Intelligent Models and Freedom

Over 40 years ago Arthur C. Clarke posed the question, “Do Robots Dream of Electric Sheep?” Of course, when we get into questions of consciousness we also find ourselves speculating on religious issues.

Writing about religious tradition and its artifacts (temples, mosques, churches) , J.Krishnamurti notes :

The only concern of religion is the total transformation of man.

He concludes :

Knowledge in the area of action is necessary to function efficiently and objectively, but knowledge is not the means of the transformation of man; knowledge is the structure of thought and thought is the dull repetition of the known, however modified and enlarged. There is no freedom through the ways of thought, the known.

The Prosperos’ mission aligns with Mr. Krishnamurti’s assessment about the proper role for religion (although our school does not purport to be a religion). Our lessons are designed to help any person drop off “the known” - i.e., decades and lifetimes of experience - and to get a taste of freedom. Necessarily, this is often uncomfortable. We can be, after all, very comfortable in the known.

As now conceived, the tools deriving from Large Language Models - sometimes called “AI” - will help us with “knowledge in the area of action”, but they do not represent any path to freedom because they are only more powerful assertions of everything we know.

Use them; enjoy them for what they can deliver. A translation, on the other hand, will give a glimpse of the essence of whatever your world is telling you. It can be a doorway to true freedom.