In deciding the appropriate way to limit my child’s behavior, I must be able to empathize with the child’s situation. The quality of my empathy is a product of the depth and breadth of my consciousness. When I was growing up I was the recipient of corporal punishment via a diverse array of objects used to administer the ‘earned’ punishment. I consciously decided to remove corporal punishment from the parenting of my children. I did use time out consequences. It is not my intention to delineate how to parent children. I am seeking only to highlight the unique qualities of human decision-making endeavors over that of a computer’s AI decision-making processes. Computers cannot empathize. Computers are inanimate, unfeeling, cold manufactured tools capable of making assessments via a one-to-one correspondence based upon specific standards and criteria. Additionally, computers are slaves to their programming. Humans are free to choose. There have been times when, intellectually, I have concluded that one course would solve the given problem, but my emotional consciousness dictated that such a path was not the path I would take. Hence, I decided that corporal punishment was not an option for raising my children.
Since humans are free and are not bound by what their parents have taught or what teachers might dictate as being correct or what any other outside provider decrees as the truth of the matter, that individual must decide what should be done for himself or herself. Each and every human being is in the process of developing a consciousness. Each consciousness is unique to each individual because each consciousness is the result of the life processes of that individual. No two individuals have exactly the same life process. There can be very strong similarities, but even identical twins have nuances specific to one and not the other.
Consider this process. Back to the two babies dropping objects from their high chairs. First, both children must be able to perceive the object, must perceive the object falling, must perceive the object hitting the floor and so forth and so on. Perception is the first step. The next step is to attend. Both children attend to the object that they drop. They both attend to the object falling. Once the objects are on the floor, one child looks away. Perhaps this child is unimpressed. The other child looks at the mother. A silence prevails but is then broken by one baby crying in distress. It is the baby looking at the mother. One baby cries; the other does not. Perhaps each baby has interpreted the events differently. Mark this observation that humans interpret reality as being unique to humans. Humans interpret reality, computers do not. Computers follow programming. The mother picks up the object for the crying baby while the other child watches the mother’s every move. The mother returns to her seat. All is quiet again, but the other child starts to cry. Did this child ‘learn’ from her sibling and is therefore crying to get her mother to retrieve her object?
This is a conjured hypothetical situation. I have never observed these two children. They are fabrications of mine to put into context this assertion: The first step in learning is to perceive. The second step is to attend to what is perceived. At some point meaning is attached to what is perceived. Not everything perceived is necessarily attended to and not everything attended to is imbued with meaning. If that which is perceived is attended to and that which is attended is imbued with meaning, it enters the consciousness of that individual. As these children grow, develop, enter school, and generally interact with the world, they have the potential of growing, developing, and enhancing their individual consciousness by learning from each and all of their experiences in this fashion. They also have the capacity of astronomically advancing their consciousness by learning how to reflect and practicing the art of reflection upon the many events, decisions, and outcomes of those decisions as well as reflecting upon the lives of others they encounter. This is what the second child might have begun after observing the mother’s reaction to her brother.
To summarize: consciousness is based on learning; learning is affected by both the intellect and the emotions; learning is based on attaching meaning to what is attended and what is attended must be perceived first of all by the individual learning and developing his or her consciousness. Once consciousness has developed enough, the art of reflection upon: a) one’s consciousness, b) one’s learning and c) the assertions of others and their behaviors along with the outcome of those behaviors; then consciousness becomes self-stimulating which accelerates the expansion of that consciousness. When the need to make a decision occurs, the consciousness of the individual should be engaged in determining which path to take. The intellectual development of the individual is only a part of that individual’s consciousness, albeit a very important part, but the development of the emotional being of that individual is no less important. Intuition, and other aspects of human decision-making that contends with the nonlinear elements of reality, are likewise essential. All of this should be brought to bear when one must make a decision of great importance. It is critical to remember that all of this is an organic process of a highly integrated, sophisticated, complex living organism with an expanding consciousness. AI artificially simulates parts of human consciousness. No computer has a consciousness nor does any computer have a sense of self. Computers cannot empathize with the human condition. To my understanding, these are severe critical limits to AI and its practical applications.
Additionally the conjured hypothetical situation of two babies in high chairs is also a key component in human thinking. Each individual has a great potential to conjure hypothetical situations and diverse scenarios to speculate on possible outcomes before any of those scenarios or speculations are put into practice. We have computers that can simulate this method of thinking or reflecting BUT humans choose when to do so and for what reason that is particular to that individual. Computers must be programed to do so according to the parameters of the programer. Individuals are free to initiate such activity as they see fit. To simplify the critical distinction between human thinking and artificial intelligence, focus on the obvious. Human thinking has an organicistic component that no inanimate machine can ever possess. Humans can manufacture and program machines to mimic human activity but the reality that has evolved into intelligent organic life cannot be perfectly manufactured. All of the nonlinear elements present in modern homo sapiens reside within our organic nature that are not possible to be infused into inanimate machines.
There is, however, current research into the next advancement attempting to overcome this apparent obstacle — Organoid Intelligence (OI). Human brain cells have been grown via stem cell research to be infused into a mechanical device that will then be attached to an AI computer to simulate human thinking. OI research demonstrates that the quintessential unique quality of human thinking is the organic quality of the human brain. It has taken many millenniums for the human brain and the intelligence facilitated by that brain to evolve to this point in the history of the universe.
My life and the development of my consciousness is, in a sense, one and the same. My life brought my consciousness into being on the planet Earth. Having been raised a Roman Catholic by a very devout mother, and a father amenable to the wishes of my mother, placed myself and my brothers in a Roman Catholic grammar school where I began my formal education. I continued through the eighth grade whereupon graduating into the ninth grade I entered the local public high school. All of what was learned—from first grade through my many years of formal education until I earned my Master of Education degree—was augmented by all of the learning gleaned from the events celebrated and those requiring fortitude to survive. All of what I perceived, attended, imbued with meaning, and reflected upon developed and continues to develop my worldview which resides in my consciousness along with my developed emotions, intuition, and all else which relates to, and interacts with, all of the nonlinear elements of the chaos of reality which has affected me. As the importance of a given decision increases so the engagement of my consciousness increases. Choosing cherry pie over chocolate cake is extremely unimportant when compared to choosing corporal punishment over time-out parenting approaches, augmented by age appropriate conversations with my children.
I will rely upon the decision-making practices of a fully functioning, self-actualized, well-educated, self-reflecting, emotionally stable individual with an ever-expanding consciousness over any computerized AI. Most importantly, I perceive human decision-making as absolutely and extremely vital to human life. As a first grade Catholic child enrolled in a Catholic grammar school I began to memorize the Catholic catechism. The first question and answer to be memorized was: Why did God make me? God made me for his honor and glory. If this is not the case now or if this was not the case then, it is what I memorized. ‘Memorize’ is accurate because it is not what I have learned. What I have learned in the process of my life is that the purpose of my life is to struggle with the reality that I must make decisions. It is possible that I can choose to have someone else make decisions for me and therefore surrender my free will to someone else. I have learned that such a choice is incorrect. I learned about the dangers of surrendering your decision-making to some other person by perceiving women (predominately of my mother’s generation) who married into traditional situations where the husband worked and the wife stayed at home.
Being a homemaker is not the problem, but some husbands believed that being the money-maker meant that the husband ruled and the wife had to be obedient. The husband made all of the important decisions and the wife had to acquiesce. There are women who truly find this situation to be perfect. No problem, except when something happens to sever the relationship — such as when the husband dies. I worked with a woman whose husband saved enough money to care for her should he die first. This woman had to enter the workforce at a later stage in her life after her husband died because the savings were in a Savings and Loan institution that crashed sometime between 1986 to 1989. All of those savings were wiped out. Her learning curve was steep.
I will rely upon the decision-making practices of a fully functioning, self-actualized, well-educated, self-reflecting, emotionally stable individual with an ever-expanding consciousness over any computerized AI. Most importantly, I perceive human decision-making as absolutely and extremely vital to human life. As a first grade Catholic child enrolled in a Catholic grammar school I began to memorize the Catholic catechism. The first question and answer to be memorized was: Why did God make me? God made me for his honor and glory. If this is not the case now or if this was not the case then, it is what I memorized. ‘Memorize’ is accurate because it is not what I have learned. What I have learned in the process of my life is that the purpose of my life is to struggle with the reality that I must make decisions. It is possible that I can choose to have someone else make decisions for me and therefore surrender my free will to someone else. I have learned that such a choice is incorrect. I learned about the dangers of surrendering your decision-making to some other person by perceiving women (predominately of my mother’s generation) who married into traditional situations where the husband worked and the wife stayed at home.
Being a homemaker is not the problem, but some husbands believed that being the money-maker meant that the husband ruled and the wife had to be obedient. The husband made all of the important decisions and the wife had to acquiesce. There are women who truly find this situation to be perfect. No problem, except when something happens to sever the relationship — such as when the husband dies. I worked with a woman whose husband saved enough money to care for her should he die first. This woman had to enter the workforce at a later stage in her life after her husband died because the savings were in a Savings and Loan institution that crashed sometime between 1986 to 1989. All of those savings were wiped out. Her learning curve was steep.
My advice to my three-year-old granddaughter will be to become self-reliant and not to be absolutely dependent upon another person for her well-being. It will be better for her to develop a robust consciousness and skill set that will allow for her independence. She can enter into a relationship with a mate as an equal, cooperating adult for the good of both partners and whatever offspring is produced. She should have all that is necessary to provide for herself and her children should her mate leave by choice or by death.
Each of us is meant to be decision-makers. Making a decision and then perceiving and attending to the consequences of that decision are all part of the process of true learning. Learning via the intellect, emotions, and self-reflection is the foundation for developing and expanding human consciousness. Developing consciousness is the reason for human life. My developing and expanding consciousness is what distinguishes me from the rest of the animals roaming Earth.
I invite the reader to consider and reflect upon the following choice. Would you want to live in a society governed by an array of AI computers or a group of fully functioning, self-actualized, well-educated, self-reflecting, emotionally stable individuals in possession of a robust and ever expanding consciousness? AI and weapons of self-defense are very powerful tools, but they must be used selectively and judiciously by fully functioning, self-actualized, well-educated, self-reflecting, emotionally stable individuals in possession of a robust and ever expanding consciousness.