On AI And The Human Mind
6 big ideas from Yuval Harari
Hello learners,
Yuval Noah Harari, a renowned historian and philosopher, and the author of books like Sapiens and Homo Deus, just made an appearance on the Lex Fridman podcast.
It was a 3-hour long discussion on AI, consciousness, power, and meditation, and I picked up some very interesting ideas from this one. But nobody’s got 3 hours on the weekend because one has to wash underwear, order grapes, send that deck by EOD and whatnot.
Lucky for you, I’ve distilled all the wisdom into 6 big ideas on AI and the human mind. Read them in 5 minutes, but spend a little more time thinking about them.
Here we go:
AI Consciousness: It’s a mind-blowing realization that we actually don’t have any proof that the people around us- our parents, haters, Insta stalkers, Bumble right swipes- are really conscious. All we can know for sure is that we ourselves are conscious and assume that others are too, based on our reading of their actions and emotions. It’s a matter of social convention and not some hardcore mathematical proof. Philosophers and nerds like to call this the problem of other minds. So if there’s no solid way to prove consciousness, how do we tell if an advanced AI system is conscious or not? We’ll do just what we do with other people- judge based on their responses and behaviours. Thinking that way, we can quickly see how social reality, and consequently, legal systems might start considering AI bots conscious.
The threat of fake humans: It’s critical to make it mandatory for AIs to declare that they are AIs before conversing with humans. A percolation of AIs masquerading as humans can pose a major threat to society and subvert the idea of a democracy. A democracy is essentially a conversation between people- but when you can’t tell if these people are real or not, it exposes us to major problems. We decide to explore ideas, double click on issues, and even buy products based on what other humans are thinking and saying on the Internet. But what if those humans aren’t really humans? What if that beloved influencer who just convinced you to buy a 100% gluten-free pajama isn’t a human…but a bot trained by a corporation? Fake humans can wreak havoc at a much greater scale, and this pajama-hawking fraud will be the tiniest of our problems.
The cost of techno-experiments: People like to believe that “Oh, new tech has always come up but in the end, things have turned out fine. Look we’re all here, we wouldn’t be if things went wrong”. But that misses a couple of very crucial points. Yes, we are alive and kicking, but what we can’t see is the millions of lives that were lost in costly experiments that were made in the wake of new technologies. Colonialism was one big consequence in the process of deploying industrial-age tech, and I don’t think any of us need to be reminded of the sad sacrifice of hundreds of millions before we got to the point where we can sit on our couches and say “But look, we’re all alive!!!”. Yes, we are, but the costs are invisible and haunting. You’d never want to be a person in the 1800s who lived through that deadly experiment.
The worrisome deployment of AI: The big fear isn’t that some Terminator-style robots will get down on Andheri-Kurla road and whoop our collective asses with their attractive laser beams. Many times more worrisome is what armies, politicians, and corporations will end up doing when they wield the power to upgrade humans. We’re increasingly moving towards a time when a greater percentage of lifeforms will be a product of intelligent design and not just evolution. If those in power get to decide, they might want to amplify intelligence and miss out, instead, on things like compassion- things that constitute our very humanity. It’s natural for them to want more hyperintelligent superhumans in a bid to amass greater power, but all that power without the things that make humans caring and considerate might lead to dystopian scenarios that sci-fi writers have already milked for millions in royalty income.
Boredom: If you can’t deal with boredom, you’ll find it very difficult to enjoy peace and quiet. “The road to peace passes through boredom” says Harari, who has been practicing Vipassana meditation for 20+ years and strongly recommends it as a way to understand the true nature of reality. This practice brings about all sorts of uncomfortable emotions- but more than pain or anger, it was boredom that he found the most difficult to deal with. You can even manage to face pain because it makes you feel heroic, but dealing with boredom is much harder as it depresses you, making you feel worthless- like you’re nothing. It has led people to start wars, quit jobs, cheat on their partners- it’s just mind-boggling how destructive boredom can be! Action point: make it a priority to confront this monster.
Meaning of Life: Lex Fridman asks this question to most guests. The answer in this case was probably the best one I’ve heard so far. “The meaning of life? Oh, it’s easy” says Harari. Life is feeling things- sensations, emotions, etc and reacting to them. When we feel pleasant sensations, we want more of them, when they’re unpleasant, we want to push them away. That is the entire game of life. But we’re all suckers for a deep, philosophical answer, right? We all expect a nice story- a dramatic plotline, with a nice climax, and maybe even an interesting role for us in that high-TRP drama. But a story is exactly what it is not. Life is not a story- believing that it is opens us up to all sorts of illusions and delusions. To truly uncover that mystery, one has to observe it as it is. The deepest truth about life cannot be understood through words, it has to be a non-verbal mode of direct experience. What a wonderful answer. The astute reader must’ve figured out that it is fully inspired by the teachings of Siddhartha Gautama. But hey, words truly fail. The only way is direct observation of reality- as it is.
Thanks for reading. If you are learning new things through this newsletter, it’d mean a lot if you share this with like-minded, curious folks. We also have referral-benefits for the same, in case you missed it ;)
Until next week.