side of the sidewalk turned around and exclaimed: how is it possible that the light is green on one side and red on the other? This sums up well what we are experiencing: the choice of taking the risk of moving forward or not, the fact of being on one side of the sidewalk or the other, the fact of being surprised and saying so.
[1] Source: Wikipedia
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