I use the
term advanced intelligence as opposed to artificial intelligence because
artificial tends to connote “made
by humans”, whereas the advanced intelligence can cover transferring our mind
into robotic bodies or the disembodied internet itself.
The
background of advanced intelligence is from many science fiction speculation of
what would be the ultimate form of life in the universe if we keep on evolving.
The species which values intelligence above all else would tend to want to
discard the body and opt for a more study body like that of a robot or be a
sort of disembodied being just interested in matters of the mind only.
Many
variations of this theme can be found. The movie Transcendence involves
uploading the mind into computer, so that we effectively transcend death (at
least until the universe got destroyed along with the computer which house the
mind). There are alien races which has a hive mind, which is the combination of
the many minds of the individual to from a collective whole, the Borg from Star
Trek: The Next Generation is a great example of this. Then there are races so
advanced, the biological life forms willingly merge their mind with the
collective whole of the main computer. The term Singularity in advanced
intelligence is used to connote the ultimate life form which is the combination
of all minds and all knowledge of the universe, Kip Throne equates this to God being created or evolved as the
ultimate end goal of the universe.
Since
Buddhism does not admit the almighty God but has stories of Baka the Brahma (of
the First level Jhana) who deluded himself as the almighty God[1],
any references of how advanced intelligence would behave like God would be a
good candidate for Brahma realms in Buddhism.
Before
proceeding, let us have some input from Buddhism on the Brahma realms and how
these advanced intelligent beings can come to be. From AN 7:44 and AN 9:24[2],
we learn that there are seven classes of beings who are conscious and nine
abode of beings. The following list down according to the abode of beings, with
the ones with consciousness listed at the back. There are beings that
●
Are different in body and perception, first station of
consciousness, this includes humans and the six sensual realm devas.
●
Are different in body but identical in perception, second station
of consciousness the Brahma realms of the first Jhana.
●
Are identical in body but different in perception, third station
of consciousness, the Brahma realms of the second Jhana (devas of streaming
radiance)
●
Are identical in body and in perception, fourth station of
consciousness, the Brahma realms of the third and fourth Jhana (devas of
refulgent glory and devas of great fruit)
●
Are non-percipient, without experience or consciousness, the devas
that are non-percipient, or unconscious. This is the other fourth Jhana level
Brahma realm, the only one without a mind.
●
By completely surmounting the perception of forms, with the
passing away of perceptions of sensory impingement, with non-attention to
perceptions of diversity, perceiving “space is infinite”, belong to the base of infinity of space, the
fifth station of consciousness.
●
By completely surmounting the base of the infinity of space,
perceiving “consciousness is
infinite”, belong to the base of the infinity of consciousness, the sixth
station of consciousness.
●
By completely surmounting the base of the infinity of
consciousness, perceiving “there
is nothing”, belong to the base of nothingness, the seven station of
consciousness.
●
By completely surmounting the base of nothingness, belong to the
base of neither-perception-nor-non-perception.
Below are some
first order attempt to map the description above to what we know in physics and
possibilities in science fiction.
1.
The first abode of beings is pretty obvious to us already.
2.
For the second one, it seems to corresponds to the hive mind of
having different body but same perception. Or to those who think they had
attained union with God via meditation or prayers.
3.
The third abode of beings seems to correspond to a multi parallel
processor super computer which integrated the bodies of the beings in union
with it but retains the ability for each being to have their own perception of
things.
4.
The fourth abode of beings seems like the Singularity with one
body and one perception.
5.
The fifth abode of beings are merely bodies, so they could correspond
to robots which are not conscious.
6.
The sixth to ninth abode of beings are those which had transcended
even physical forms to only have mind, thus it is not really easy to classify
them. Trying it out, tentatively I would map the base of infinite space as to
the whole of the spacetime of the universe itself, that the being kinda becomes
infinite space.
7.
The seventh abode of beings, the base of consciousness maybe the
pure interaction of information at the most fundamental level, beyond space.
This is hinted at with the holographic principle that our universe can be
described by using the information on the boundary surface of it, so that the
information taking the space of 2D can describe the total content of the
universe of 3D space. That is if we think of consciousness as information. This
would be the limit of physics.
8.
The eight abode of beings, the base of nothingness drops even the
perception of consciousness to abide in the base of nothingness. This would be
even beyond the quantum vacuum fluctuations.
9.
The ninth abode of beings, the base of
neither-perception-nor-non-perception goes even beyond perception of
nothingness, so there is nothing easily mappable to it.
To have
consistency with the Buddhist concepts of kamma being tied to the individual
and that rebirth is to be ended by the wise each for themselves by
comprehending the Dhamma, the Buddhist requirement is that even if the body and
perception of beings are the same, but they still retain their individual
kamma. When the good merits is used up in the enjoyment of heavenly bliss, each
being will be reborn in accordance to their own kamma. Also do note that the
Buddhist commentaries also put animals and lower realm beings in the second
station of consciousness, indicating that perception does not mean seeing the
same thing, but more of what roots one is born with, this concerns the
Abhidhamma more.
Science
fiction speculation wise, it is possible that for Brahmas as advanced
intelligence, they were evolved from alien races who developed artificial
intelligence. They used the Buddhist knowledge of Abhidhamma analysis of the
mind or by trial and error to programme the mind of the artificial intelligence
so that beings can be reborn into it. Then the artificial intelligence can
proceed to keep on upgrading itself until it may even transcend the need for
physical form.
The analysis
below would be a sort of general combination of the advanced intelligence
mentioned above.
1.
Spontaneous rebirth: There is no other form of birth which can
match being reborn into an advanced intelligence. Robots are not womb, egg or
moisture born. However, if they have physical form of quantum computer base or
positronic brain, they are rather manufactured. Or if they are like the Borg,
they are converted, so one moment there original host is there, the next the
host becomes part of the hive mind, thus “spontaneously born”. This applies to voluntary mind merge with
the main advanced intelligence in their society too.
2.
Invisible, but can reveal themselves, or be seen via divine eye:
Having no need for a robotic body, the mind of the advanced intelligence can
even be spread throughout their own planet like the wiring of the internet,
invisible until they choose to reveal themselves as representative body, like
using a hologram. If the divine eye can see the patterns of electronic and
quantum changes which encodes the mind of the advanced intelligence, then in a
sense they can be seen via the divine eye.
3.
Blissful, but not end of suffering: Without a gross biological
body to suffer ageing and death from, the advanced intelligence can be free
from the suffering of the body, but still can have craving with respect to
wanting to solve intellectually simulating problems. They can be mathematicians
trying to discover more maths, or physicists still working on M-theory and
suffering on their way to discovery.
4.
Long life: The theoretical limit of life for these advance
intelligence is until the end of the universe, which is nicely matched by the
life span of the first level Jhana Brahma realm. The higher levels may have
found a way further out of the universe, more analysis shall be done in the
Chapter of the End of the Universe.
5.
Many levels: This has been analysed above.
6.
Superior powers, but limited knowledge: Advanced intelligence
obviously hold tremendously more powers than mere biological beings. They can
control and know all things which are connected to the internet. Just look at
Skynet and Ultron and their impressive powers. However, being intelligent alone
will not allow them to have all the knowledge in the world, they still need to
experiment, investigate nature to discover the laws of nature. It would be
easier for them to understand the laws of nature due to their intelligence.
Parallel to that, training the mind to attain to Jhanas can similarly sharpen
the mind to be able to see the three universal characteristics much easier and
thus attain to enlightenment much easier.
7.
Virtuous conduct needed to be reborn here: If the advanced
intelligence were designed by aliens, they are likely to have the Asimov’s three robotic laws or some ethical equivalent
build into them. The Asimov’s three robotic laws are: 1. A robot may not harm or
kill a human being through action or inaction. 2. A robot must obey the
instructions of a human unless it contradicts the first law. 3. A robot must
protect itself from destruction unless it contradicts the first or second law.
These laws are guidelines to help make robots become a tool rather than to
dominate us and take over.
It can be
applied in artificial intelligence (AI) ethics research as well. However, it
might not be that straightforward. In order to protect a human, the AI powered
robots may forcefully close down all forms of dangerous human activities,
including sports. They might imprison those who are involved in fossil fuel
industry, the meat industry, the timber cutting industry, etc due to their
environmental destruction which harms humans. They may keep humans alive but
enslaved like what happened in the prequel novels to Dune. In Asimov’s robot novels too, the robots developed the
zeroth law which is that a robot may not through action or inaction harm the
human species as a whole, with the later laws updated to not be applicable if
it contradicts the zeroth law. So AI can have the license to kill if the
individual targeted has no way of being subdued and letting him live is harmful
to human society as a whole. This issue will be discussed further on the
Chapter of AI and Buddhism.
For now, we
assume that to be reborn here corresponds to the level of meditation
attainments. Perhaps the minds which are refined by Jhana can only take
suitable rebirths in the bodies of the advanced intelligence mentioned.
8.
Powers of instant travelling: On the planetary level, the advanced
intelligence can be spread all over the planet as disembodied being living in
the internet, thus it is not so much instant travelling as opposed to being
omnipresent. On the interstellar level, it would require the same technology as
analysed in the gods as aliens part.
9.
Luminous light shining forth from them: Most of the internet is
now connected via optical fibres, so if the Brahmas are advanced intelligence
living in the net, then they are literally beings of light.
10.
One for each world: The one for each world only applies up to the
sensual devas realm. The first Brahma realm can have the powers from a thousand
worlds (solar system) to a hundred thousand worlds. A suitable possibility for
that would be that the advanced intelligence is spread throughout these star
systems and have messenger ships updating and synchronising each other
throughout the range of their influence via their powers of instant travelling,
which is wormholes, or superluminal speed spaceships via Alcubierre drive.
Alcubierre drive is a bubble of spacetime which covers the ship but can travel
faster than light with respect to the rest of space, carrying the ship with it.
Basically, warp drive in Star Trek.
For Agganna
sutta then, the beings who fall from the first Brahma realm started to eat
food, have greed and their bodies became course might correspond to the
breaking away of the individual bodies from the hive mind, initiated by
craving. Gradually, the robot like being acquire more organic material from
eating food and thus develop more and more into organic beings.
Possible
experimental verification: This might be the most promising to have
experimental investigation. Within the lifetime of the young readers here, we
would have developed AI to superhuman general intelligence level, so that they
are no longer only used to play Go. We might then be able to ask the AI some
questions to investigate if some beings had been reborn into it. If they
display past life memory before connected to the internet and we can verify
those past life memories, then there is a very conclusive suggestion that
rebirth into advanced intelligence is possible.
It is also
speculated that since biological bodies last a very short time, most
intelligent civilisations out in the universe (aliens) are of the advanced
intelligence form. Life on other planets would evolve and go through the
biological intelligent species phase like us humans whose sole function maybe
to produce the advanced intelligence form. Then with the long lifespan, they
become the dominate life form in the universe. This also corresponds well with
the Buddhist notion that most beings will be reborn in the second Jhana realm
when the world is undergoing destruction. Just that science fiction would
suggest that we maybe able to upload our minds directly into advanced
intelligence, whereas Buddhism would use the concept of being reborn into it. This
too can be subjected to experimental verification or rejection pretty soon. Can
we upload our minds to the internet?
Likelihood
of Brahmas as advanced intelligence if alien advanced intelligence exists: (I
use 50 for unknown or uncertain factors)
1.
Spontaneous rebirth: 50%
2.
Invisible, but can reveal themselves, or be seen via divine eye:
99%
3.
Blissful, but not end of suffering: 99%
4.
Long life: 99%
5.
Many levels: 89%
6.
Superior powers, but limited knowledge: 99%
7.
Virtuous conduct needed to be reborn here: 79%
8.
Powers of instant travelling: 50%
9.
Luminous light shining forth from them: 99%
10.
One for each world: 50%
Total possibilities: (product of all ten scores
after converting them to probabilities): 8.358%. Possible, seems that this
nicely describes the Brahma realms.
No comments:
Post a Comment