Psychology of Singularity – Your Source for AI News and Information

Image by Hotpot.ai

by Jill Maschio, PhD

October 4, 2024

Technology Revolution and a Double Digital YouTechnology Revolution and a Double Digital You

As Noah Harari, a writer and world influencer, stated, AI will be able to hack the human brain by manipulation (Faye D’Souza, 2023). Some scientists would have it that the human brain be radically changed to the point that it is non-biological. The ability to hack the brain may very well be part of the technology revolution. Author and computer scientist Ray Kurzweil (2024), principal researcher and AI visionary at Google, believes humans should live very different lives through technology. He stated, “A key capability in the 2030s will be to connect the upper ranges of our neocortices to the cloud, which will directly extend our thinking… it will become an extension of ourselves” (p. 9). He further states, “Non-biological portions of our minds will provide thousands of times more cognitive capacity than the biological parts” (p. 10).

For Kurzweil, humanity is in the Fourth Epoch of the universe, which will give birth to the final and Fifth Epoch, and this will release humans from the chains of their genetics so that humanity can transcend. According to Kurzweil, this will partly come about by technology making two of your brain. Technology will create digital forms of your brain’s sections until the final product is a computerized replica. This second brain acts like you and will be conscious because your original brain is conscious. You will still be yourself; your double will act like you but operate independently. Since your double brain can function independently, it will start to separate from your original brain. According to Kurzweil, this will lead to prosperity, but he fails to explain how humanity will prosper due to having two brains other than humans will be more intelligent than before. He doesn’t explain what the second you will do or how exactly humans will prosper intellectually.

People supporting Kurzweil’s radical and fundamental book are Yuval Noah Harari, Mustafa Suleyman- CEO of Microsoft AI; Steve Jurvetson, Tony Robbins – philanthropist; Dean Omish, MD, found and president of preventive medicine research, The Boston Globe, The Wall Street Journal, Forbes, Peter Kiamandis, MD., New York Bestselling author, Suzanne Somer, Bill Gates, Rafael Reif, president, MIT, and more. It makes me wonder if these people read his book.

Kurzweil’s (2024) idea should raise many questions, including who owns the second you that replaces the original. Aside from that, consider that those who own AI may have control over human behavior, just like those who “own the media, own the mind”.

According to computer scientists such as Kurzweil (2024), AI will help advance society in the following ways: health and healthcare, longevity and extension of lifespan, agriculture, destruction of pathogens, productivity in the workplace, and more jobs and higher incomes. More alarming may be that soon, your brain neurons will be connected to a brain-computer interface (BCI) so that information can be shared between you and a computer. According to an NIH article (Martins et al., 2019), “BCI is a computer-based system that acquires brain signals, analyzes them, and translates them into commands that are relayed to an output device to carry out a desired action” (pf 3). The brain could also be connected to the cloud so that neural activity can be monitored.

Neuralnanorobots (endoneurobots, gliabots, and synapobots) can cross the blood-brain barrier to enter the brain and ingress into brain cells once attached. After accessing a brain cell, the technology would transmit up to ~6 x 10¹⁶ bits per second of brain electrical information to transfer information. This, according to the NIH article, would allow a human to access a wealth of information.

This and Kurzweil’s non-biological double-brain idea raise many concerning questions about the power companies may have to influence the masses as well as ethical and privacy matters.

Concerning Questions:

• Should we trust those who replace human brains and upload them to the cloud?
• How can a digital copy of the brain be conscious just because your original brain is?
• Is this procedure ethical? What complications or new medical consequences may result from neuralnanorobots entering the brain?
• Do you want other people to know all your thoughts? This seems like a privacy issue.
• Will humans truly transcend or be controlled by a computer?
• What information will be fed to humans through the Cloud?
• Will you be held accountable for your double?
• What if the data in the Cloud is hacked? Can your double get a computer virus?
• What do you need a body for? Doesn’t the brain and body act together?
• Will humans still feel a sense of meaning and purpose?

We must also question what the information or data will be used for. For example, when people buy certain technology, they must agree to the terms and agreement and/or privacy statement. People don’t usually read the whole document(s), and even if they did, one thing people aren’t being told is how the information may be used to influence their thoughts and behaviors at a later time. For example, an agreement with a cell phone app isn’t going to tell you that using the app may influence your thoughts or recondition you so that you continue to use it – the same with Facebook or any social media platform.

If the media or an organization with influential power over the minds of consumers tells us that something is good  – it is. It will be the same with AI – we will be told that it is good, and the masses will believe it. When Mark Cuban tells us in a commercial that Gemini will make us smarter, – it is. Logical thinking gets pushed to the side because Mark Cuban is influential. If people are told that AI is smarter – than it is.

Humans are still more intelligent than AI and will be until computer scientists can figure out how to mimic the human brain more accurately. The human brain multi-processes information across regions. The human brain has a thalamus that acts like a relay switch, helping different areas of the brain communicate with each other. . AI can’t do this kind of parallel processing. Still, once it can (called neuromorphic computing), it will advance to a higher intellectual ability.

Other factors that set apart humans from that of AI include:

• Humans are conscious. The basal ganglia and the cerebral cortex are partly what makes humans conscious, which AI does not have. AI would need to be sentient and conscious before it could surpass humans in multiple types of intelligence.
• The human brain is malleable. The brain automatically “births” new brain cells allowing neural circuits to restructure every time it learns something new.
• The human brain automatically determines which information is most important to process. AI can only determine relevant information through algorithms and what the data computer technicians fed it.
• The human brain “lays” down emotions when forming a memory. This ability allows humans to remember what it was like to fall off a bike or to recall memorable memories of special social occasions.
• Humans have a genetic purpose to survive, and the human body is designed to do that. If you see a threat in your environment, such as a dangerous animal or reptile, the brain perceives the threat and activates the fight or flight response so that you can improve your chances of surviving.
• Humans learn from their experiences – allowing people to become experts in topics.

I also like to think that having a heart and soul makes us very different than AI.

When Advancements Lead to Unhealthy Consequences

Advancements come with good and bad consequences. History tells us that not all advancements and revolutions were good for everyone. The Industrial Revolution, for example, improved the lives of society in America by creating manufacturing jobs and furthering science and advanced technology. Production was cheaper, education and transportation improved, and access to resources increased, which resulted in greater wealth for America. Advancements in farming have led to greater ease of access to food in more developing countries.

The Industrial Revolution also had a dark side. It increased urbanization as people moved into the cities for jobs, which led to air, water, and soil pollution from factories and dumping. Cities were overcrowded and unsanitary, which made diseases a problem of the industrial revolution, especially in poorer neighborhoods. Factory owners exploited workers by overworking them and placing them in risky environments for low pay. The poor were exploited the most because the jobs did not raise them out of poverty. Some employees were exposed to toxic chemicals and unhealthy working conditions.  Children were also exploited to work 12-14 hours a day for low pay.

The Industrial Revolution increased the distribution of wealth as those who could gain work increased their wealth. The Industrial Revolution took people off their land to be “controlled” by the factory owners affecting those working in unhealthy conditions. Today, in the state of Wyoming, there are currently billboards that provide information so that mine workers with black lung disease can get help for their disease. New jobs brought people to Wyoming. The growth has hurt wildlife. Deer and pronghorn are commonly found dead along the side of roads from being hit by vehicles on the streets. The state of Wyoming once had abundant wildlife. As far as advancements in farming, there are more pesticides and chemicals in our food, and soil has been depleted of its nutrients, leading to decreased health.

Move over Humans – Synths are Here

There will soon be a day when the media or computer scientists declare that AI is conscious. Will you be able to tell if it’s true or not? I asked my students in biological psychology this question and not many could answer. This question is complex and not settled in the field of psychology. There are levels or degrees of consciousness. The human brain has the unconscious and the conscious mind. Much of what the brain processes is done at the unconscious level – meaning that we are not aware of the processes or the end product.

A synth is a human-like robot or android. Some people wait for synths to become sentient (conscious) and for humans and synths to communicate through brain-computer interfacing. I do not believe a machine can be conscious. To be conscious means perhaps being self-aware.

Humans become self-aware around age 3. Researchers test self-awareness in animals and humans (homo sapiens) with a mirror test – where a researcher places a mark on the forehead between the eyes and has the child look in the mirror. If the child recognizes the mark, he or she is considered to be self-aware.

What does it mean to be self-aware? It means recognizing a person’s existence; it means that people can start to self-regulate emotions in social situations, hear and understand internal talk, thoughts, and sensations, know the subjective emotions one feels, and understand the outcomes of one’s behaviors. It is the ability to self-reflect and engage in metacognition, which is the cognitive ability to think about our thoughts.

As people grow, so does their self-awareness. Some may have higher self-awareness than others, and by acknowledging and practicing self-awareness, people can raise it to higher levels. We learn to trust ourselves, others, and the world through self-awareness.

According to Claude.AI, AI is not self-aware because it cannot have subjective experiences.

Below is Claude’s answer to if it is self-aware.

Changing the Human Psyche with Synths

Suzanne Gildert (2019), at SingluarityAI, asks what it means to be human. If scientists can understand that, then one day soon, it will be common to live aside synths. According to Gildert, robots will be indistinguishable from humans, called ultra-human robots. At SingularityAI, Gildert, (2019) explains that the goal is to question what it means to be human and then manufacture robots that mimic humans.  It is about making robots more real-like with the body design and moving in every way that a human can with arms, eyes, and head movements. Once synth robots proliferate in the world, there will be pilots who can take control of them remotely, and this is called teleoperation.

In Gildert’s video, the future of AI is how AI can have cognitive architectures. The robots will learn and act more like a brain than a robot through deep learning techniques. A synth will be able to detect information coming in from the environment and determine how to respond. It can react immediately (like the unconscious human brain) but then do long-term planning like the conscious human brain.

Gildert provides the following example. You are in a department store shopping for new clothes, and a synth recognizes you and can help you and be your personal stylist. At some point, a human will need to take control of the synth to complete the consumer’s shopping experience. This means that companies can make a profit with robots by automating them to perform tasks, and humans can take over the AI when it can no longer complete the task.

Gildert envisions this scenario within 10 years (in 2019) when robots will be ultra-human with conscious and unconscious brains. In the meantime, humans can control robots, which will be normalized because people will know and perceive them as being controlled by humans.

Gildert asks if creating AI to be ultra-human-like is good or bad. The more robots become human-like, the more we will start to feel like these are beings and treat them like other people. As we engage with robots socially, we will see AI as being in our “in-group” and not the “out-group” and if trust in AI will grow. Gildert emphasizes that instead of being cautious of AI, we should be open-minded and decide if we can learn from them.

If you can construct a synth that perceives information much like the human brain does, then maybe it would be possible for humans and robots to share and exchange information. If this is possible, then maybe we can experience a robot brain and be sentient—one with robots.

Remember that the goal is for humans to become accustomed to robots – for their existence to be a normal part of society. However, what happens as a result of normalizing human-like intelligent robots?

Read Part 3