We should learn from the tension between mind and machine
Every human bliss and kindness, every suspicion, cruelty, and torment ultimately comes from the whirring 3-pound “enchanted loom” that is our brain and its other side, the cloud of knowing that is our mind.
It’s an odd coincidence that serious study of the mind and the brain bloomed in the late 20th century when we also started to make machines that had some mind-like qualities.
Now, with information technology we have applied an untested amplifier to our minds, and cranked it up to eleven, running it around the clock, year after year. Because we have become a culture of crisis, we are good at asking, what has gone wrong? What could go wrong?
But is the conjunction of natural and artificial mind only ill-favored, or might we not learn from both by comparison?
A learning opportunity.
Years ago I decided to study animal behavior, hoping that it would help us to better understand our nature. But the culture then was indifferent and sometimes hostile to the idea of human nature having anything to do with…
