Is this text written by a human? How can you decide? And what is the difference between when I am writing something and when a robot does it?
I am thinking about this, since I am a human - and not just a robot pretending to be a human. I have heard people advocate for rules about robots not allowed to pretend to be humans - but would that help to prevent it? I doubt it. It is easy to program a robot to break rules, I believe. You just give it rules with higher priority. So, even if I say that I am a human, can you be sure?
I am not independent of machines, no one is today. I am writing this text on a computer. Of course I could write it with pen on paper - but then, if I wanted you to read it? I could give you the paper. If I send it as a letter, a lot of machines will be used to deliver it to you. So - humans without machines and technology are sort of unimaginable today. And there should be no opposition - machines are created by humans. If we are afraid of technology - it means that we are afraid of humans. Or, how can we be sure that there never will be, or already exists, conscious machines? Maybe not independent, not self-sufficient, but still conscious? (Or, if independent, self-sufficient, but not conscious, what is the worst?)
What is the difference between me writing a text, and a robot doing it? I would say, the robot will need to be given the task. Someone gives the robot the task to write about the difference between humans and robots, and the robot will do it. It will do it surprisingly well. It will not, however, come up with new, untested ideas or perspectives on the subject, as far as I understand it. The answers of the questions I ask will be within the collected data it has been given, sorted out with the sets of rules and algorithms it is programmed with.
If someone gave me the same task, the process could be quite similar. In fact, humans often act quite machine-like. I believe that most of the time we do things mechanically, with a low level of awareness. It does not take a lot of effort to be conscious, to be aware, to be present, but it is almost impossible to stay there - you need to do it again and again, and the most crucial thing is to remember it. With that said, to write a text not as a machine, but with something unpredicted, really conscious within it, is something that humans can do, but rarely does. And sometimes also humans write texts without anyone giving them the task. They get the idea, and give themselves the task.
Still, that possibility always gives me hope. Because I do not want to live in a world with just machines, I want the human consciousness to be present, living, shining, radiating.
The machines are created by humans, and shall be controlled by human consciousness, and shall be used for the good of humanity. I think these are facts that people easily would agree on, if they just thought about it. Still, the opposite is happening all the time.
Machines has very often been invented because of evil, destructive, reasons, for enabling humans to more effectively torture, kill, war each other. Even many very constructive, positive machines come out of inventions done by the military, for example, so maybe we just have to accept that the most powerful driving forces in human history are dark - but it is not necessary to stay like that forever, I believe, and hope.
We need both machines and consciousness, there is no doubt about that. The crucial question is, do we need them equally much, or in other proportions? Which is most important to develop, to put your energy in?
Just being, thinking, feeling, sensing - honestly, how often do you do that? Even when it is painful? It seems so easy to do, but still many of us do not do it very often. I would recommend everyone to try harder - just to do “nothing”, to stay away from computers and mobiles and other things stimulating and distracting you - and also to stay away from drugs, and activities done mechanically. Just a bit more than you do now, and did yesterday. This will probably not kill you, rather heal you. But, as I mentioned, it can be painful, healing is often painful.
So, was this text written by a human? With just a little help of a computer, and some spelling corrections? I hope I can convince you, and I hope I can convince myself… Sometime in the near future, I might wake up in the morning and read a text pretended to be written by me, posted on social media, and already reacted to by some millions of other machines, also pretending to be humans.
You may ask if I am scared. Yes, sometimes I am scared. Of course that is just emotions, and you can deal with them, find a way to accept and live with them, not letting them take too much control over you. However, if and when I am scared, it is, as it seems, not the machines I am afraid of, and not either humans - but the lack of consciousness.
Working with this text I realise another difference between a robot and me writing - the time it takes. Beyond this obvious fact lies deeper truths, that I need time to consider what I wrote, to get perspectives on it, to see possible consequences of letting others read it, to be able to adjust it. If you give the robot the task, it solves it quickly, as quickly as possible. If you tell it to solve it tomorrow, it will just wait until tomorrow, and then solve it. There is no subconscious level where it processes it (as far as I know). That the longer time could actually mean more quality, and I do not mean the effective time, I mostly mean the ineffective time (when you do not consciously work on it), that I believe, is the maybe surprising advantage of being a human. Well, I do not actually know if this is surprising, but I need to stop here for now. Thank you for reading, especially if you are a human, not pretending to be a machine, or even better, not behaving as one.
Fredrik Hagstedt