Everyone wonders about death. How will I die? When will I die? Human life becomes torture when you know that your days are numbered. When you know that the date of death is getting closer and closer. Some studies suggest that it is very useful to think about death and represent it. Some religious doctrines and traditions offer us to represent our death every night before going to bed, to be reborn again in the morning. The “Hagakure: Book of the Samurai” offers us to die in advance, so our life will be filled with meaning and actions, not fears. I even had the idea to create a mobile application where you will evaluate your every day on the basis of “Will I regret this day on my deathbed or not.” But this is philosophy; back to the topic.
If I die now, would it be ok?”. And I need that answer to always be “yes”. This is my perfect solution to living a good life with no regrets.
A person can have different experiences of the awareness of death. From complete apathy to aggression. Sometimes, people commit suicide to take their destiny into their hands and to avoid the torture of expectation. Yes. The question is not easy to answer.
But today is not about that. A couple of days ago, tormented by the heat and insomnia because of a simple cold, one thought came to me. I do not know why.
It is the first thing I think of when I wake up. The last thing before I fall asleep.
In general, the essence of the experiment is as follows. Let us assume that we already have artificial intelligence that is very close to passing the Turing test, and it is conscious. Suppose that a certain artist decided to play on the theme of the death of machines. We have a mind (no matter what it is: the program, the robot), and we can keep track of his thoughts. This mind (in the future, I will call it AI) is the subject of our investigations. His death is implicit in his program. Remember how many problems it has brought for people and robots in the movie “Blade Runner”? He dies cyclically, for example, every two hours. And he is aware of this. That is, the mind is aware of what he left to live in minutes. He begins to realize that this process is cyclical (he is still having the intellect). Dying, he then comes to life again (its memory and information remain, but here again, you can play with the options). Maybe it’s a bit eases his suffering. However, he will never know when the process was stopped and whether it stop. It would be interesting to see how he would react to it. I think it will be able to reveal to us the nature of our human feelings and thoughts and maybe even more than an experiment with people (indeed not as cruel).
What does this experiment can teach us, and what questions it raises?
- How humane conduct this kind of experimentation on sentient beings? Now, we are often justified by the fact that plants and animals are not reasonable or not entirely reasonable, so we can use them for our needs. Now, the question is raised much higher. In fact, the suffering of other beings is important for us, even if not proper and we have created. (The pain we do not take into account, we wanted to spit on the animals and everything else for the sake of our needs).
- Let's try and experiment with the AI in a slightly different direction. Now we often try to replicate the structure and function of the brain when working on AI. When we get closer to that he can teach us more than we now know about our brains, our emotions, and our feelings. Can we really not so many know about us? Such experiments would give us a tremendous opportunity to study those “on the edge” where we can not use people.
- What is now the art, and who is an artist? I meet and talk with many artists in various fields. Sometimes I belong to them. I think Artist is now more than just an artist; this is the first researcher in life. Researchers of social issues, technology, and psychology. What these guys are different from artists who are now engaged in the creation of technological sculptures to emphasize the human alienation from society due to the use of technology?
I guess that’s it. But I think to deal with these three issues, we need enough time. Actually, my time and life will not be enough to answer it. What are your suggestions and thoughts on this? And what thoughts does the premonition of death cause you?
PS. In addition, we can individually learn the Intelligence on data and content of certain users (persons), their history and interests, and their information. Then, we can learn about how he would react to the approaching death. Or make him live in the artificial absolute consciousness after death.
This article does not provide answers. It’s probably not even an article. Instead, my thoughts and the start of dialogue. I am interested in your thoughts on the matter.
Original article on Medium dated April 2016