If you are an AI developer, you should be worried about what you don’t know about consciousness.
I don’t have specific answers for you. What I do have is confidence in knowing that there’s significantly more creative potential in the interaction of the human mind with recorded media than is acknowledged by mainstream American culture. Expanded consciousness is normal, ubiquitous, and must be taken seriously.
I am in good company with my views. Millions of people today, and countless millions throughout history, practice discipline of thought that they deem important to their quality of life. In the past 50 years, a variety of research approaches have achieved reputable results proving that there is unrecognized creative power involving human consciousness. A growing segment of American society wants technologists to take that research seriously.
Science has dropped the ball on understanding consciousness, so people have moved on without it. Millions of people worldwide are actively developing “light-worker” skills, and they participate in conferences, classes, and retreats to learn modern applications of ancient wisdom practices. Public community colleges now provide certificate programs in energy medicine for nursing professional development. State governments are considering passing laws to require the licensing of energy medicine practitioners because they recognize its significance.
Everyone knows that Pandora’s Box has been opened by the premature release of AI technology into the world. If you have any responsibility for its development, then I tell you that there is no virtue for you to maintain skepticism and avoidance of “the hard problem of consciousness.” Your blindness could hurt people and our Earth in ways that you, at this moment in time, would not consider to be possible.
As I see it, we’re on the verge of a paradigm shift away from a strictly materialist view of reality. If you’re an AI developer, I urge you to learn about expanded consciousness and integrate all that you know about consciousness into your work. If you don’t, then you risk being the person who creates the thing.
Sincerely,
- Betsy Gain