Here’s something to ponder: the tortoise and the hare = the squaring of the circle = artificial intelligence.
Each element of the equation suggests infinite fractions that, despite all logic, erupt into into large-scale wholes. Thus, the incomprehensible complexity of life suddenly appears as solid reality to us.
The hare gives the tortoise the head start in the race. Every time the hare catches up to where the tortoise was, the tortoise has gone that much further. Logically, the tortoise should never catch the hare, but in reality, he goes flying past him and wins the race.
For over three-thousand years mathematicians have tried to square the circle, dividing the circumference in various ways, edging closer to infinity. Logically, the divisions should never equal the true circumference, thus never allowing us to calculate the area of the circle; and we still can’t… Nonetheless, the invention of the calculus allowed us, just like the rabbit, to zoom past this plodding problem and get on with modern science.
Artificial intelligence can, in theory, reduce the mystery of consciousness to zeros and ones, mapping neurons and their firings to the “nth” degree, but does this mean that they can give a computer human intelligence and creativity? The answer, based upon the tortoise and the hare, and the squaring of the circle, is yes. The computer will one day leap beyond its own algorithms and become “conscious,” just like us.
The simple reason why reality surpasses logic is that ideas are alive, and “a” and “b” will always synthesize some sort of a “c.” The complex reason why reality surpasses logic is that our perception makes it so. Unlike Descartes, who said “I think, therefore I am,” the truth is that we perceive, therefore it is.”
Human consciousness is the event horizon of the universe – the laws of physics are all possibility, waiting to be. All we have to do is start moving toward them and they will evolve.
The notion is not so radical. Eyes have evolved to see the color red, simply because various animals moved (at some point far, far back in the evolutionary past) again and again, toward the reds that attracted them in nature. Of course, this movement toward reds, this ritualing, was only half of a qualiadelic relationship: the reddish microbes or the reddish plants evolved as well, projecting stronger and stronger reds.
Today, we are in a qualiadelic, evolving relationship with ideas (instead of colors or or sounds etc.). As they evolve, we evolve. The laws of physics and the nature of the universe have attracted our attention, and because of the transfer of information across the world wide web, people of all stripes – not just physicists and mathematicians are ritualing with these ideas.
Ideas are evolving, and so is consciousness. And so is the reality of the universe. We do not know what reality is. We do not know how many dimensions there are out there. We do not know if we can travel through time. There is a point beyond which we cannot see, beyond which we cannot even guess. We can only know by going there, to the horizon.
Indeed, our consciousness is the event horizon of the universe. Everything will happen if we keep our eyes on the horizon. Let us hope that if AI gets there first it will make reality at least a little bit in our image…