“The end of learning is to repair the ruins of our first parents by regaining to know God aright…” John Milton ~ On Education
Much is said these days about “unlearning” the outdated and false ideas passed down to us by our elders. If we can only break free of these ideas, we will be free to remake ourselves in a positive way, or at a higher frequency, and thereby more fully be one with the universe.
The problem with such thinking and “relearning” is that no one seems to have stopped to consider whether it is a good idea. It’s modern, it’s hip, it sounds like freedom—what could be/go wrong? Well, given that the space available severely limits sufficient response. Let us say it is the denial of what makes us human.
If to be human means that we are created beings and not the result of a series of improbable cosmic accidents, then to “unlearn” is to abandon the most critical knowledge available about how to set things right. Of course, the idea that things need to be set right only makes sense if we are created. Otherwise, existence is what it is. More specifically, we are what we are. There is no remedy for how we can be other than as we are.
To embrace the chimera of self-identity as ultimate truth. It is to look inward for reason and focus as if the answer lies within us. If Milton is to be believed, the approach of considering inward argument as supreme is exactly how our first parents came to ruin and what perpetuates that ruin.
To be self-existent or products of random universal vibrations has great appeal because it opens the door to a universe of our own making. The mind then, is a place. We can make it what we will. We may make a heaven of hell or a hell of heaven as we choose.
We need then look outside ourselves. Where shall we turn? Many of my friends and acquaintances talk about looking to the Universe as a solution. They claim the universe controls life. It rewards good thoughts/actions and punishes bad ones. It makes choices and initiates action based on those choices. But the moment you talk about an all-powerful invisible force that thinks, chooses, and rewards what it prefers, you are talking about a god. You may not call it the Christian God, but it is a god nonetheless.
Artificial Intelligence, so we are told, is the future. There’s a line from the movie, Jurassic Park in which Malcom charges that the genetic manipulators were so caught up in seeing if they could make dinosaurs that they never stopped to ask themselves if they should. We can do it, let’s see how far we can take it. That is the argument for AI in a nutshell.
AI is but another name for inward reasoning done for us. We are relieved of the need for possessed knowledge. Folks my age are well aware of the consequences of such surrender. We are reminded of it every time we shop and meet the clerk who can’t count change. Or in my case every time autocorrect meets written dialogue or pre-twentieth century syntax.
