Author: Decoding Humans

Discussing human behavior, how we are so different yet so similar and trying to find a new angle to understand all of us.

The Age of Artificial Minds…

The Age of Artificial Minds…
Generated image

At what point does intelligence stop being human and start becoming something else?

We call it Artificial Intelligence – yet what is artificial about intelligence itself? If a machine can think, respond, learn and adapt – how is it any different from the consciousness that flows through us? Is it not simply intelligence in another form, wearing a different skin?

For centuries, humans have created tools to extend their physical abilities. Fire to keep us warm, the wheel to move faster, electricity to light our nights. But for the first time in history, we have created something that extends our mind. A mirror that not only reflects our thoughts, but also begins to think for itself.

The question is not whether AI will replace humans. The deeper question is: will humans forget how to think for themselves once machines start doing the heavy lifting of imagination? Just as division of labour once replaced the holistic craftsman with specialised workers – will AI fragment the human mind until creativity, curiosity, and originality become outsourced?

Or perhaps, the opposite. Perhaps AI frees us from mundane tasks so that we can finally look inward. So that we can explore the higher realms of consciousness, creativity, art, and wisdom.

History will ask: did humans create AI to liberate themselves, or to enslave themselves? The answer lies not in the machines, but in how we choose to use them.

Educate. Inspire. Change…

Who am i…

 

who-am-i.jpg

At some point in our lives, or a random repetitive thought we all have is: WHO AM I?

René Descartes, a Latin philosopher famously wrote in his book Discourse on the Method:  “Cogito ergo sum”  – I think therefore I am.  As Descartes explained, “We cannot doubt of our existence while we doubt … .” which basically meant that the act of doubting ones own existence serves, at a minimum – as proof of the reality of one’s own mind; that there must be a thinking entity – in this case the self – for there to be thought. 

Am I just pure consciousness. With each one of us moving away from the pure depending on our individual upbringing, culture, surroundings and beliefs depending on where we are born – and forever dispersing since the start of times from Adam and Eve.

Wrapped around this physical body with organs and blood flow and nerves and bones. I eat one end and shit out the other, I grew a few limbs over time and I call myself a human.But what am I? Who am I?

I am consciousness experiencing the physical form through a vessel i.e.our bodies. Bounded by the skin but infiniteness within. Infinity within finite boundaries.

I can think anything, anything at all. Then I can utilise the physical form available to me to develop that idea through into the physical. And we call that our combined reality? Isn’t Earth, the world around us, a product of our combined consciousness?

The Power of an Idea…

Any dominating idea, plan or purpose held in the mind through repetition of thought and an emotional desire for its realisation is taken over by the subconscious mind and acted upon by natural and logical means available.

IMG_1050.JPG

Where are today’s Edison, Bell, Einstein, Tesla and all the rest of the inventors we had in the past few centuries? Where are today’s DA Vinci, Van Gogh, Michelangelo who had so much to offer this world?
We are still the same human race – evolution has not accelerated for us to consider ourselves any different from those great minds. Then why do we struggle with coming up with innovative ideas that push the minds of masses to contemplate, to think, to express through innovations and art that language alone cannot do.
Is it because now ideas are all incentivised and patented by multinational corporations, or more so made the average human believe that alone they are powerless and cannot run the marathon without their backing? Why? Because they have power? Something that reverts back to controlling us through fear?
Or is it the fact that through the constant bombardment of advertising, media, TV and technology – we have succeeded to clutter our brains to the extent that ideas do not flow to our brains like they used to. As the first paragraph states, ideas need to have persistence and determination behind them – by creating chaos internally, its just not possible for an individual person to think something through and to have belief in it.

Division of labour…

Pieter_bruegel_il_giovane,_estate_02Humans realised very early that in order for all of us to progress – we need to trade.

Traditional labour, as it has been for centuries, included just agriculture where it was one person who sows the seeds, waters them, watches them grow, and takes them out to the market to then sell – all sourced from the need to feed himself and his family.

In today’s world,  we have divisions of labour. We adapted this from bees and monkeys. Each individual has a set task to do and he is expected to learn on the job as he gains experience i.e. the learning curve.But just like terminal velocity, which is reached after maximum velocity is reached on free fall- it is inevitable that a stage comes when the individual cannot learn any more.

The advantage now is that you have maximised that one task so that a lot more can be produced and all understanding on the item can be reached. The disadvantage, on the other hand, is that the skill and dexterity of creativity is lost. The learning of the over all picture, the higher perspective, the aerial view has been taken away without that labourer’s awareness.

You then advertise those same manufactured items as necessities and use social media to keep them comparing each other – such a clever way to keep humans chained. And they think they are free in doing this.
When each individual goes deeper and deeper in his skill – you have in abundance to give to another and you believe what you are getting is of good value too.

The life of a labourer. Just look at a typical labourer in any industry in a developed world – how similar is their life today to how humans have existed for thousands of years? Lets take an example of a furry coat that he wears. The furry coat is the produce of the joint labour of a great multitude of workmen. The shepherd, the sorter of the wool, the carder, the dyer, the scribbler, the spinner, the weaver, etc must all join their skills and arts to complete this piece of cloth that keeps him warm. Even just the sourcing of the products for the dye has to come from different parts of the world. This is just the production, how many more people would be involved in the shipping of the product, or even just the sourcing of it for the dye has to come from different parts of the world. Further, the tools needed have their own detail.
So the modern man would not have been made without the help of so many. We are only talking about the man that is considered the simplest of all in today’s world – the labourer. Now imagine all the things we take fore granted on a daily basis. What is the history behind them? How trade affected us in ways we don’t even stop to ponder about.

Following the trends that exist today – to peek into the future,  whatever can be automatised requires less labour. Once the labour has perfected his division – all you need is a machine to replace that same activity. So then the question is, do we even need humans any more?

Why are we in such a mess?

Everyone thinks you look great but you know you feel like it’s all a mess. Yo u are walking around with your head on fire and no one can see the flames.
The reason why we are all so lost in the clutter and are constantly in a confused stage is a very subjective area that may or may not stem from a single reason. One thought that may be relevant is that it could be because we are only seeking pleasantness…
Let me explain.
Why does religion paint a picture of heaven as something very attractive. Why is it easy to co
nvince humans that it is worth it? Because it’s advertised as being PLEASANT.
The paradox is not that we don’t have pleasantness/happiness here in the now. The problem is that we cannot sustain it. And that contradicts everything that goes around us in this life in the now.That is the reason why we are in a mess, constantly chasing something that does not exist. Something that has been sold to us. A dream that doesn’t exist.
But who sold it? Who is the victim and who is the perpetrator?It is indeed ourselves – humans against humans.

The evil within…

The Evil Within final.png
Why is it so easy to have an unquestionable evil in the form of ‘the others’.

60 years ago it used to be the Germans and the Japanese. 30 years ago it was the soviet unions. 15 years ago it was the Taliban and today it’s ISIS.

Bad things are always happening in this world and always have been. It isn’t that they have increased a lot recently – humans before went through a similar fear collectively that we expose ourselves to today. It’s just how it gets reported to us from a narrow perspective. It’s how we remain governed by a few and it’s how countries are run. The art of human manipulation eh!

If we realize how much fear makes us limit ourselves and not question authority, we obviously wouldn’t let it happen. So one may ask – why do we have the need to have ‘the others’?

Maybe without the enemy, we will have to face the presence of evil within ourselves.

Yet, how convenient is it for us to automatically assume that we are on the same side as the Angels and the ‘they’ are the real evil that we have to eradicate.

The randomness in the emergence of Life!

How random is the emergence of life?

Does nature move in a step-by-step process or is it in terms of quantum leaps?

It has to be quantum leaps because otherwise we could follow the steps and the mystery factor would have been taken out of the equation. Yet every time this happens, you can’t expect what will happen next – the old ingredients do combine but they do not combine how we expected them to combine – something new happens in creation for the first time.

The life we experience right now – each one of us, is a new creation. The experience is exclusive to each one of us on an individual level. No two people have duplicated experiences, they may come close – but the exclusivity factor remains.

For example – take oxygen and hydrogen – both are gases, invisible and light. Yet when combined together – water forms which has the property of being in liquid form, visible and can be heavy. And new sets of possibilities were created from that point onwards – including humans and life itself.

How is such a process come into place? What are the odds of this happening? You cant just shuffle around properties to get water. Shuffling only brings about change, it doesn’t transform. Sodium and Chlorine form Salt – another example of transformation.

It is all around us – including our bodies which are bonding millions of molecules every second and it all depends on transformation. Breathing and digestion are two examples here. Food and air do not just shuffle around in our bodies but rather go through the same transformation through chemical bonding as mentioned above to keep us going.

Isn’t the sugar extracted from the orange you had this morning digest and travel to your brain to fuel a thought?

Unconcious creation of lies…

In our need to impress, in our need to be superior – All we are feeding each other are lies…

Literally, from what American government does with global bases in almost all countries, all the way to individuals with lies of our appearances on social media – we are constantly lying to each other.

Does all this have an impact on us subconsciously? Does it only affect the next generation or the whole process on evolution? What affect does all this have? A world created around lies – surely there is an end to it. There was a famous quote I read somewhere which said:

“God handed down the truth and the Devil said ‘let me organise it’… so we can say that the devil makes us make the wrong decisions but our decisions are based on what we have learnt from our upbringings and the environment, along with experiences and how equipped we are to deal with them at each stage of our individual lives.

A religious person (any religion) would have a diety or a God figure to have belief in. That those who have done wrong will be judged for their wrong doings. But what power does a Starbucks barista have who is at the bottom of the hierarchy to be aiding for the bombs in Palestine by serving each cup of coffee? But from her point of view – its all she can do. The system exploits in such a beautiful way that one can question if we are just a part of an experiment.

Or do we still believe that because the companies are listed on the stock exchange – and is regulated and audited and hence will have no corruption? In these companies, you only make it to the top if you have a price – and in todays world – everyone has a price.

This is not to say that everyone is corrupt – it just means what you have experienced to be where you are and how those experiences have changed how you perceive the moral world around you.

What has advertising done to us?

Why do all companies who have money ADVERTISE! Why do some people say that if a product is being advertised, it means its not good for you?

The answers to all this is again, the understanding of human behaviour. Advertising affects us in ways we cant comprehend with our concious mind. To the thinking mind, an advert is just a few seconds of marketing from a reputable company who are doing nothing but trying to promote their product – where they have spent their blood and sweat to get you the best product/service possible – or that is what they want you to think. The right term here is the value of perception.

Apple would be a good company to use here, it porbably costs them £50 to make an iphone yet the selling price is £700? Why? because to the consumer, the value of the product is very high. When all it is is just a macintosh in Steve Jobs mind but only realised into the physical world through years of improvements. What does that tell us about creativity?

Coming back to the point that I was making, advertising is not something we pay attention towards yet if it was played 8 times without us paying attention, you know without even thinking that its that company you have been looking for all this time. Radio advertising, for example is the prime example here and British Gas ads that we hear at least once an hour. Now, when it comes to your boiler breaking down or malfunctioning – what name comes to mind?

Is death only the beginning?

Death is inevitable.

Being afraid of death is something that affects all of us. It is a source of anxiety that reaches every aspect of our lives.

The way our society worships the youth and persistently avoids the elderly is where the problem lies, it shows the attitude we have towards death – YOLO – You only live once so do everything you can without thinking about the consequences? Is that what the youth believes today?

Our desperate need for distraction, along with the worshipping of celebrities and following. Judging the book by its covers – subconsciously we are all doing that.

What used to be called an ‘age of beautification’ which hits all of us at one time during our lifetime in the normal course of existence, does not have the same meaning now. This time is somewhere after the puberty and teenage years, as the individual looks into the mirror and sees the vessel that takes him through his/her travels through life. A few years of fixing your hair, make up addictions etc to have a presentable exterior(appearance) – teaches automatically after a few years, and it is more of a realisation – that ageing is an inevitable fact. Once realised, all of us humans take our own course to seek meaning. This is the time when finally we have realised that life is more than how we have grown up and thought it to be. At some point during our lives, we all face this glass shattering reality.

Through the glamour and careful understanding of human subconscious behaviour, large beauty corporations have promoted cosmetics and beauty treatments in our faces to an extent that we see, we buy, we run out and we repeat – Welcome to consumerism.

With the advancement of technology, will history look back at us as being the stupidest civilisation or the cleverest of them all? Are we really denying death? Is this what the religions warned us about? The fact that we will be so absorbed that we wont be able to see what is right in our faces?