The human design
process will achieve a kind of infinite velocity,
everything
becomes linked with everything else and matter becomes mind.
-
Erik
Davis (Techgnosis, 1998)
Matter is derived
from mind, not mind from matter.
– Tibetan Book of
the Dead
We are accelerating
inexorably into a crisis point in our evolution. Our capitalist-industrial culture has
poisoned the very earth that we depend for our survival in a search for
short-term profits. Global weather
patterns are changing dramatically.
Political and financial systems are falling apart. The future of the human race doesn’t look too good. As much as we might try to deny it
our world is changing from under our feet.
Impermanence is not an abstract concept these days but a daily reality.
At the same time our
technological growth is increasing at an exponential rate. Scientific discoveries, new ideas and
inventions are happening constantly and reshaping our world in ways that our
old traditions just can’t keep up with.
This is where the idea of the singularity comes in. Futurists such as Ray Kurzweil predict that
at some point in the very near future that we will have developed machines that
are superior to us in intelligence.
Whether or not this is a good or bad thing is open to interpretation. The question of whether or not a machine can
be conscious, or self-aware, is disputable as well.
The singularity is the
scientific equivalent of the apocalypse.
It is the end of humanity and the beginning of the “transhuman”
era. By definition we cannot predict
what will happen at this point. As
Kurzwel predicts, “By the 2030s, the nonbiological portion of our intelligence
will predominate.” The idea is that we
will transcend our biology and merge with our machines. This is really just a new techno version of
our age-old impetus towards spiritual transcendence. As Kurzwel eloquently explains:
“Evolution moves towards
greater complexity, greater elegance, greater knowledge, greater intelligence,
greater beauty, greater creativity, and greater levels of subtle attributes
such as love. In every monotheistic tradition God is likewise described as all
of these qualities, only without limitation: infinite knowledge, infinite
intelligence, infinite beauty, infinite creativity, infinite love, and so on.
Of course, even the accelerating growth of evolution never achieves an infinite
level, but as it explodes exponentially it certainly moves rapidly in that
direction. So evolution moves inexorably towards this conception of God,
although never quite reaching this ideal. We can regard, therefore, the freeing
of our thinking from the severe limitations of its biological form to be an
essentially spiritual undertaking.” (The Singularity Is Near: When Humans
Transcend Biology, Penguin Books (September 26, 2006)
Some would argue that the
singularity is not just imminent; it has arrived. Certainly the explosion of technologies such
as the internet, cell phones and tablets, world-wide social media etc. have
created a world that would be unrecognizable to my grandparents who grew up in
an age before automobiles of telephones.
In a very real sense we are already merging with our machines. It is a love affair, a merging through “bhakti.” This was evidenced this morning at Starbucks
where I looked up from my Kindle to see a pretty young woman gazing raptly into
the screen of her smart phone.
It is evident in perhaps a
more sinister way in meta-data surveillance, location tracking and the
increasing ability of both business and government to follow our activities and
habits. We may feel outrage and complain
all we want but this is part of our brave new world as well. We all have to be savvy protectors of our “personal
identities” as they are revealed through our electronic footprints. In a sense, like with all love affairs, there
is an undercurrent of battle to maintain our personal autonomy.
Yogis (consistent practitioners
of yoga, not cartoon bears) have sought and reportedly found a similar
transcendence of the human condition through Samadhi. Samadhi is a state of consciousness in which
one recognizes that one is not body nor mind but pure awareness, pure
being. Yoga is an inner technology of
the mind, brain and nervous system.
While information technology holds the promise of “uploading” our souls
onto some kind of transcendent mainframe, yoga teaches that there is a deep
aspect of ourselves which is already immortal and transcendent. It is known as the Atman, or Self. “The knowing Self,” states the Katha
Upanishad, “is not born; It does not die. It has not sprung from anything;
nothing has sprung from It. Birthless, eternal, everlasting, and ancient, It is
not killed when the body is killed.”
We “know” this inner self
when the mind becomes quiet, when we detach ourselves from info-stream of the
mind and senses. According to the Yoga
Sutras we are in a state of spiritual ignorance, or avidya, when we are
identified with our personal identities.
The personal identity or ego is a temporary manifestation of that
greater Self. Ultimately it cannot be
contained as “information.” Instead it
is the formless awareness that cognizes information. The Self is separate from mind and body and
so is separate from their technological extensions. The yogi considers mind and body as
instruments of the inner being. So too
our technologies are tools and toys for us as soul-beings. The trick as always is to try to remember our
true identity in the midst of chaos.
The transformation of our
external and internal worlds of experience is a wild ride. Hang onto your Self!
Here are some links to more information of the singularity concept:
