DATALAC: Sadhguru, ChatGPT, and Perception
The cycle of life occurs without a separation between intelligence, intuition, thought, the beat of the heart, the functions of organs such as the kidney, liver, or lungs, and the brain. Everything happens smoothly and cannot be separated.
Sadhguru, a yogi and founder of the Isha Foundation organization, has a very straightforward view on the ability of AI to replace humans or make us unemployed: the process of collecting information, analyzing it, and providing results gradually becomes meaningless to humans when AI appears. AI will turn everything around us into little gadgets that are capable of processing data. These small machines have the ability to process information better than anyone on this planet. It seems that current Google devices (such as the Google Nest Mini) are already smarter than some of us. Humanity will reach a point where anything we do (based on knowledge) will look foolish or meaningless. Sadhguru remembers the moment he touched a handheld calculator for the first time at the age of 13 (which was very expensive at the time). After a few operations, the calculation result appeared. His first thought was, “How did I waste so much time in math class?” The machine was amazing; he wouldn’t have to sit and calculate anymore, and it could even handle more complex calculations like trigonometry (sintheta, costheta). In that moment, Sadhguru imagined a bigger machine that could handle everything in school (meaning no one had to go to school anymore, the dream of lazy students becoming a reality). In the next few decades, education and professions as we know them will become meaningless. Most of us will be laid off if we can only do what machines can do. Therefore, humans must have the ability to transcend their “intellect”.
The human intelligence is composed of many layers, with knowledge being only a small part of it. However, our current education system only focuses on developing intellectual development, considering it a noble mission. It is not really so. The yogic system (one of the six main branches of Hinduism) recognizes that human intelligence has up to 16 parts and we must strive to explore other dimensions of intelligence. Specifically, the four most basic parts are: knowledge (buddhi), identity (ahankara), memory (manas), and pure intelligence/chitta (which is not clouded by memory, given to you mysteriously, possibly by a higher power and is the source of creativity). The existence of human beings only has meaning when the complex four-part structure is understood, especially when everything around us becomes more knowledgeable with AI. Human knowledge cannot operate effectively without data accumulated over time. Even if we try to collect, analyze, and execute data, machines will always do better. Computers will eventually be able to do more math than any mathematician. Human contemplation, which is a complex intellectual process, will be easily replaced by machines (much easier than you think). People may argue that math is different from literature, poetry, or music. But in my opinion, even things that seem to flow from the heart or soul of human beings can be done by machines. We can create machines that are capable of writing stories or music or adapting perfectly to the environment (intuitive). With this view, Sadhguru seems to have accurately predicted what ChatGPT can do today.
What AI can do, don’t just look at it from the perspective of intuition or emotion, but also observe it from the perspective of the life process. The life process happens without a separation between intelligence, intuition, thought, heartbeat, functions of organs such as kidneys, liver or lungs, or the brain. Everything happens seamlessly and cannot be separated. We would not have a profound sense of life or wonder about life if we did not feel this rhythm. There is almost no language to describe this, or to describe what life is. No conclusion can be drawn, so death cannot be trivialized. This is the premise for human liberation. Can machines touch this? Machines can become anything or do anything that we can do (or do better than us), except for having consciousness. Many people are confident in building “consciousness” in machines, but to me, this is certainly not possible. Because “consciousness” belongs to life, consciousness is the essence of life. The things that cannot be expressed in words, the forces that cannot be described, are leading everything in this universe. 100% of machines cannot touch “consciousness”. Consciousness in Sadhguru’s worldview (or Indian religion) may be very different from the usual definition of “consciousness”: insight into existence outside and inside humans. The human body, as part of life, is composed of elements: earth, fire, water, air, and ether (or askash). The ingredients that create mud under our feet also create life. Consciousness is the fundamental intelligence to arrange things in a certain way to create a tree, a bird, an insect, an elephant, or a human being, or life in general.
Sadhguru has realized that technology will move towards creating machines that can think millions of times better than humans. Everything can be artificial. All human thinking may then have no value. All scholars will be out of work. Humans are surrounded by intelligence and knowledge, but definitely not “consciousness”. Then, humans will become more joyful and participate in things that machines cannot touch. That is meditation, meditation cannot exist without consciousness, and ultimately, only meditators remain in the universe…
By Quan Nguyen Ha
