About AI/Robots

[MonadicSpectrum]

I think it is helpful to not necessarily label those who disagree with us as being fearful or fear based. To those without experience or foresight, wisdom can often look like fear. For example, someone may purchase insurance or use a seat belt while driving their car. To those without experience or foresight, this may appear to be fear-based because they cannot imagine such a bad thing happening as their house burning down or a car crashing into another car so they perceive those who take precautions as being fearful. However, because we collectively have experience of houses burning down and cars crashing, we know it is wisdom that is driving us to purchase insurance and use a seat belt and not fear.

That said, we can't claim that all decisions are driven by wisdom as some actually are driven by fear. How do we tell the difference between fear and wisdom? The main way to tell the difference is that fear-based decisions don't rationally help achieve a goal while wisdom is effective at moving us towards a goal. For example, someone might fearfully decide to wear a seatbelt while sleeping in their own bed at night. We know this is fear and not wisdom because the seatbelt is not providing any utility to achieve the goal of safety in this situation. Another example is someone who is addicted to washing their hands every five minutes because they are afraid of germs. It is wise to wash your hands periodically, but there is diminishing returns from excessive practice as well as risk of harm from dry skin on the hands so we would determine it is fear rather than wisdom that causes someone to wash their hands too often.

It's also helpful to keep in mind that many people may be deceived into believing a decision is wise when it is actually fear because the action isn't doing what they believe it is doing. For example, the Nazi's tricked people into thinking it is wise to force Jews into concentration camps to protect society. When in reality, putting Jews in concentration camps is actually harming society so we could label these decisions as fear-based as opposed to wisdom-based.

Regarding artificial intelligence and robots, I think it is helpful to use discernment to determine which potential futures are irrational and fear-based and which potential futures are rational and wisdom-based. For example, does the human race have any experience where technology was used for harmful purposes? Nuclear bombs, television propaganda, and gas chambers during the holocaust come to mind. Because of this, I think it is rational to be concerned about potential abuses of artificial intelligence and robots and wise to be cautious going forward.

Should we halt all progress towards advancing technology? Personally, I think halting it and going back to live without technology would be a fear-based decision as we do have experience that shows we can use technology without harm in many areas of our life. But simultaneously, we don't want to proceed forward without consideration of all the possible abuses and harms that new technology may introduce. I think each of us is responsible for discerning how technology is progressing and only supporting those parts of technology that is used for good, harmony, and love and not supporting those parts of technology which is designed for purposes of control, manipulation, and harm. For example, if we notice a social media site is starting to be used for propaganda and control, it might be wise to stop using that site and find another site that supports truth and free speech.