What makes us human? What are intrinsic human values? What is wisdom? These are fundamental questions for those working with artificial intelligence and other emerging technologies.
The drive of AI is to de-code human-being and re-code it into machine intelligence. This is a process of radical expansion for society, where aspects of intelligence that simply do not serve us anymore, are automated, opening us to greater levels of ease and ability.
In an interview with trade publication Interesting Engineering, Dr. Abdalla Kablan — an expert in artificial intelligence and machine learning — distinguished between “wiser systems” and “intelligent systems.”
Dr. Kablan notes that there are different types of machine learning strategies for the various human experience by saying: “There’s no mathematical way to understand things like common sense or gut feeling, but fuzzy logic is the closest mathematical model that can get you to that.
“There is no mathematical model to teach a child how to count from one to ten, but a neural network is the closest to that.
“There’s no mathematical model to learn how to ride a bicycle, but reinforcement learning gets you closest to that.”
So, what is the mathematical model of wisdom?
Wisdom Coded
Wisdom is the element of intelligence that is always stable, present and can be relied upon to provide perfect insight and action.
Whereas all of these mathematical models used in machine learning take a problem from point A to point B, wisdom presents new knowledge that cannot be accessed simply by following code
Only through complete relaxation of the human mind is wisdom received.
Machine automation is relieving society from working and living in ways that we’ve grown accustomed to but that are not supportive of wisdom. In effect, we are engaging in a mass re-coding of society, an upgrade of our human operating system in order to more readily align with wisdom in any given circumstance.
From this space of greater ease and openness, the types of devices we develop are more supportive of intrinsic human values.
Artificial Wisdom
Core human values are those qualities that promote peace: kindness, respect, inclusivity, intimacy, connectedness, gratitude, openness, love.
So far we have built technology in a similar way to how society currently works.
Advertisements use AI to know what we’re interested in with the aim to sell us something and do more targeted ads; social media enables us to say whatever is on our mind, with very little if any accountability; and bias is a term that comes up again and again in the world of AI.
All of these are indicators of today’s human being-ness, but as we get smarter and more refined in what we expect from the technology that is supporting us, we want more. We’re moving into a time where technology really has to meet our needs and understand us more deeply if it is to have longevity.
Society is commanding a shift whereby technologies are sensitive to intrinsic human values. Not only is there the potential to solve the problems that are highlighted through automation, but to resolve associated behaviours by providing more comfortable and beneficial environments and systems. Artificial intelligence can take a particular field of knowledge, understand what the human component really wants from that field, give it to the human and then elevate the human, in turn, evolving its own code.
This is human-level technology and serves the elevation of our human intelligence to that of wisdom.
Human-Level Technology
Artificial intelligence and cyber-physical technologies are more powerful than any machine we have previously created. Everyone who contributes their data in any way is contributing to the development of these advanced technologies. We are all a part of the technological revolution.
When there is such immense power at our fingertips, there is no choice but to, “Focus on artificial wisdom; to create systems that by design follow a benevolent path”.
In fact, there is no other possibility.
It is impossible to create the kind of devices that provide authentic connection, feels human and develop in a way that honors the human process, without those advancements simultaneously aligning the human component with its original brilliance.
Intelligence is hot-wired to continually upgrade. Wisdom is going to lead the way as we enter this multi-faceted, cyber-physical reality, providing clarity and effortless expansion whilst discovering what human intelligence actually is.
