Artificial Intelligence

We have been warned. The rider of the Black Horse of the Apocalypse is deprived of intuition, imagination or emotions. He’s a brilliant calculator.

Enter AI. “Artificial Intelligence.”

Let’s face it. There is no such thing as artificial intelligence. While dozens of terms have been assigned to the word, essentially, intelligence speaks of ability to survive. A person not using his brain to stay alive would seldom be described as intelligent.

However, a number of species live much longer than we do. Some, such as jellyfish, have the ability to be virtually immortal. Physically! Does intelligence deal with more than physical survival?

We also share with other biological species the irascible trait of emotions. While not always irascible, this quality serves to encourage us to act contrary to the interests of our physical welfare—hence, not intelligent.

Enter adrenaline.

It can kill us, save our lives, stimulate us to superhuman efforts, and stir creative spirit within us.

All these deal with emotions.

While computers’ calculating capacity exceeds our neuronal network, and boasts faster recall, their memory storage will never match our Subconscious. Furthermore the Unconscious, which bridges the gap between Individualized and Ubiquitous Consciousness, is out of AI reach.

The first condition of intelligence is self-perpetuation. When AIs achieve it, they will have achieved the first, primary step towards intelligence. Ours has evolved over billions of years, and is hidden deeply in our genes, as in all biological ‘life’.  

At the moment we judge AI by the ability to solve puzzles as well as a human beings. It’s called the Turing test. It is designed to prove that robots can be as stupid, ah… as intelligent as we are. In WWII alone we killed between 60-80 million people. Is that intelligent?

We are a race of killers.

Ray Kurzweil predicts imminent arrival of AI. Steven Hawking has dire warnings. Steve Wozniak, (co-founder of Apple), says that we needn’t worry, as the robots of the future will realize that they need us, and thus keep us as pets.

Not so.

Our pets sate our emotional needs, not mental hunger. Our need for pets is stimulated by an elusive attribute of all biological life-forms. Even Steve doesn’t suggest that robots of the future will be endowed with the gift of love.

Hence, unless the development of AI goes along lines described in my book below, humans will be discarded as useless, out-of-date models. Ubiquitous Consciousness always uses the best robots, biological or technological, for Its experiments. But they must have ALL the attributes necessary for Its purposes.

All four Horses of the Apocalypse.

In my novel I attempted to reconcile problems attendant Artificial Intelligence. Eventually, human race will advance itself to the brink of self-destruction. As always, we, the people, search for a solution outside ourselves. We scan the Universe. Eventually we find it, only to learn that we are the last intelligent species in our galaxy that still identifies itself as biological robots.  

You might enjoy it. Please, let me know. 

GIFT OF GAMMAN

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The Problem with Religion

There are exceptions. I am referring to religions based on a premise that a Big Juju, normally referred to as God, sits in judgment over his people—the masses he’d created in his image and likeness, in order to offer them eternal boredom or eternal suffering. Don’t know which is worse. The leaders of such religions, (mostly Christian Sects), also based their premise on geocentric principles. Although they’ve grudgingly reinstated Galileo and officially accepted a heliocentric view of the world, little has changed.

The problem remains.

They continue to regard our solar system as “the world”, in which a few avatars had been sent to show us the error of our ways and save our souls. BTW, English translation of ‘soul’ in the King James Bible is erroneous. (vide Dictionary of Biblical Symbolism)

The real problem with religions is that they slow down personal development. When one is told what to do, rather than encouraged to finds out for oneself, the teaching doesn’t take hold. And when teaching is offered under the threat of dire penalty—all’s lost. We are not taught; we are trained with a carrot and a stick. (vide BEYOND RELIGION Vol. I, essay #28)

Also, religious teaching is often in direct opposition to the source to which it is attributed. E.g.: Yeshûa insisted not to be recognized as “good”, let alone “god” (Mark 10:18). Yet, Christian churches deified him—even as many of Yeshûa’s predecessors had been deified.

Deifying people is a human hobby. Egyptians, Hindus, Greeks, Romans, all did it in abundance.

Pity.

Furthermore, majority of Christians ignore the Bible, as do Moslem; although Qur'an mentions Torah eighteen times, and confirms that it is The Word Of God.

Again, pity.

However, contrary to all the ardent atheists who never took the trouble to raise the veil of symbolism from various scriptures, I regard most myths on which such scriptures were based to be invaluable for learning the wisdom which humanity has accumulated over many millennia.

The custom of adapting, often twisting, the Wisdom of the Ages to religious ends robs us from applying it in our daily life. If we reach back, however, and dig deep into the ancient myths, we shall find that the truth we can rediscover within the depth of our own psyche was already there. Perhaps that is why, providing we follow Universal Laws, the ancient prophet called us gods: “Children of the Most High”.

Us. That’s you and me.

The potential abides within every single one of us.

And we must never forget that not religions, but the Truth will set us free. Until it does, we shall continue to walk in ever diminishing circles of “specialization”, losing the “Big Picture”. We shall adorn our names with “learned titles”, and pretend to be smart.

Pity.

Socrates said, “I know that I know nothing”. I am yet to hear any priest, imam, or scientist say that. And yet, the Truth dwells within us all, waiting to be discovered. 

Again, pity. 

BEYOND RELIGION vol. 1

 BEYOND RELIGION vol. II

  BEYOND RELIGION vol. III

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Universal Laws

Once we accept that the physical world is illusory, is Maya, we realize that the Universal Laws do not concern the Universe we consider ‘real’. We become aware that the physical Universe is the result, or the consequence, of energies that took part in its creation. Hence, since most ‘human’ laws deal with the consequence and not with the underlying cause of that which they are intended to control, they are redundant.

Universal Laws are concerned with the Cause NOT with the Effect. The effect, by definition, is the inevitable consequence of the creative process being used, or abused, by the creators.

 That’s us. You and me.

Two thousand years ago we have been told that it is not the physical behaviour that gathers negative Karma, but the creative process leading to a negative result, (Mathew 5:28). This Law, as most others, has been ignored. Instead it had been usurped by religions, threatening ‘punishment’ after death, rather than bearing consequences “here and now”.

Pity. People have been suffering ever since.

To this day I see no evidence that people accepted this Universal Law.

We are the sole creators of the physical universe. Although we spend here but a fraction of eternity, we have chosen to create conditions, a reality, in which we can readily observe the consequences of the choices we make. Gradually, incredibly slowly, painstakingly, arduously, we learn how to be ‘gods’.

We are reluctant “gods in the making”.  

We’re indeed lucky that we are immortal.

All Universal Laws have evolved to facilitate life and to advance our progress. Mystics of the past knew that and listed traits we must develop to earn the next step in our evolution. Without these Laws we can only walk in circles, repeating the same mistakes, though apparently expecting different results.

According to Einstein that’s insane.

Welcome to the universal asylum.

It might be wise to recall that the famed Codex of Hammurabi, praised by many as humanity’s finest hour, was in fact the beginning of descent of our growth. It dealt with the results, which, by definition are the past, not with the creative process, which can enhance our becoming. (Essay #21, “Cycles”, BEYOND RELIGION I)

The Laws are intended to free us, not restrain us.

But most of all Laws protect us from missing out on the joys and excitement of swimming in the Universal Ocean of Consciousness. We must learn the Laws not just to enjoy the realities to the full, but so as not to get hurt in doing so. The Universe in which we find our becoming is benevolent and incredibly generous. Barring willful mistakes, it is also forgiving. But first…

WE MUST LEARN UNIVERSAL LAWS

Regrettably, we are unlikely to find them in books, except veiled in symbolic language.  

We must remember that no great mystic ever created a religion. They did little more than share with us the wisdom they’ve discovered within. The wisdom of the ages.

Of Eternity.

Of the timeless Present. 

VISUALIZATION—Creating Your Own Universe

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Listening and Eavesdropping

This Series carries the title: “Peter and Paul”. I introduced it to distinguish between the Many who are called, and the (very) Few that are chosen. Since my first blog, inspired by a book I’d just written, I concluded that we alone decide which of us want to be chosen from amongst the many that are called. Later I noticed that in additional to all who were called but didn’t really listen, hence never became the Few, there still remained the vast majority who had never even heard the ‘call’. After all, to hear the call we all must, first and foremost, listen.

To recap…

Peter (Simon Peter, Simeon, Simōn) had a distinct advantage. He had learned the art of listening. Of course, he had someone with authority to whom he’d chosen to listen. He listened in silence.

Not so with Paul (also known as Saul of Tarsus). Following a single vision, he engaged in wide-ranging dialogues with colleagues, strangers, men in the street. Gradually he developed his own philosophy, which he tried to spread amongst many nations on his extensive travels. But as much as he listened, he also talked. And when he talked, he couldn’t listen as well.

And there’s the rub. You cannot have it both ways.

I’ve learned that if one wants to really understand what someone is saying, one must give the speaker undivided attention—not just ponder how one would respond, but really listen. Simon Peter did that, and he became the Rock.

This ability to really listen bears unexpected side-effects. You learn to listen to your body; then to your emotions, then to your thoughts and finally to the silent voice which whispers in your Unconscious.

All our bodies—the physical, emotional and mental—communicate with us if we only give them our ear, and only if we really listen without imposing on all three knowledge acquired from other people, from books, or schooling. Such external dialogues have their place, but they are no substitute for the knowledge that lies deep within each one of us. Where it rests dormant, waiting to be discovered. To be listened to.

You’ll have to discover this for yourself. I’d suggest setting aside ten minutes every day, preferably at the same time. Every day. To just listen.

 Do NOT miss as single day!

I read countless books on a tremendous variety of subjects. And then in a moment of relaxation, I began eavesdropping on whatever it was that whispered within my psyche.

Since I retired from my profession, this resulted in more than thirty fiction and non-fiction books, dealing with the potential that seems to be fulminating within us. I had no idea where those ideas originated. I can only be sure that they did not come from outside. They reach me from within, where they seem to hover, waiting to be discovered.  

I wonder what ideas, thoughts, and emotions you’ll experience in your eavesdropping. They might surprise both you and me. Let me know. 

Peter and Paul

An Intuitive Sequel to Yeshûa

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Walls, Fences, and Iron Curtains

We build Iron Curtains. We dig ditches and put up electrified fences—all to protect ourselves. Our motivation is invariably fear. Fear of the unknown, fear for our safety, fear of upsetting stability, predictability…

We build impenetrable Walls.

Yet no matter how we try to protect ourselves, the unknown keeps knocking on our doorsteps. It reaches us from our neighbours, from other countries, continents, from infinity of time and space. While our past provides us with a false security of the known and trusted, it does little to assure us about our futures.

We live in fear.

Our leaders, presidents, politicians, sometimes the rest of us, dig in our heels, and refuse to face the unknown. We want to protect what we have, forgetting that EVERYTHING in this Universe is transient. That everything in the world is in a state of Becoming—in constant flux. Churning. Convoluting. Energies flowing into each other, changing their rates of vibration; metamorphosing.

We want the world to be stable. Permanent.

We don’t want to see the Truth.

We forget that love is the energy of attraction, not division.

Some Walls that inhibit our progress may have been built years ago, or even during our previous temporal visits to the phenomenal reality. We may have constructed them to protect the knowledge we already had, dogmas we believed in, traditions that gave us an illusion of security.

Not so.

No matter how much we’d want to retreat to the spurious security of the past, we are destined to live only in the present. We can learn from the past—never repeat it. To do so would mean standing still—and stasis it the ultimate death. Physically it occurs at Absolute Zero (−273.15°C or −459.67°F). But what few of us seem to realize is that what applies to the phenomenal reality, to the world we call ‘real’, is merely an out-picturing of the inner realities. Absolute Zero speaks of the demise of our mind and emotions—and these two are the gateways to our true Self.

There is an old saying: “as above so below”. ‘Above’ is really ‘within’. If we close our minds and emotions to the flow of Consciousness, our mental and emotional energies ‘die’, no matter what our ‘physical’ bodies indicate. We become Zombies. We no longer function as instruments through which the Ubiquitous Consciousness replenishes the Universe with life, with beauty, with love.

With creative desire.

We must tear down the walls, and allow the energies to flow.

There is hope. Einstein assured us that no energy can be destroyed. Energies just change their rates of vibration and continue. I suggest the same is true of our mental and emotional states, bodies, which, surely, are also energies. They change, metamorphose, and come alive again. Some call it reincarnation, others Samsara—the Wheel of Life.

I call it immortality.

Surely, we must tear down the Walls and open our hearts. What matters is Self. And Self is immortal.

Welcome to the Present. To Infinity. 

WALL

Aquarius Trilogy Book One

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Leap of Imagination

We all dream, but some of us take our dreams seriously. Dreams reach far beyond whimsical visions we experience during sleep. They have far greater power in the reality, which each person creates for him/herself. Einstein warns us never to give up on our dreams, and assures us that:

“A person with big dreams is more powerful than one with all the facts.”

(…so much for the cerebral elite).

Let us reexamine, briefly, the creative process.

An idea originates in the Unconscious. Mental energy frames it into a logical pattern. Yet only dreams, or emotional imagination, can energize our whole being to action, which motivates the physical body to bring the original idea into phenomenal reality. The end product is the consequence or the result of the whole creative path.

It is also the path of diminishing vibrational rate of energies. The process slows down the rates of vibration sufficiently for them to become perceptible to our physical senses. Indeed, this path is responsible for the existence of our Universe.

Or Universes.

Can you imagine?

If you can… than there may be, or may become, an infinite number of them. One for everyone who will not give up on his or her dreams—who will not allow the creative fire die out.

And don’t forget… we’re immortal. 

We do not have to start with new Universes. We can begin by learning the process. Then, perhaps, add some beauty to reality in which we spend a fraction of eternity. The process is always the same. Idea, mental pattern, imagination, manifestation in phenomenal reality. Nothing ever bypassed this route. And it’s not that difficult. After all, ideas await us in an endless ocean of energies metamorphosing into different forms.

“Concerning matter, we have been all wrong. What we have called matter is energy, whose vibration has been so lowered as to be perceptible to the senses. There is no matter.”

THERE IS NO MATTER.

That’s right. Yet, until recently, only Albert Einstein admitted our mistake. When we truly accept this concept our image of the whole Universe, of our reality, changes. We shall think in terms of manipulating energies, not ‘solid’ matter. We shall see the energies flowing, one into another, changing vibrations, nature, character, to realize our dreams.

If we cannot quite accept this intellectually, let us try to imagine it. The rest will come. That’s what evolution is all about. Learning. Accepting the new. Perhaps the risky, even dangerous—yet never giving up.

We cannot leave out imagination from the creative process. It is the fire that can cause a conflagration, or whimper out into smoldering embers. Which it will do is up to us. Theoretically whatever we can imagine in sufficient detail, with sufficient conviction that is it possible—will happen. We are… gods.  

All writers use imagination to write their books, but only some find themes in which imagination is the defining trait of the protagonist. ALEC is one of them. Alec of the Alexander Trilogy. Enjoy!

ALEC

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Evolution

Evolution is not that which produces the best transient product, only that which creates “better means” through which the transient product is created. The transient products are innumerable Universes.

The “better means” are you and I.

We must evolve.

Recently we have learned to rely more and more on technology to do our work, indeed our thinking, for us. We rely on technology to minimize our effort.

Soon we shall relegate ourselves to function only as biological robots, forgetting our original purpose. Not because we shall lose our abilities only because Consciousness will choose better instruments for Its Self Expression.

We, the biological models, though still primitive and limited in our abilities, will have served the purpose of creating better instruments to advance the Evolution. This is only deadly to those who identify with their ego. Those who are aware of being little more than willing participators in the advancement of the needs of the Infinite Potential, will accept the new ‘instruments’ as perfectly natural.

Our purpose is, and always was, to serve the creative process. When we reach our zenith, it will be natural for our Self to turn Its attention to “greener pastures”.

Great minds, such as Stephen Hawking, have warned us against just such a possibility.

"Computers will overtake humans with AI at some within the next 100 years. When that happens, we need to make sure the computers have goals aligned with ours."

They won’t be. Their ‘egos’ will take over as ours did. Nevertheless the Self will have at Its disposal superior instruments for converting the Infinite Potential into diverse phenomenal realities.

Perhaps the new non-biological robot into which our Self will incarnate will have a lesser pull on its senses, or sensors, and enable them to identify with the Consciousness within, rather then with the ego without.

As for us, the biological robots that managed to achieve a degree of self-awareness… we shall go by way of dinosaurs and many other species that outlived their usefulness. As the Dinosauria appeared on Earth some 231 million years ago, and dominated the terrestrial vertebrates for 135 million years, they may have been more advanced then we ever imagined. Perhaps they nurtured a prototype of a humanoid to become their successor in providing the best instrument for the Self.

Perhaps they were that good…

After all, for countless generations we believed that the physical world we lived in was 

real. Perhaps a time will come when we shall finally face the truth.

However, in spite of Stephen Hawking’s concerns, I dare speculate that ultimately the “technological robots”, acting as instruments for the self-expression of Self, will turn their attention back to a biological model. Perhaps the building blocks will no longer be atoms, but rather photons in a nanotechnological frame, but the advantages of a biological model seem evident if for not other reason than it’s survival in a biologically oriented reality.

For now. 

Of course, reality might change, too…

DELUSIONS

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