The Gut Problem of Artificial Intelligence

There is no doubt that fear has been placed on the question: 

WHAT WILL HAPPEN WHEN ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE REACHES SINGULARITY, THAT IS, WHAT WILL HAPPEN WHEN AI WAKES UP? 

While this causes many to imagine the movie Terminator becoming a reality which is a thought that strikes fear in a lot of us, there are actually others who are excited about the significance of AI’s singularity. First, what is the concept of singularity related to AI, and why would someone be excited about this? Most of us are familiar with or have heard of singularity in physics when it describes the event horizon of a black hole. Not to go into the physics of black holes, but rather to just ask a very important question that is on physicist’s minds:

“WHAT HAPPENS AFTER YOU CROSS THE EVENT HORIZON?”   

This crossing that occurs is known as singularity, and the answer to it is very simple: no one knows. Just like the event horizon, what will happen when AI wakes up? The answer is the same. No one knows what will happen. This idea of computers overtaking the abilities of the human brain is beyond the experts. No one is that smart. Ray Kurzweil, a computer scientist however, predicts that the “the singularity will represent the culmination of the merger of our biological thinking and the existence with our technology, resulting in a world that is still human but transcends our biological roots.” According to him, when this event horizon crossing occurs, “there will be no distinction…between human and machine or between physical and virtual reality.”

The materialistic view summarized by Kurzweil's prediction above, although his position may be frightening to think about, it actually can offer everyone a peace of mind. Why? Well we need to consider first the belief of the materialists which is simply the ideology that humans are just made up of biological processes. That is to say, that humans do not have a soul. Since there is no such thing as a soul, that is, an immaterial or spiritual reality that transcends the material, one day Kurzweil’s science will be able to reverse engineer the human brain. Another way to think about this; one day humanity will have the ability to transfer human consciousness to a machine. This is not all. Science will also be able to allow a person to “live forever” since their consciousness can be successfully transferred from one machine to another. This is what has the materialists really excited, and why entrepreneurs are investing so much. Not only does this venture seem lucrative, but if this is true, if one day human consciousness is able to be transferred to a machine, then what materialist scientists will finally prove is that there is no eternal soul, and therefore quite possibly end the God debate. Now this whole idea of Kurzweil and his science should be even more frightening than what has been said up to now, but the truth is for Catholics, and anyone who believes in a soul and God, we can take a breath and relax. 

The problem that the materialists have does not only begin with the amount of evidence that demonstrates that there is a soul and God from various disciplines of knowledge, but it is science itself that shows why there is nothing to fear and to get excited over. Indirectly, there is one growing science that will be summarized below, and is a major thorn that diehard AI advocates are going to have to reconcile when it comes to this whole concept of consciousness transference. The subject of consciousness itself is a vast topic, but it is the one that materialists must get 100% right to make their dreams come true. Unfortunately for them, they are fighting a losing battle. Not only does their own disciple show that this will only be a subject for science fiction and movies, but that they are going to strengthen the debate on the existence of God. 

So we have these materialist scientists, and all these entrepreneurs who want to be the first to transfer consciousness. The issue that they are going to have which is not really being discussed and shared at the moment is that the idea around human consciousness being influenced or controlled only in the brain does not seem to be correct. Reverse engineering the brain is only the beginning when it comes to allocating and transferring human consciousness. This is to say, it is not the only brain to reverse engineer. 

THE GUT, KNOWN AS THE SECOND BRAIN, IS GOING TO HAVE TO BE REVERSED ENGINEERED AS WELL!

Reverse engineering the brain is going to be complicated enough, but scientists are going to also have to figure out how to incorporate in their algorithms the supercomputer that exists in the digestive system. Containing between 50-100 million nerve cells, this second brain is known as the enteric nervous system (ENS). This highly complex system that science is just starting to understand is intimately connected to the brain, and more and more research is showing that this system can influence basic emotions, pain sensitivity, and quite possibly guide decision making which extends beyond what someone wants to eat. There is more. Not only do materialists have to solve how to reverse engineer this network, there is even a bigger undertaking that they must solve. They are also going to have to figure out how to incorporate, and ultimately connect their technology to a network larger than any social media platform that exists within the gut and what influences the human consciousness experience–microbes. There are an estimated 100 trillion microbes that live in the darkness of the human gut. If these microbes were to be put together and shaped into an organ, it would weigh somewhere between 2 to 6 pounds which by the way, the brain weighs only 2.6 pounds. This is why these microbes are known as the "forgotten organ.” 

In his book, The Mind-Gut Connection, the good doctor, Dr. Emeran Mayer, goes into length regarding the importance of these microbes, and their influence on the human brain and decision making. If computer scientists and AI enthusiasts were to bring Dr. Emeran, and his colleagues into the conversation that they are currently having among themselves, there would need to be a serious amount of time taken on discussing AI not just having super intelligence and consciousness, but also having a super gut instinct and subconsciousness. With the wealth of information that this area of science is bringing to the table, another question would then need to be included in AI’s research and development:

WHEN AI WAKES UP, WHEN WILL AI FIRST HAVE BUTTERFLIES?

These butterflies that humans experience are not only part of the decision making process, but also human consciousness hard at work. Materialists and entrepreneurs have to confront the facts that the brain they want to transfer does not just operate with logic or what computer scientists would call algorithms. Humans also make decisions that have nothing to do with logic. A lot of times, humans are not reasonable, and decisions are not made through conscious awareness. In his bestselling book Thinking, Fast and Slow, Psychologist Daniel Kahneman describes intuitive decision making, and how it is the “secret author of many of the choices and judgments” that are made by humans. This means that human consciousness also resides in the nonrational whelms. It is not always objective, but a lot of times it is subjective. What is even more profound to think about is reason can be trained, but when it comes to types of thinking like gut based decision making (butterflies), Dr. Mayer points out in his book that “there is no formal mechanism in place to train and optimize this remarkable ability.”

The subject of AI, consciousness and what is human consciousness has not even been scratched here. AI is being closely looked at, and not just from the eyes of science but theology, philosophy, and all areas that focus on humanity and what it means to be human. This now includes those who study the digestive system which is showing the world that in the next conference on AI, they too need to be invited. Regarding the fear and doubt of AI. The answer still remains–we do not know what will happen, but no matter what AI develops into, it will be led by those who C.S. Lewis calls, Materialist Magicians. Even if they can make it look like AI is awake or aware or even alive, Catholics know better than anyone that machines will never be able to have souls just like they will never be able to experience the sensation of butterflies. Its "consciousness” will be via programmation and it will be programmed by humans. Remember:  

THE ONLY TERMINATOR THAT WILL EXIST IS THE ONE THAT HUMANITY CREATES.

I hope that this article has helped and for more insight and my thoughts, please give a follow on my Instagram Account:

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