When I showed the draft version of yesterday’s blog to my friends, I got a question whether today’s blog title refers to extreme-right people. No, it did and does not. That thought didn’t even cross my mind while writing. Today’s blog title refers to all of us. The level of simplicity will indeed vary. Some will apply more simplicity than others. That is, however, not my or the point.
We apply simplicity (eg, routines, specialization, standardization) as a coping mechanism for an increasingly complex world. At a first glance, technology is the main reason for that complexity. However, technology is also a tool to deal with the vast amounts of data and information that are available to us.
Hence, if technology is a tool for creating order (ie, simplifying), then the ginormous amounts of data and information are creating complexity in our world. Example: encyclopedias used to be our beacon of knowledge. Today, even the internet is hardly sufficient for storing our knowledge.
I think, feel and believe that the absence of interconnectedness explains the increase in complexity of data and information. Encyclopedias did provide some of that interconnectedness.
The previous paragraph needs some elaboration. In general, we have generalisation versus specialisation (eg, in sports, in studies, at work). However, specialisation is becoming the default in our lives. Generalisation is becoming increasingly impossible (eg, polymath).
Every field of science – or knowledge – is being broken down into segments – or information silos. These information silos lack interaction – or interconnectedness.
This creates a fundamental dilemma: we know that everything is connected in life, nature and the universe but we are simplifying for reducing the complexity of that interconnectedness.
Obviously, we have a tool for repairing the lack of interconnectedness within our ginormous amounts of data and information: artificial intelligence.
There’s little doubt that an AI tool will assist in discovering patterns within available information (a.k.a. known knowns). However, that tool will neither be intuitive nor have imagination – let alone have beliefs. These are the other 3 types of human intelligence. Please see my 2017 blog: The 4 levels of Consciousness – an integrated framework.
The ultimate solution is uploading human consciousness to a “machine” (eg, computer). Artificial intelligence is just an intermediate step towards that goal.
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