Effect of artificial intelligence on human life

Effect of artificial intelligence on human life Professions, as you know it today, will become meaningless. So, many of you will be out of your vocation, unless you do something that a damn machine cannot do. You must be equipped with something beyond your intellect. 

Only then you will be relevant. Then artificial intelligence won’t disturb you. Moderator: So, in today’s technological world, we know that artificial intelligence and robotics are taking over. Those are the cutting edge technologies. 

So, what is your take on the interaction of such technologies, with the intersection of such technologies and ancient practices, such as meditations and yoga? guru: Are you sure I am real? [Laughter] Because last year and a half… they’ve been inviting me to speak in all sorts of artificial intelligence conferences in the world.

 I was just surprised why are they asking me to come and speak about artificial intelligence, because I’m not an expert in the field, nor am I an artificial intelligence.

 So, I asked them in one of the conferences – it was in St. Petersburg – I said, “Why are you guys inviting me to all these artificial intelligence conferences? 

I am a natural intelligence, not an artificial intelligence.” [Laughter] They said, “The problem is, what are we going to do? We’re going to lose our jobs.” These are all professors in big universities, in MIT and in Harvard, and these kind of places, they’re asking me, “What are we going to do in another 10 years’ time?” 

Because everything that we know, everything that was sacred till now, suddenly is going to be there on a little gadget.  You must understand this, what artificial intelligence means is, accumulation of information, analyzing it, and projecting it the way you want at a given moment, will no more be considered as a valuable thing in human faculty because a simple gadget will do it much better than any human being. 

Already that Google lady is looking smarter than any of you, isn’t it? She looks smarter than me, it’s okay, I’m not educated; but you, guys… she’s looking smarter than any of us, or no? Anything you ask, without batting an eyelid, she tells us. So, it’s going to that place where intellectually everything that you perform will look stupid, or meaningless. 

This happened to me when I was about 13 years of age I think, 13 or 14 – 13 I think. For the first time I saw a flatbed calculator, this Panasonic calculator, you know? 

At that time it was 100, 110 rupees, very expensive. You drink a coffee for more than that today. But 110 rupees Panasonic… Sony was 125, so we buy the cheaper one, 110 rupees Panasonic. And they show me this – I never bought them – somebody brought one, and they showed me, tuk..tuk..tuk… results! Then first thought that came to me is, why the hell am I wasting my life in the mathematics classes? 

 I said, “All I need is this, so I don’t have to go to the math class.” Whatever question you ask, tuk..tuk..tuk… 100 rupee thing can tell you. Why this torture for 10 years, going through this arithmetics and mathematics, and all kinds of things?

 It can even do sin, theta, cos, theta – whatever nonsense you want. [Laughs] Then only I thought, we must make a big machine which does all this rubbish, so that I don’t have to go to school; at last, the dream is coming true. [Laughs] In the next 10, 15 years, the education as you know it, professions as you know it today will become meaningless, because right now they have created these machines. 

So, once this happens, many, many things that we are spending years on learning will be meaningless. They’re designing something that if a customer comes and says what kind of house I want, what is my aesthetics, what is my culture, what I like, how it should be, and what’s my budget. A machine designs a complete house, 10 different alternatives that you want, including paintings, hangings in the wall, the furniture, the works. Now they’re saying, in others 5 to 7 years, they’re saying it can even print the house, and build it.

 So, just imagine the design guys.  So many of you will be out of your vocation, unless you do something that a damn machine cannot do. All of you should gear yourself for this now. You must be able to do something beyond your intellect. Human being has many layers of intelligence, intellect is only a small part of it. 

Right now our education system is completely dedicated to intellectual development of the human being, and we think that’s the grandest way to live. No, it is not. We can explore that if we have the time. But in the yogic way of looking at things, we look at human intelligence as 16 parts. If you explore other dimensions of intelligence, only then you will be relevant, when everything intellectual… intellectual means your intellect cannot function without accumulated data. Yes, or no? Hello? 

Your intellect cannot function without accumulated data. Is that so? Now, whatever is data assimilation, analysis, and execution of that analysis, a machine will do better than you. A human being can always make mistakes, can always forge information, but a machine is clear cut: it will simply do those things. So, everything that you can do intellectually will be meaningless in another 10 to 15 years’ time.

 So, you must be equipped with something beyond your intellect. When I say beyond your intellect, there are many ways to look at it. I will make a simplistic example.

 Simplistic because if we go into more sophisticated examples, we’ll have to do a lot of exploration. We don’t have that kind of time today. For example, what did you eat for lunch? Participant: Maggi. guru: You are on Maggi? 

 Can somebody take care of his nourishment? He’s on Maggi!  Okay, even if you eat the noodle, a noddle doesn’t look like him, doesn’t feel like him, nothing. But this noodle he eats, within 3, 4 hours’ time, this Maggi noodle has become a human being, isn’t it? Participant: Yeah, it’s part of me. 

guru: It’s become part of the system. So, you are manufacturing such a complex machine with Maggi noodles! [Laughter] This is like a 3D printer. [Laughter] You put Maggi noodles into it… No, I’m not made of Maggi noodles, okay? I eat better than that. 

But you put Chapati into this, this becomes a human body, this is the most sophisticated machine on the planet. You’re manufacturing this with whatever food that you eat, and the food that you eat is just the soil that you walk upon. Yes, or no? 

And it stands up – isn’t this a 3D printer? Hello? Does that intelligence exists within you, or not? Not even in your brain, in your gut! Participant: It does. guru: It does. 

Participant: It does. So, if only you found conscious access to this dimension of intelligence, you will live magically, isn’t it? Then artificial intelligence won’t disturb you. You will be very happy, because all the menial jobs if the machines do, what a wonderful world! I’m looking forward to that.