There are some articles being published in the press regularly regarding the dangers of Artificial Intelligence (AI). Two articles that I read are linked to below. I hope you will be able to read them as you may require to buy a subscription to the Times of India in order to do so. If you cannot access these articles don’t worry. They just make the point that AI comes with serious dangers.
But the point I want to make in this article is that we cannot do without AI and that it should be encouraged. It may need to be regulated but it needs to be encouraged as well. I think in fact that the human race and civilization will not be able to survive indefinitely unless scientific research (including AI) is given the maximum possible encouragement.
The reason for my thinking so is simple. We are faced with the threat of climate change and there is also the fact that the natural resources of our planet are sure to be exhausted a few hundred years from now. Modern civilization with its consumerist culture cannot continue indefinitely.
And the only way out is through more science and not less.
Bertrand Russell made this point decades ago (in the 1950s I think). If you are interested in reading his thoughts about this subject please refer to his book, The Basic Writings of Bertrand Russell. Link to buy the book is below (not an affiliate link):
Due to Arnold Schwarzenegger’s Terminator movies we have all been made aware of the dangers of AI with computers becoming self aware and trying to destroy the human race and so on. I do not know enough about this subject to be able to comment on it. I can only say that governments and scientific researchers are aware of this danger and are consulting with experts in Tibetan Buddhism, Advaita Vedanta, Samkhya philosophy and so on. It is quite possible that the experts can offer not just insights but also a solution that will deal with this potential threat. Fingers crossed.
Following is a link to a YouTube video featuring Swami Sarvapriyananda on Advaita Vedanta. It is a two hour video but the bits relating to AI are covered in the passage starting at about 1 hour 14 minutes and ends at 1 hour 27 minutes. Hope you find this interesting. But it may be a little difficult for you to understand if you don’t have a background in Advaita.
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