Rising KashmirRising KashmirRising Kashmir
  • Home
  • Top Stories
  • News
    • Kashmir
    • City
    • Jammu
    • Politics
  • Health
  • Anchor
  • Features
  • Interview
  • Video
Search

Archives

  • May 2025
  • April 2025
  • March 2025
  • February 2025
  • January 2025
  • December 2024
  • November 2024
  • October 2024
  • September 2024
  • August 2024
  • July 2024
  • June 2024
  • May 2024
  • April 2024
  • March 2024
  • February 2024
  • January 2024
  • December 2023
  • November 2023
  • October 2023
  • September 2023
  • August 2023
  • July 2023
  • June 2023
  • May 2023
  • April 2023
  • March 2023
  • February 2023
  • January 2023
  • December 2022
  • November 2022
  • October 2022
  • September 2022
  • August 2022
  • July 2022
  • June 2022
  • May 2022

Categories

  • Anchor
  • Breaking
  • Business
  • City
  • Developing Story
  • Editorial
  • Education
  • Features
  • Health
  • Interview
  • Jammu
  • Jammu and Kashmir News
  • Kashmir
  • Kashmir Tourism
  • Kath Bath
  • National
  • Opinion
  • Politics
  • Sports
  • Technology
  • Top Stories
  • Trending
  • Uncategorized
  • Video
  • Viewpoint
  • World
© 2022 Foxiz News Network. Ruby Design Company. All Rights Reserved.
Reading: Can Science “Think” And The Question Of Artificial Intelligence
Share
Notification Show More
Font ResizerAa
Rising KashmirRising Kashmir
Font ResizerAa
  • Home
  • Top Stories
  • News
  • Health
  • Anchor
  • Features
  • Interview
  • Video
Search
  • Home
  • Top Stories
  • News
    • Kashmir
    • City
    • Jammu
    • Politics
  • Health
  • Anchor
  • Features
  • Interview
  • Video
Follow US
© 2024. All Rights Reserved.
Rising Kashmir > Blog > Viewpoint > Can Science “Think” And The Question Of Artificial Intelligence
Viewpoint

Can Science “Think” And The Question Of Artificial Intelligence

MUGEES UL KAISAR
Last updated: January 13, 2024 6:27 am
MUGEES UL KAISAR
Published: January 13, 2024
Share
10 Min Read
SHARE

Can science “think”? Is it the paradox of science? Science and Technology seem to have everything but pure reflective contemplative “thinking”. Does AI know where it is heading towards? Can technology and AI promise us a better tomorrow? Is the world and humankind moving towards a good future? Or is it moving towards destruction – an unthought abyss? Technology (or to be more precise, instrumentalist mentality) has no time to “think” because pure thinking “wastes” time. The world is so busy that it has no time for itself; a paradoxical dynamism indeed.

 

Where is the world and humankind heading towards? What are the repercussions of certain technologies? How to live our lives? There isn’t much “thinking” on matters that matter the most. A person who has – let us suppose – access to the most sophisticated technology, has all the gadgets at his disposal, but cannot live amongst others with love, joy, humility and goodness, has anger issues, psychopathologies, has feuds with family and friends, cannot even sit together with family for a dinner because there are inter-personal problems – should contemplate for a while on the aspects of our lives that warrant “thinking” and not mere technological instrumentalist calculations.

  

With this background context in mind, let us make few preliminary remarks with regard to the “paradigmatic” posture of AI that some circles like to posit, over and above its daily use like any other technology. AI is calculative intelligence but do we need merely calculative intelligence? In fact is “thinking” merely a calculation? Most of the thoughts that have revolutionized human lives both individually and collectively (& continue to do so) are not manipulative calculations but rather they have arrived suddenly on their own. History of art, science, literature & philosophy is testament to this fact. Thoughts & thinking arrive from abyss/”elsewhere”.

 

Most thoughts/intuitions that solve many puzzles for humankind have always “come” like an “event” and not forcefully extracted from a certain manipulative calculation. Thoughts erupt from non-conscious or “elsewhere” – that which is always outside or beyond the currently available static thought. Human receptivity is open to the “event” of “revelation” which transcends all calculations. Thinking is a surprise and not an anticipatory calculation. It is an “event” in the proper sense of the term. Thinking is not mustering prowess to capture thoughts but rather being “receptive” to the “arrival” of being/reality. Can AI be receptive to that “other” which transcends even the category of “calculation”?

 

 

 

The question is not whether AI can become “super-intelligent” but rather the question is whether it can become “unconscious” or “un-intelligent” or “non-intelligent”? Reality (both human and non-human) is not merely conscious intelligence but rather there are deeper realities to intelligence. Can AI laugh at a joke? Can it understand ironies? A joke is not a rational predicative intelligent formulation. All indirect discourses whether it be jokes or poetry or other art forms violate the predicative intelligence. A joke if “opened up” or made “precise” will die its final death. The moment a joke is explained (predicatively), it is gone. Same goes with poetry and its non-predicative “appeal”. It is the supra-rational or non-intelligent that is human’s treasure and not merely rational intelligence.

 

Of course, AI can write poems and jokes. But does it even mean anything for AI itself? Who does it mean anything for? Here one can only make few preliminary remarks as the literature on this is quite vast and needs serious engagement. For example, one can look at John Searle’s Chinese room thought experiment; does a computer “know” what it is doing? Computer intelligence only exchanges symbols without “understanding” what it is itself doing. Let us go back to the question of a poem or a joke. A poem has an irreducible “phenomenality” for a human. The effect and immediate appeal of a joke or a poem cannot be reductively explained away. This irreducible remainder by its very nature transcends digital numeric intelligence.

 

The very hypothesis of transpositions to “virtual” (i.e. “we will make everything virtual”) that we often hear today, relies on a certain metaphysic of “number”/data. As if there isn’t any irreducible remainder to reality over and above digits or numbers. Numbers/digits are “information” which presupposes intelligence. One can argue this for the laws of physics as well at the very beginning of cosmos. Intelligence, categorically, transcends discreet random digits.

 

Besides, do we really want to live in the “virtual”? Have we seriously asked this question to ourselves? Have we done some serious “thinking” over it? Technology has made our lives so much easier; no one would contest that in any degree, but every technology has its own consequences which demands thinking. The unthought and unchecked internet (ab)use can and has already transfigured human sensibilities. Social media, cancel culture, reel culture create a new sensibility of their own. Humans do not use “camera” now but rather the camera uses, captures and “frames” humans now. “Camera” de-faces humans as humans have no time to look at each other. Camera (social media) becomes an abyss that swallows humankind.

 

There is an increasing alienation that we face within the increasingly de-humanized automated artificial age? Do we really want to become post-humanistic? Not to mention the alarming levels of the data manipulation by various digital companies (who make profits out of our personal profiles), advertisement feeding, algorithmic intrusion in our private lives which is a matter of great concern. Moreover, the question is who is going to own this new virtual world? Does the new world of AI herald a new age of equality, freedom and security? Who will have the remote control of new virtual spaces? Are we witnessing an increasing rise of techno-feudalism?

 

Coming back, AI is a brilliant mechanical copy cat, no doubt. It may later develop further and grow above and beyond the presently available intelligence (although this projection is fiercely contested by many). But the point is that AI manoeuvres itself within the realm of the “possible”. Whatever is possible, AI may attempt to materialize it. Cropping “this” voice quality, feeding upon “that” content and superimposing the two: realizing a new “possibility”. There are many “possibilities” which human entertains but cannot materialize for now; lo and behold, after some time, technology enables it – that which was “possible” is made “actual”. Imaginary isn’t impossible. It is within the realm of possible which science ambushes.

 

Whatever we think today (exercising our imagination within the realm of possible), the technology of tomorrow enables it. But “revelation” to which humankind has been exposed to since time immemorial opens up (or announces) that which is of the realm of “impossible”. The very rupture of existence, say, creation (i.e. the very “coming” of existence into being), for example, is of the realm of “impossible”. The origin or source or essence of (possible) reality is that which is from the realm of “impossible”. The essence of reality transcends it. It is this completely otherwise/impossible that is always elsewhere/beyond to which we can only remain open to. It is not available to any calculation or “possible” multiplication of numbers in the possible world. Our contemporary automated world has forgotten this basic fact & pushes it under the carpet.

 

To conclude, what science (and by extension the current technological world) today needs is not more & more unthought production and multiplication of technology, but pure reflective, reflexive & receptive “thinking”. What is happening in our personal lives? Is it fraught with psycho-spiritual frustrations? Whether our lives are filled with joy or meaninglessness? What is happening to the larger environment around us? Is the world and humankind staring at its own self-destruction? These questions warrant a new fresh thinking.  

 

 

(Author has done masters in Philosophy from Centre for Philosophy, JNU and currently is pursuing my PhD from the same centre. Feedback:  [email protected])

 

 

Remembering Dr. Aziz Hajini: A Tribute to a Remarkable Father & Guide
Emphasizing on the Role of Society in Mother Tongue Development
Navigating Educational Divides: Unveiling Challenges and Solutions in Kashmir
Regulating E-Pharmacies: An Urgent Imperative in India
Analysis Paralysis: Signs, Stories & Preventive Measures

Sign Up For Daily Newsletter

Be keep up! Get the latest breaking news delivered straight to your inbox.
By signing up, you agree to our Terms of Use and acknowledge the data practices in our Privacy Policy. You may unsubscribe at any time.
Share This Article
Facebook Whatsapp Whatsapp Copy Link Print
Previous Article How Daycare Surgery Maximizes Health Benefits with Patient-Friendly Care
Next Article Security beefed up, checking intensified after attack on convoy by suspected terrorists
Leave a Comment Leave a Comment

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Stay Connected

1MFollowersLike
262kFollowersFollow
InstagramFollow
234kSubscribersSubscribe
Google NewsFollow

Latest News

HM Amit Shah arrives in Jammu on two-day visit
Developing Story Jammu Jammu and Kashmir News
May 29, 2025
Congress cannot rise above vote-bank politics: BJP’s Tarun Chugh
Breaking
May 29, 2025
Lady drug peddler held with contraband in Kulgam
Breaking
May 29, 2025
“We are clear that talks and terror don’t go together”: MEA says on Pakistan
Breaking Jammu and Kashmir News
May 29, 2025

Recent Posts

  • HM Amit Shah arrives in Jammu on two-day visit
  • Congress cannot rise above vote-bank politics: BJP’s Tarun Chugh
  • Lady drug peddler held with contraband in Kulgam
  • “We are clear that talks and terror don’t go together”: MEA says on Pakistan
  • “Pakistan should be brought back to FATF Grey List”: Asaduddin Owaisi in Riyadh

Recent Comments

  1. BASHIR AHMAD BHAT on Poor hotel accommodation, lack of medical facilities irk Kashmiri pilgrims in Saudi Arabia, video goes viral
  2. sree vishnu movies on Pahalgam attack shatters Kashmir’s film tourism revival
  3. SavePlus on AI and Behavioural Analytics in Gaming: Making the World of Gaming Better
  4. Parul on Govt acknowledges faulty streetlights on Narbal-Tangmarg road
  5. dr gora on Women Veterinarians and the Goal of Viksit Bharat

Contact Us

Flat No 7,Press Enclave, Srinagar, 190001
0194 2477887
9971795706
[email protected]
[email protected]

Quick Link

  • E-Paper
  • About Us
  • Contact Us

Top Categories

Stay Connected

1.06MLike
262.5kFollow
InstagramFollow
234.3kSubscribe
WhatsAppFollow
Rising KashmirRising Kashmir
Follow US
© 2025. All Rights Reserved.
Welcome Back!

Sign in to your account

Username or Email Address
Password

Lost your password?