Artificial Intelligence and the Human Mind

AI is dazzling, but the human mind is unmatched

This work is an urgent call to action for human minds

AI has entered the domain of intelligence, a realm where human beings reigned supreme until recently. This development elicits both enthusiasm and fear. Yet, it also provides an epochal opportunity to focus on the most exquisite phenomena known to us: the human mind. The human reasoning mind possesses what we call ‘common sense,’ a humble term that belies the unfathomable depths of human reason, unattainable to any AI technology.

Human babies are born with innate endowments of consciousness, reflective functioning, and the capacity to relate meaningfully and affectionately to other humans. Building on them, human minds can acquire reason and ‘common sense.’ Cognitive scientists realize the depth of the mystery of such endowments. Modern AI can demonstrate raw intelligence, but to reach the capacity for reasoning, to have ‘general intelligence,’ as babies do, there is another universe to cross.

In a quest for the science of human agency, this book adopts an interdisciplinary approach spanning fields such as AI, philosophy, history, economics, biology, child development, psychodynamic theories, cognitive science, and Perennial Philosophy. It explores what we know, what we believe we know (mistaking our beliefs for scientific knowledge), and what humanity understood at the dawn of Western civilization, when the human reasoning mind first gained prominence as a trustworthy instrument capable of engaging in philosophy and science. Beginning with the pioneering philosophers, we observe our increasing reliance on and trust in human reason. How did it all start? How did we manage to leave behind irrational beliefs and harmful traditions? We understand that philosophy originated as a discipline aimed at developing inner virtue and cultivating an ‘intimate receptivity for wisdom’ through a set of ‘spiritual exercises’ (as termed by Pierre Hadot, a renowned scholar of classical antiquity). For its pioneers, philosophy was not a spectator sport. It was something one engaged in, not just something one talked about. What they did held profound transformative power: it reshaped their intimate inner experiences, fostered inner stability, curbed the irrational aspects of human reason, and limited the influence of raw self-interest. In doing so, they enhanced the trustworthiness of human reason and heralded a new era of humanist ethics.

Modern humanity seems dazzled by 21st-century technology and has largely forgotten these age-old faculties, even if they have been preserved in Perennial Philosophy and are knocking on our doors again. We need effective global cooperation to meet the challenges coming our way, but it is becoming obvious that, on the whole, humans are way too selfish, unwilling to cooperate on a global scale, and utterly unprepared for impending global challenges (including AI, climate change, and unyielding societal polarizations.) This sentiment is echoed by Gus Speth, one of the leaders in the environmental movement, who realized that the ‘the top environmental problems are selfishness, greed, and apathy, and to deal with those we need a cultural and spiritual transformation’. The forces of raw self-interest, combined with the power of modern technology, threaten to dismantle civilized society. 21st-century technology demands 21st-century ethics, one that enables humans to truly become aware of and willing to care for other human beings. Primitive ethics — based on self-interest or externally imposed ethical rules and imperatives — cannot sustain civilization in the face of modern challenges.

We can draw on the age-old wisdom — radical by today’s standards — on how to embrace and become sovereign masters of our own minds once again. To usher in a new era of the 21st-century Humanist Renaissance, which we so desperately need, we must elevate human reason to a new level.