AI versus thoughts.
Driving a car,
We have to get a license,
Right?
But now driving around in a body car in something we know nothing about,
In a universe we know nothing about,
Surely someone should have suggested that we get a license.
We don't even know what a thought is or what's driving a thought.
So what is a thought?
A thought is just a label,
Something that we can use and store in memory.
But just to understand what thoughts are,
If we have a thought and it hasn't been labeled,
The thought is useless.
So in other words,
First you have an experience and then that experience gets named for us,
Right?
So experiencing a butterfly,
For instance,
If I don't know what I'm experiencing,
I might be knowing everything there is to know about the experience,
But until it is named,
The thought is useless.
And also,
I cannot have a thought about something that I haven't experienced.
You cannot have a thought about my mother,
For instance,
Because you've got nothing to refer to.
So naming all our experiences,
The thoughts we have are just labels that we get and we store in the memory of the mind.
So storing all our experiences in the filing cabinet of the mind,
We get to use all our thoughts when and if we need them.
So this is where self-knowledge,
Rather than telling us what to think,
Teaches us how to think and how to use what we call the mind.
So when it comes to AI,
What is AI?
AI is just working at the speed of thought.
And when you actually analyze it,
Thoughts are slow compared to consciousness.
The problem is we,
Human beings,
Keep taking the thoughts to be ourselves,
Taking our thoughts personally.
A computer doesn't have this problem.
So as long as we keep taking our thoughts personally,
Sentimentalizing thoughts,
Computers that don't have this problem are going to run rings around us.
So what we need to start to understand is what is a thought?
A thought is only useful if it's labeled,
As we saw earlier.
If the thought hasn't been labeled,
Then what use is it?
Having the thought of ourselves without knowing what it means or the meaning of this word I drives us all completely crazy.
There's eight billion of us,
Unlicensed drivers,
Driving around in the world not knowing what thoughts are,
And the main thought and main culprit being this I thought is driving all our behavior,
Driving us all crazy.
So first of all,
If we want to leave computers where they belong and not get all caught up in it and AI,
We need to know who we are,
Who is the thinker.
Otherwise,
Computers not having the problem of dealing with sentimentality and personalization will leave us behind.
So to be able to no longer identify ourselves as a thought,
Which I mean can never be the case because I can never be the thought I have,
I can never be a thought I'm having,
I must be the one having the thought.
Consciousness is already there,
Already present.
We don't even have to learn anything.
All we need to unlearn is what we've taken ourselves to be,
Which we are not,
A thought.
Already the quickness itself,
Already conscious,
Before we can even think of being conscious,
We already are present,
That presence in which all thoughts and thinking is taking place.
What do you have to do to be that?
Nothing,
All that's making us absent is one thought,
AI.
So in order to stop getting lost in that thought,
We need to have knowledge,
Self-knowledge,
Which gives us the license to drive this body vehicle.
Thank you for joining me and I hope you enjoyed this talk and have the best time.
