Blog

“Human beings are the reproductive organs of technology.” Kevin Kelly

We have always experienced ourselves to be the masters of our tools. However, that may be about to change – unless we do the one most important thing. We must start “attending inside” and become the masters of our attention. Contemplative practices are vital if we are to avoid becoming the captives of an intention that values our consumerism over our flourishing.

I was going to write a lengthy piece on this but decided to keep it simple. Simply stated, we are standing at a fork along our evolutionary road. One path leads to a spiritual dead end. The other fork will open us to a world of boundless flourishing.

“The day is not far distant when humanity will realize that biologically it is faced with a choice between suicide and adoration.”Teilhard de Chardin

The age of artificial intelligence has arrived. It is clear that our world will be transformed in ways that we do not yet even comprehend. Our response has been one of stunned amazement. Like deer caught in the headlights of our brilliant science, we are frozen in a space between the binary worlds of hope and fear. The relentless evolution of science will not be stopped. Like everything else in the universe, technology is conscious and emerging in complexity.

‘When the iron bird flies and horses run on wheels, the Tibetan people will be scattered like ants across the face of the earth. The dark times will be when man no longer has space between his thoughts’ Guru Padmasambhava , 8th Century Tantric Master

More than 1200 years ago, Guru Padmasambhava, foretold our current state. Caught in an endless stream of stimulus and response, we experience ourselves caught in currents driven by the intentions of our “masters of technology”. Motivated by greed and not our most important needs, they have developed a technology that feeds off our attention as a doorway to feeding our hungry ghosts.

“We are in the process of reinventing the human species. An envelope of thought (the noosphere) is determining the next stage of our evolution. A leap in being. We need to leap beyond the idea that we are simply a mammalian species. Companies like Facebook are acting like shrews – sucking the attention out of us, motivated by greed. We have to identify formally adaptive traits that have become maladaptive. We cannot afford to suck the energy out of all other species. ” (paraphrased)
Brian Swimme

Unfortunately, most of us are not even aware that we have a choice and we have the ability to choose which evolutionary path we will pursue. We can abdicate mastery of our minds, or we can implement contemplative practices that will literally develop the neurological capacities we will need to master artificial intelligence technology (and not become its servant). Fortunately, these contemplative practices have been nurtured and enhanced by spiritual masters who recognize the challenges of our time and are making these (scientifically validated) technology freely available to us.

What I am suggesting is not anti-technology, but rather “the middle way” where we can consciously utilize the power of artificial intelligence with wisdom and compassion.

AI2 – Artificial intelligence” and “Attending Inside”.

“Our task in life and in death is to realize that we always have a choice. We can fall asleep into unawareness and stay stuck in the repeating cycle of samsara, or we can wake up”

Pema Chodron

I have included a video titled “The Regenerative Mind” in which I expand on these ideas.