My Post-Digital Wisdom Vision
Zen, and A.I. in the 21st Century
One of the reasons why it is easy to lose touch with your center and fall away from the Wisdom Path is the hypnotic quality of technology. The ideas of Edward Tenner that we discussed in an earlier talk touched on this. Many of us wonder about the benefits without recognizing the costs to us. The widespread success of various antibiotics has brought us drug-resistant strains of bacteria. Many high-tech medical procedures are beneficial because they create an environment for faster healing and less pain, but on the other hand, there may be post-surgical complications that did not arise in the previous “old fashioned” approaches. It was believed that the advent of the personal computer would provide great benefits with little negative effect.
Though personal computers have increased productivity in many ways, they have also replaced one type of worker with new types of experts. This new environment often requires workers throughout society to discard their previous skills for those required to effectively use computers. All types of new medical problems have arisen from people sitting in chairs, repeating the same motion over and over and staring into the computer screen. Back problems, hand and arm problems and vision problems are the result of this new technology. Attention spans are shorter, and more is said online about less and less.
Achieving contentment will require more than technological advancement. It will require greater inner knowledge applied to digital technology. Meditation, the study of kōans, the creation of a Monastery of the Social Network and other Wisdom based practices are the key tools for turning the digital into the post-digital, a place where innovative thinkers create digital tools to free us from has come to be a multicultural, digital monkey mind.
The Multicultural, Digital Monkey Mind
This is an exciting time. Our ways of thinking, of being and relating to the world around us is now more than ever influenced by the merging of different national, religious, cultural and digital communities. Because of this, meditation, introspection and contemplation are more important than ever. Meditation allows you to pull back from the illusion and reminds you that no choice can be made without consequences. In the 21st century, your core social life is likely to be defined and controlled by digital tools including Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, Instagram and there are descendants of these tools soon to come. These digital tools are miraculous and yet they can easily draw you away from true intimacy, a functional physical reality and what is truly important to living your best life. Technology has turned what is truly important into an abstraction. In the past, people often drew their sense of reality from what was necessary to survive, combined with some group reality. Over time, many things have now become simplified through consumer culture. This has contributed to the great illusion that technology has benefited man and mankind by making life less complex. Technology may have changed how you live your life, but not without a great cost.
Artificial Intelligence, Real Wisdom
From 1959–1983, a group of computer enthusiast scientists and programmers who had an interest in ideas derived from Zen created research so revolutionary that they came to be known as the Zen Hackers. Based at M.I.T — The Massachusetts Institute of Technology, these thinkers worked in many areas of research, including “Lisp,” a project at MIT’s Artificial Intelligence (AI) lab. These True Hackers, who have no relationship with computer criminals who illegally break into the systems of others, took elements from the traditional Zen practices in Japan, as well as a wide range of ideas from many other sources, and applied them to the creation of new computer systems. Many of these AI researchers were very open-minded people with a great curiosity about the world. They explored Asian philosophy in general and Japanese Zen in particular. They were noted for their sense of humor and felt free to interpret Zen in their own way shaping it to better conform to the spirit and times. A dogmatic Zen Buddhist, lacking an appreciation for the paradoxes inherent in Zen might have protested. Many respected Zen practitioners, however, might see that these computer scientists were, in fact, truer to certain elements of Zen’s principles than many monks with their shaved heads and meditation pads.
Many of these early AI developers created a file of Artificial Intelligence kōans (AI kōans). These kōans were organized into what has come to be known as the “Jargon File” (also known as the New Hacker’s Dictionary). This is a sort of a sacred text for their way of thinking with many parallels to Zen thought. It is still maintained as a compendium of early Zen influenced hacker culture. Anyone interested in merging mathematics of ambiguity, contradiction, and paradox with Zen will enjoy this way of thinking. Here Are Two Al kōans From the “Jargon File”.
Sussman attains enlightenment
In the days when Sussman was a novice, Minsky once came to him as he sat hacking at the PDP-6.
“What are you doing?” asked Minsky.
“I am training a randomly wired neural net to play Tic-Tac-Toe”, Sussman replied.
“Why is the net wired randomly?” asked Minsky.
“I do not want it to have any preconceptions of how to play”, Sussman said.
Minsky then shut his eyes.
“Why do you close your eyes?” Sussman asked his teacher.
“So that the room will be empty.”
At that moment, Sussman was enlightened.
Drescher and the toaster:
A disciple of another sect once came to Drescher as he was eating his morning meal.
“Please take this personality test,” said the outsider.
“Why?” asked Drescher.
“Because I want you to be happy.” Drescher took the paper that was offered to him and put it into the toaster saying, “I wish the toaster to be happy too.”
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The article you have just read is an excerpt from my Module on Urban Prepping in my online Course “The Self Improvement Lifestyle”.
Author: Lewis Harrison is the creator of the Ask Lewis Mentoring Method as well as HAGT — Harrison’s Applied Game Theory. He and is the Executive Director of the International Association of Healing Professionals an educational organization that offers programs around the world in Intentional Living. He is also Independent Scholar and a Results-Oriented Success Coach, with a passion for knowledge, personal development, self-improvement, creativity, innovation, and problem-solving. You can read all of his Medium stories at Lewis.coaches@medium.com.
For a decade, Lewis was the host of a humor-based Q & A talk show on NPR (National Public Radio) affiliated WIOX FM in NY.
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