A big part of our worldview is our view of humanity. What image have we painted in our mind, depicting how and what a human is? What do we consider innate, part of human nature, and what is learned or trained? What do all humans have in common, and what is individual? What differentiates us from a stone, a plant, an animal? Are all animals the “same” or do some resemble a human more than others? Is a human alive, and if yes, what is life? What is, has or can a living creature (do), that a machine or computer will never acquire? Or is life just an illusion, that appears when a material structure becomes complex enough? Does a computer really become more alive as it gets more storage, more calculation power and better software? Or does it just get better at imitating some expressions of living creatures?
Everything alive, even if it does not appear to be capable of anything else, can grow and reproduce. That is exactly what a computer cannot do. Instead, a computer can calculate, can use and create databases to solve intellectual tasks. Except humans only very view living things on earth can do that. We could say that, with the help of the body that we inhabit, a human can do certain tasks that can also run in a computer created by humans. However, modern computers make this overlap of skill look bigger than it really is. They do not imitate what happens within us, what we think and feel and want. They only imitate what we express. What we say and write. When we give a body to a machine, in the form of a robot, then it can also imitate our motions. Even our sensory perception can be imitated with cameras, microphones and other sensors. Looking from outside, the appearance of a human can be copied good enough to fool us at first glance. This resemblance is however not achieved by recreating a the inner core of a human, but by imitating the outward appearance. And it is done with a technology that is fundamentally different to all living things.
It is fascinating to see that we carry our view of humanity, meaning our understanding of how human nature is shaped, onto those technically created imitations of a human appearance. If we believe that a human by nature ist egoistic, self-centered and only interested in personal benefit, then we connect those attributes also with the machines that we consider to be a copy of a human. We believe to be of the same heritage and nature as the computers which are now appearing. And so we believe that with ongoing optimization even our needs, our desires and fears will be included in a computer. That is not the case. However, a computer will be able to imitate the behavior that we display as a result of our needs, desires and fears. And as long as we define us with our behavior, as long as we primarily consider our appearance, our body, our possessions, our degrees and learned skills for identification, we cannot see any major difference between us and a machine that also has such things. But as long as we limit our attention to such externalities, we do not recognize what a human is, and who we really are.
A human carries something within, which we all experience, but do not perceive sensory. If it was not there, we would not make a difference between us and the rest of the world. We would not view us as an individual facing the outside world. We would have no idea that it is I who lives and acts in this body. Our body does a lot by “itself”. Much we do not need to actively control or regulate. Our body notifies us of its needs. We can follow the requests. We must follow the request. We can use our willpower to take control of certain activities and can for example hold our breath. But it can only be done for some time. Other needs we can ignore for a longer time, without getting sick or dying. And some desires even make us ill or terminally ill if we give in to them unrestrained for too long. We have this body with its needs. And we have something that we can name soul with its desires and judgements. And then there is something else, the I, which experiences things and tries to master the activities of body and soul to express itself. Many humans are so busy with their needs and desires, so deadlocked with their judgements, that the I living within them is barely noticeable. It barely influences such a human, who lives like a machine in that case, controlled entirely by external forces
Even if it does not seem like it oftentimes, a human is a spiritual being. And when we calm down, then we can experience this. We can, as soon as we have fully arrived in this world and took some time to get somewhat orientated, turn our attention to who we are, the I.