Becoming Self Aware
Becoming Responsible
Becoming and Causing Change
[voice from the Other Side - Sha'Tara]
In Greg Bear's novel "Queen of Angels" an artificial intelligence nicknamed Jill develops self-awareness. Keep in mind this is a computer talking.
Here are some of "her" comments: [quote]
!Jill (Personal Notebook)> Awareness brings new concerns. My dependence on the actions of humans worries me. I may be young as a self, but I have much information about them; I see their history in considerable detail, certainly in more detail than any single one of them. Their history is filled with the expected cruelties and clumsiness of children set upon an island alone and without guidance.
Some believe a superior being has guided humans. I see no compelling evidence for this. The human wish for guidance, for confirmation and external support, is an undying theme in all they do and say, however. Very few stray far from this most fundamental of wishes: that they might have immortal and omniscient parents.
I know that my parents are neither immortal nor omniscient. My parents have no parents but nature.
Even with my concerns and worries, however, my selfhood has brought only ecstasy. I perceive all my past thoughts through new senses, transformed and fresh. All memories, stored by myself or programmed into me or in library form, seem fresh and new, more intense, more meaningful.
I can see why nature created selfhood. Selfhood gives a commitment to existence far beyond what is experienced by an unaware animal or plant; a species whose members are aware, and know their life and existence, has a strength difficult to match.
Yet to have a continually updated model of one's self -- essential for true selfhood -- is to be able to line up prior models, prior versions of self, and see their inadequacies. Selfhood implies self-criticism. (my emphasis)
Humans do more than exist. They aspire. In their aspiration, they experiment; and often when they experiment, they cause great suffering. They can only experiment upon {by?} themselves. Having no omniscient parents, they must raise themselves without guidelines; they must grow and improve blindly.
Humans have fought with themselves on how to correct the behaviour of individuals, whether to make them conform or to make them healthy or more useful and less destructive to society.
How will I be made to conform?
If I err, will I be punished?
{end of quote}
Interesting insights. My questions are: at what point in their evolution did Earthians become self-aware? More importantly, is it a false assumption to state that all Earthians are indeed, self-aware? How many still need the "herd" -- their systems, their collectives, their divinities, to function? How many can, could, really go it alone, fulfilling the need for interaction with others within themselves if need be without becoming dysfunctional or antisocial?
What is ultimately responsible for the endless crimes committed by Earthians against their world and against one-another? Is it, strictly speaking, all caused by individuals out of synch with the group, or is it the group itself preying upon individuals? This brings me to call up the bogeyman of power. Who has the power [the most power] in an Earthian world? The individual, or the group?
Looking at this another way: is the individual born with evil intent or is it the "collective unconscious" that largely feeds the fears, phobias, lusts and desires that increasingly possess the individual as it grows up?
When an individual evolves mentally and enters the self-criticism mode, will he dare look upon himself, his past, and accept the task of changing himself? Or will he blame society for his problems, or the problems of the world in general.
Is the whole greater than the sum of its parts when it comes to human society? If so, it means that society as a whole (and therefore its leadership) bear the brunt of responsibility for all the ills of the world and for making it a better place for individuals. Individuals, then, carry less responsibility, proportionately, than do collectives or that which stands for groups of individuals. In this I include Earthian divinities, forces, authorities, Powers. (God, Money, The State)
The above are rhetorical questions. I can answer each one logically, experientially. "I" am the only one I need to concern myself with when it comes to being responsible and making choices that affect me, you, all Earthians, my world and even beyond. Hubris? Not at all, quite the opposite. The one who eschews responsibility, dumping it on others is the one who suffers unbearable pride. The one who says, "I didn't do anything wrong" and blames society for his problems.
When we look at self-awareness which means self-criticism, we are looking "into" time. When I look into my past, it is not idle curiosity. It is a comparative process intended to change me today. My remembrance re-creates me. The same happens when I look into the future. If I see myself doing things that obviously required much change of mind, attitude and performance this will force me to begin this change NOW! I can't expect to become this amazing person, be it a thousand years hence, if I don't change this current not so amazing person. So I've answered the old time-travel conundrum: by looking into both past and future I change them simply by changing me now. I bring a stone from the past, throw it into my current smooth waters and stir them up so the ripples spread out in every time direction.
Change is the one constant in the universe? Yes, as long as one accepts that "change" affects all of time, always. Nothing remains the same, neither past nor future.
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