Bio-Hacking: Will Artificial Intelligence Surpass Human Consciousness?

Computers are ingenious inventions. They can process information and analyze data better than most humans. But they cannot process meaning.

They can anticipate words we intend to research before we finish typing them in. But they cannot recalibrate mood.

A computer can have almost unlimited memory and the capacity to draw on that memory instantly. But it cannot change its perception of one.

Computers can help us discover countless sources of information but they cannot be empathetic or discover for us the elusive truth about life.

You may get the point, but to a computer, it’s pointless.

Computers are similar to humans in one respect, however. They only know what they’ve been programmed to know. And just like humans, the information they contain can be repeated over and over again until a programmer changes something internally.

Humans have the advantage of subjectivity. Meaning, therefore, is meaningless until we give it meaning. It’s always only what we make it. There is meaning, and there can be no meaning. This is a problem that is unsolvable because it cannot be defined.

A computer is pure logic.

Meaning, emotion, subjectivity: these things are incorporeal. They have no material existence. They cannot be established by an algorithm. And because a computer has no consciousness, it will never be able to calculate meaning.

A computer can posit an outcome by calculating data input. But it cannot sense things, it does not have imagination and cannot formulate independent ideas.

It has no spirit or soul. Its energy is dependent on man. And because it has no consciousness, it cannot ‘update’ itself. It cannot do anything without man’s input.

The rules we live by are of our own making. They’re determined by what we want or desire. We can turn to a computer to find resources for getting those things, but the information we receive will be a collective of many humans.

Man’s perception and ability to perceive is what makes us unique. This is what guides us, however imprecise our perception may seem to others.

How will artificial intelligence help us in the future?

There are many new developments in AI that involve digital signatures taken directly from the body. They scan and measure changes in the body’s electrical currents and send information to software that analyzes the body’s reactions.

AI can also analyze voice and therefore mood or emotion. In this way, AI can be a valuable transition between your doctor and your own ability to be proactive in your well-being.

• Wearing devices have been around for years. Smart watches that measure heart rate and calorie burn, for example. As they become more advanced, they will be able to give us a full readout of our current condition.
• Smartphones understand our behavior patterns and offer us opportunities to buy or send us to new sites based on that information.
• Facial, voice, retinal, and other biometric sensors are all being used in sophisticated environments.

According to the independent think tank, Gottlieb Duttweiler Institute, AI will “educate us faster, increase our empathy, and help us make better buying decisions.”

• Hello Barbie can analyze a child’s words and choose from 8,000 response dialogs in under one second.
• IBM’s Watson is the world’s most powerful computing platform. Chef Watson can advise humans about unique food and flavor combinations.
• Watson BEAT can analyze trends from headlines, speeches, and other cultural outlets to determine what musical elements should be combined to create a hit tune.
• In China, Infervision reviews hundreds of radiology scans a day and uses algorithms to diagnose cancer.
• Google’s DeepMind can beat humans at games and can mimic human thought processes.
• Netflix can predict what its customers will enjoy watching.
• Luxury brand Burberry uses AI to combat counterfeit products.
• With 11,000 brick and mortar stores, Walmart is planning to use facial recognition to determine if customers are happy or sad, something rival Amazon is unable to do.
• Virtual assistant Cortana, chatbots that run Skype, cloud computing, geo-mapping, machine learning, Disney’s Magic Band, and Google Brain are all part of our modern experience.
• Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter all use AI to monitor nearly 293,000 customer changes per minute, and to fight cyberbullying and spam.

Computers, machine learners, may have the ability to learn without being explicitly programmed. They will eventually learn and improve from experience in the same way humans do. Humans will continue to make mistakes, unlike computers. Computers will learn from a task and measure its performance to improve its experience.

Can we create consciousness in computers?

Artificial intelligence is the by-product of machine learning. Machines learn by manipulating symbols, but they have no understanding.

Ask a computer anything. It can give answers but they’re all based on the information put into it and the analytic program. It can often find possible solutions to problems.

But a program is not a mind regardless of how well it mimics human thinking. It has no consciousness therefore it cannot think.

With everything artificial intelligence can do, it will never be able to replace human perception. It can never feel, sense, independently imagine, exhibit emotion, and empathize.

A computer, artificial intelligence, does not have courage, passion, or compassion; it does not feel desire or kindness, it does not have or need integrity or motive, and it is not self-aware.

These are human qualities. Humans can experience joy and the fruits of the spirit. But we can also experience anxiety and self-doubt.

For better or worse, AI has some way to go before, if ever, it can be ‘think’ like a human.