In 2020 at least, Machine Learning (ML), and by extension, Artificial Intelligence (AI), are seen by a large part of most populations to be a magical mystery, which should be welcomed because it is an amazing advancement that would change the world for the better. Another segment believes that humanity is creating its own destruction by wanting to create and creating intelligent software which is able to perform what were previously human tasks much more effectively than humans, thereby replacing humans out of a sustenance from the economic machine.

As you may be able to tell, I am more in the first segment, but for my reasons. Personally I think that the notion of “changing the world for the better” is too vague of an expectation, and incredibly broad.

First reason: understanding how we learn and expose ourselves to more parts of reality that have always existed

What I am optimistic about is what ML and AI would allow us humans to do: reflect and develop. A lot of AI right now is purely mathematical and probabalistic, meaning a model predicts what a new piece of data it is exposed to could be based on similar data it saw when it was being trained. While this is complicated to have a computer do, it is very simple for humans to do. And we humans have the capacity to learn to contextualise information without prior exposure, as we are being exposed to new information.

Up until now, there hasn’t been much of a need to appreciate how all of this works. It was just another thing that we found mesmerising about ourselves, and unless we were neuroscientists or we had neuroscientist friends/family, the value of studying to understand how this thing called understand and knowing works was not all too fascinating.

Now, to advance AI specifically, it is valuable for humans to understand how their mind works on a neurological level, and actually understanding this and not simply appreciating it brings the potential to expose ourselves to more opportunities to learn and acclimatise to more parts of reality by understanding we will learn and how new information that is learned can be used to expose ourselves to more parts of reality that have always existed but have never been noticed by our prioritising mind.

Second reason: appreciating the simplicity in doing without the layering of emotions

This reason is admittedly esoteric, but it bears thinking. My desire to ground myself in reality comes from the appreciation that existing in physical reality, that is the aspect of existence without the layering which comes with thoughts about reality, is very simple. Things either happen or they don’t. Abstractions such as should happen or would happen if become irrelevant the moment a reality comes into existence because the things preceeding the existence of a reality have already done what they have done to allow a reality to exist in a certain way.

AI models that predict and work more efficiently than humans do so, first because they don’t need rest, so they are free to keep learning and becoming better at a specific thing. Second, because they don’t have emotions that would create patterns of thought which would slow them in their output.

I am not advocating the removal of emotions, but what I want to advocate is the support of studying the relation between one’s emotions and their interpretation of reality. Emotions are doubtlessly useful because they carry chemical fuel (motivation and anger motivate the production of adrenaline, which is a fuel) but in a species that isn’t taught to study its emotions or even to question its emotions, they are not used as flexibly as I believe they could be.

Emotional paintings of situations which exist in reality help create the understanding that one’s understanding of reality that is influenced by how they feel is the objective reality that would still exist if they did not feel the emotions that they are feeling. In my opinion, the most liberating perspective one could have is seeing how much of their physical movement is affected by how they feel, and ultimately how independent their physical movement can be from their feelings.

I want to be flexible in my life, and my definition of flexibility includes becoming a human being that can set my intentions to achieve a thing and work with reality to achieve that thing. I want to see what is out there, and I want to see how much I am limiting my view of what is out there so I can see more things that are out there by consciously reducing the suggestive power of my quickly created conclusions and instead form contextual conclusions that are created by interacting with physical reality without expectation to allow that thing to show itself however it wants to.

Some disclaimers

Now, this flexibility sounds like I have no boundaries or limits for myself, and that is not true. Part of being flexible is being able to choose what parts of reality to keep as it is, and those parts are defined in the form of boundaries. I see no problem with keeping certain aspects of reality as it is as long as some understanding about its usefulness and the negatives of its removal exists. Being flexible also does not have to mean doing everything without any sort of expectation. Expectations are natural consequences of having a calculating mind. The necessity lies in noticing how an expectation directs thoughts about a thing that exists outside of one’s mind, and what meaning an expectation gives to those things. Meaning gives consequences, so it is important to be able to differentiate between the existence of a thing and the thing itself, so one can keep themselves open to noticing and experiencing without deciding what they will notice and experience, and THEN decide what consequence to make happen as a result of noticing and experiencing something that was not decided to be noticed and experienced.

Being flexible also does not give one the right to remove or disrupt another person’s freedoms or flexibility. Being personally flexible does not mean being a prick. :)