The Western Project
08

The Western Project

Derek Robinson


What is the position of the human in this era of artificial intelligence, androids and humanoid robots?

It can be said that, in our daily lives, we spend as much time with artificial intelligence as we do with human intelligence. And we gradually come to accept the limitations of pseudo conversations and develop skills to make it easier to navigate (e.g. learning how to pronounce words so that the "robot" can understand, or how to pitch a conversation in order to get what we want, subconsciously guided by the AI’s ‘desires’). We have become so accustomed to this that we take it for granted and rarely think to question it. What's more, technologies are advancing to where we’re starting to implant them in our bodies. So we as humans are drifting in the robotic direction, as the robots grow more intelligent. We may begin to wonder: are the robots becoming us or are we becoming them? Or both? Will the lines get so blurred over time that we won't even notice the transformation we're going through, but just discover one day that there are no more distinctions to be made? And how will this affect our awareness? I asked the Buddhists, as they are experts in the matters of awareness, and they said: It won’t affect it, awareness will be the same. ... But will it?

[Dinka Pignon]