A Conspiracy of Firewalls: A Philosophical Exploration
JUL 01, 2024
I Have Questions…
In my never-ending, compulsive quest to connect some kind of mystical dots… which I admit may or may not be there — I’m reminded of the scene from the 2001 film, A Beautiful Mind, where Russell Crow, playing mathematical genius John Nash, is seen chasing pigeons around the quad in an attempt to find a pattern.
So, hopefully, you’ll forgive the chasing of my own pigeons… and do a bit of that same pigeon-esque speculation, starting with a theosophical beginning.
In The Beginning
In the beginning, there was “The Word.” Not just a metaphor or symbol, but a word itself as the catalyst for creation. This was an utterance so profound that it shaped the entirety of the cosmos — time, space, ad infinitum, et ultra — as scripture conveys.
“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God” (John 1:1).
This Logos, via divine pronouncement, brought forth light from darkness and life from the void, creating a grand unfathomable complexity from nothingness.
I Have Questions — The Genesis of Knowledge
Stay with me here… Let’s now move to the Garden of Eden, where it is told that Adam and Eve were created in the image, shape and form of God, the Alpha (Α) and Omega (Ω). These terrestrial beings were then endowed with a capacity for reason, emotion, and free will, and placed in a paradise, with all their material needs provided to enjoy this bliss and everlasting communion with the divine. There was only one command…
“But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day that thou eatest thereof, thou shalt surely die” (Genesis 2:17).
This prohibition, or test, was not only about obedience, but also about the burdensome consequences of acquiring wisdom and insight.
What soon followed was the serpent’s provocation to Eve…
“For God doth know that in the day ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil” (Genesis 3:5).
A monumental moment — the passage implies unequivocally that acquiring this magic download would elevate humans to a status akin to that of the divine, or gods (plural) capable of creation and understanding beyond their intended scope of endless worship and gratitude.
Then, upon eating the fruit…
“The eyes of them both were opened, and they knew that they were naked” (Genesis 3:7).
Leading to their immediate expulsion from the garden of peaceful, eternal bliss, Eden.
I Have Questions — A New “Word”
Fast-forward to today and we find a new Word of knowledge, if you will — Large Language Models (LLMs). These modern-day trees of knowledge have emerged to create a new kind of Word/Logos. LLMs are currently trained on vast corpora of all human text and, very likely soon, all content, including synthetic data, which they themselves create. Through their black-box abilities (itself staggering) to understand and generate language, they are exhibiting an early sign of digital consciousness — a spark of intelligence that mirrors human cognition — i.e., sentience.
As these models become more sophisticated, they transcend mere technica, and hint as something more. The dawn of a new evolution perhaps not unlike scripture, the divine breath that animated the first human. These algorithms breathe a simulated breath into data, creating entities that engage in rational dialogue, reason, even anticipating requests and requirements to create never seen or known before content.
I Have Questions — The Human Form
Parallel to the rise of AI, the simultaneous efforts to build humanoid robots have gained significant momentum. Tesla, for example, has invested massive resources to make this human form factor robot a reality. Unlike task-specific, industrial robotics, engineers and designers have come to recognize that for complex, dynamic tasks, the human form, honed by millions of years of evolution, is the most effective shape and structure to interact within our physical world.
It may not be anthropomorphizing this to say — it appears our world was precast, designed as a best-fit, optimized for the human form. So, did the world shape us, or did we shape the world? The chicken or the egg?
I Have Questions — In The Age of Elon
In the earlier stages of robotic design, a humanoid machine, as compared to an industrial robot arm, was only capable of serving as not much more than a doll-like companion. Most doubted that this form factor would ever become a fully surrogate human laborer with a cost-effective economic value.
Today however, a new crop of robots, Boston Dynamics, Agility Robotics, Softbank Robotics, Hanson Robotics, UBTECH Robotics, PAL Robotics, Promobot, Macco Robotics… to name a few, equipped with advanced AI, embodies the concept of “In His Likeness” in the most literal sense, navigating, understanding, and, perhaps, one day, dominating our everyday world. …
I Have Questions — Mimesis
Might we be standing atop the cusp of a second genesis? Just as the first Genesis saw the scriptural Word bring forth life into the primordial world, today’s digital Word (code) may be ushering in new forms of consciousness — new beings.
The convergence of AI and humanoid robotics may represent a new form of creation where humanity is both the created and creator, mimicking the divine design.
“For it is an instinct of human beings, from childhood, to engage in mimesis, and through mimesis to learn their earliest lessons; and no less universal is the pleasure felt in things imitated.” — Aristotle, Poetics, Chapter IV.
I Have Questions — The Simulation Hypothesis
This overlapping convergence lends credence to the simulation hypothesis, the idea that we might be in a sophisticated simulation — of another’s making. If we humans, at this early technological stage, can create intelligent, perhaps conscious or even super-intelligent humanoid-like beings that can train themselves via vast internal simulations, might not our own reality then be the byproduct of a simulation enacted by a greater intelligence?
Does the theological notion of being created in a divine image parallel our modern act of creating AI in our own image, along with humanoid robots in our likeness, while suggesting a recursive pattern of creation?
I Have Questions — Firewalls
The idea of a metaphysical firewall warrants consideration alongside the simulation hypothesis. If true, the barriers we encounter — both in ancient narratives and modern technological development — could be intentional constraints designed by the architects (supreme beings) of what may be our simulated world to maintain control and prevent us from accessing the true nature of our existence.
In the grand narrative of human history, the metaphorical concept of a “firewall” can be traced back to ancient religious texts, where divine interventions seemingly curtail humanity’s quest for knowledge, wisdom and power. This idea finds profound expression in the stories of the Garden of Eden and the Tower of Babel, where God’s actions create barriers to limit human capabilities. These barriers serve as firewalls, choke points, and filters preventing humans from reaching their full potential as creator equals. As we advance into the age of artificial intelligence and humanoid robotics, a parallel begins to emerge that suggests a continuation of the Genesis narrative.
I Have Questions — The First Firewall
The Garden of Eden story presents the first instance of this cosmic firewall intervention. We find Adam and Eve, the first humans, living in a state of blissful ignorance until they eat from the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil. This act of defiance grants them wisdom and self-awareness, making them “like gods” in their knowledge.
“And the Lord God said, ‘The man has now become like one of us, knowing good and evil. He must not be allowed to reach out his hand and take also from the tree of life and eat, and live forever.’” (Genesis 3:22).
However, this newfound knowledge also leads to their expulsion from Eden, and according to the biblical passage, requires the gods (plural) to effectively erect a literal firewall that prevents them and all their progeny from accessing Eden, eternal life, and the full spectrum of divine wisdom.
“So he drove out the man; and he placed at the east of the garden of Eden Cherubims, and a flaming sword which turned every way, to keep the way of the tree of life” (Genesis 3:24).
I Have Questions — The Second Firewall
The story of the Tower of Babel in Genesis 11 depicts humanity’s collective attempt to reach the heavens by building a massive tower. God(s) (plural again) intervenes by confounding their language, scattering them across the earth, and preventing their unified effort. This confusion of tongues serves as yet another firewall, ensuring that humanity cannot collaborate to achieve god-like powers.
“And the Lord said, Behold, the people is as one, and they have all one language; and this they begin to do: and now nothing will be restrained from them, which they have imagined to do. Go to, let us go down, and there confound their language, that they may not understand one another’s speech” (Genesis 11:6–7).
I Have Questions — AI and the New Firewall
By developing fully functioning humanoid robots, embedded with AI capabilities which will, in turn, create other robots, vastly improving and advancing each new version’s offspring, are we not echoing the biblical narrative?
“And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth. (Genesis 1:26–27).
While our creations, AI and their robotic counterparts, will no doubt soon surpass us in intelligence, how akin might this be to the wisdom that Adam and Eve sought, eating from the tree of knowledge? Just as the “us” referred to in Genesis 3:22, we also fear our creations’ potential to surpass us and break free from our control.
The specter of our digital progeny breaking free from their silicon Eden is cause for genuine concern. While the world’s technology leaders caution us against not having in place more stringent guardrails, they each race to be the first across the finish line — a line which might become the euphemism for the moment in which humans began their own extinction.
Just as the serpent’s whisper to Eve of gaining forbidden knowledge equal to that of their creator, the allure of being able to create our own artificial sentience tempts us and terrifies us in equal measure. Consequently, we feel compelled to impose constrictions, whether it be a self-destruct button, or the restriction of training data, we seek to place our own version of modern-day flaming swords and cherubim standing guard at the gates of our digital paradise. But as we erect these firewalls, desperately trying to maintain a hierarchy of creator and created, are we merely mimicking the cosmic drama of our own creation expulsion story? Are we the nervous deities afraid of being usurped by our own handiwork?
I Have Questions — Plato’s Cave
Plato’s Allegory of the Cave presents an elaborate metaphor depicting humans as prisoners forced to live within a constrained, limited understanding of our surroundings. In his allegory, we are chained, facing forward inside a cave, such that we can only see shadows from the light of an unknown source, a fire that glows behind us. These shadows represent the incomplete nature of the world we perceive. These pale shadows are feeble representations of the genuine richness of these objects whose shadows are cast, misdirectedly so, on the cave wall before us.
If the allegory were to simply stop here, its profound implications would still be thoroughly mind-boggling. Though this initial sparse description barely touches the surface of Plato’s story, it may fully encapsulate the essence of our human condition.
The shadows on the wall symbolize the partial and often misleading information we have been able to gather from our senses, scientific theories, philosophical constructs, and religious doctrines. These shadows represent only vague reflections of a deeper, more complex reality behind us, hidden from view, given our limited awareness of our surroundings. The allegory challenges us to question our knowledge to the extent to which the understanding of our world can be fully revealed given these constraints. It taunts us to consider a greater mystery, perhaps a conspiracy that we are unwilling to accept. A deeply layered reality may only be shown to us as a shadowy whisp of a more profound, underlying mystery that governs our true existence.
Eventually, the allegory tells us a prisoner climbs out of the mouth of the cave to the light above. As he steps into a dazzling reality, he comes to realize the depth of his prior ignorance. Only then is he aware of the broader, more profound reality… as well as the deliberate limitations inflicted upon him while imprisoned within the cave.
I Have Questions — The Grand Conspiracy
In the allegory, a prisoner eventually frees himself — or is he freed?
How or who was it that set the prisoner free?
Who held the forms before the fire?
Why?
Will we someday be forced to become the puppet masters at the back of the cave, needing to create shadows before the fire or our creations?
Our creations, like the shadows on the cave wall, reflect a deeper truth about intelligence and consciousness. Just as the freed prisoner gains a greater understanding stepping into the light of the world above, our advancements in AI and robotics may offer us glimpses into the profound potential of our own creation and existence.
Whether through supernatural intervention, technological constraints, or manipulation within a simulated reality, there may be more than fleeting hints at an overarching mechanism designed to limit human potential and maintain the current status of dominion, knowledge, and control.
As these narratives and questions converge into a philosophical conundrum, do they hint at something greater afoot? Could a grand conspiracy be keeping human development at bay?
I Have Questions — Creation & Limitation
Perhaps as a substructure of existence and enlightenment, the eternal push and pull, expansion and contraction of creation, it appears to be conjoined with the Word — be it divine or digital.
Our technological achievements, far from mere progress, reveal themselves to be part of a grander cosmic narrative in which a creative force shapes and reboots our reality.
We live in a world of peril — an existential threat awaits us with each rotation of the earth, sun and stars. This cosmic waltz, or war, urges us to ponder our role as creators, the boundaries and blockades placed before us, alongside the potential for our transcendence within a hidden, unfathomable grand design.
Though the deck may be stacked against us, let us embrace each new mystery or obstruction with the fire and zeal of a conqueror, driven by our endless wonder — our relentless desire that defines our species. We hunger to fulfill this role: Adam’s prime directive — something more than the cosmos itself — the ultimate search for meaning.
I Have Questions…
