Which treats of the character and pursuits of the famous gentleman Don Quixote of La Mancha
Physics and Artificial Intelligence:
The idea of inanimate objects coming to life as intelligent beings has been
around for a long time. The ancient Greeks had myths about robots, and
Chinese and Egyptian engineers dreamt of automatons. The beginnings of
modern Artificial Intelligence (AI) can be traced to classical philosophers’
attempts to describe human thinking as a symbolic system. 1
Physics is the principle and foundation of science that deals with the structure
of matter and how the fundamental constituents of the universe interact. It
studies and understands objects ranging from the very small using quantum
mechanics to the entire universe using general relativity. But Physics is not
static nor has it said the final word about the reality, for physics keeps changing
as we progress and make new discoveries. New theories don’t just bring in new
answers; but they pose new questions that might not have even made sense
when viewed from within the previous theory of physics. This makes physics
exciting and interesting, but it also forces attempts at defining physics into
generalizations about what physics has been, rather than what it might be at
some point in the future. 2
As for many modern wonders, Physics has been the origin of emergence for
Artificial Intelligence. The photonic accelerator is a new paradigm of photonic
technologies for artificial intelligence, wherein the systems can accelerate
information processing in electronic computing. Schemes for reservoir
computing and decision making are promising examples of the photonic
accelerator. 3
1 https://www.livescience.com/49007-history-of-artificial-intelligence.html
2 https://www.khanacademy.org/science/physics/one-dimensional-motion/introduction-to-physics-
tutorial/a/what-is-physics
In the first half of the 20 th century, science fiction familiarized the world with
the concept of artificially intelligent robots. It began with the “heartless” Tin
Man, who longs for a heart, in The Wizard of Oz (1939) and with the humanoid
robot that impersonated Maria in Metropolis (1927). 4
Present Scenario:
In today’s world of technology and administration, about 70% of the jobs are
already automated. One needs to be aware of it and much more, one has to be
prepared for it. And we should know of another phenomenon that about one-
third of the professionals, whether medical, engineering, technocrats,
administrative executives etc, change their profession at least once in life. The
reason might be that the individual is not able to keep pace with the ever
changing world or the individual does not enjoy a sense of satisfaction in the
job one does. One needs to often stop – think or reflect – and then proceed. Yes,
we are on the fast track of life-road. We need critical reflection and effective
response.
On this global road of progress, we need, not only knowledge but wisdom.
Often one thinks that knowledge and wisdom are the same. Actually they are
two sides of the same coin. While knowledge is about facts known to us,
wisdom is a combination of knowledge and experience. Knowledge might be
intellectual, but wisdom is a combination of the rational and the emotional.
Wisdom helps a person to make sound judgements.
We could reflect on two examples:
3 https://iopscience.iop.org/journal/1347-4065/page/Physics_and_devices_toward_artificial_intelligence
4 https://sitn.hms.harvard.edu/flash/2017/history-artificial-intelligence/
i. Queen of Sheba, as the legend goes, heard about the great wisdom of King
Solomon and she wanted to test his wisdom. She visited Solomon with two
flower garlands. One was of real flowers and the other was made of
artificial flowers. Keeping them both a little distance away, Solomon was
asked to identify the real one. The king had a tough time. He asked his
servant to open the window facing a large honeycomb nearby. In no time
bees came in and sat on the real garland. Wisdom offers you the presence of
mind.
ii. The other example happened at the time of Jesus of Nazareth. One day the
elders brought to him a lady who was allegedly caught in adultery.
According to their Mosaic law she should be stoned to death. They put Jesus
to test for his judgement and fairness. Jesus looked at them, reflected on
their hypocrisy and the pitiable situation of the lady. Then he said: Let him,
who has no sin, throw at her the first stone (Jn 8:7). Wisdom reads the hearts
of people.
We acquire knowledge but we do not often learn from experience – experience
both acquired or cumulative as well as experiential. One needs intelligence to
make out sense out of events in life and one needs to decipher what needs to be
done in a given situation. Right perception of events is the starting point;
discernment is the process; and intelligence is the solution to decide the course
of action to follow.
Once a famous auto company brought out an ultramodern automobile. The day,
when it has to be introduced to the world market, came – Advertisements were
made, media reporters gathered, dignitaries were present. The automobile rolled
out from the factory but then there was a hitch, as it has to come to the open
square for exhibition it could not move through the entrance as the vehicle was
a few millimeters higher than the doorpost. The embarrassed event manager was
frantically looking for experts and engineers to solve the problem – Nothing
worked. The ultimate solution, as proposed, was to break the entrance to make
way for the vehicle to roll out. The security who was watching the whole drama
came forward and gave his humble suggestion to the event manager. The event
manager tried out the suggestion and it worked out. What was the magic? You
can guess: The security, who was not an engineering expert, suggested to
deflate the tyres a bit. He was intelligent by observation and intuition.
Our intelligence could be primary or secondary. Primary intelligence is earned
by our studies, reflection, experiments, and experience. Secondary intelligence
is what we gain from other’s experience – This could be cumulative we inherit
from our tradition, association etc. In this category comes in the artificial
intelligence. It is our quest to build machines that can reason, learn, and act
intelligently and compete with our own intelligence. 5
The artificial intelligence has cast its spell on the world today and we feel that
we are bound by it. But we need to remember that the computer, which is the
spring of artificial intelligence, works on inputs thrown in or embedded into its
system. Much depends on the types, varieties, and complexities of parameters
put into the system – All that the artificial system does is, using algorithm, it
churns out the information we look for. What goes in, comes out in desired
format. Actually, machine learning extrapolates, that also based on the input
thrown in.
Intelligence and Artificial Intelligence:
We could critically analyze, compare, and contrast human intelligence with
artificial intelligence. Compared to the artificial system, our own brain is much
more complex. We know communication to and from the brain to the rest of the
5 https://www.technologyreview.com/topic/artificial-intelligence/
body is via neurons in the brain. A person has, according to the neuroscientists,
about 86 to 100 billion neurons which are cognitively able to perform. In
comparison, the number of stars in the Milky Way, which contains our solar
system, is somewhere between 200 to 400 billion. Our system of neurons
consumes about 20% of the total energy that one’s body needs. And interaction
among the neurons, that is information transfer, is due to chemical and electric
pulses.
A modern micro-processor chip has 10 9 transistors, whereas the human brain
contains, in comparison, 10 14 synapses, which are the communication junctions
between neurons operating on chemical and electrical energy. Further, a state-
of-the-art microprocessor might have close to 30 Km of total wire connecting its
transistors, whereas the brain has, in comparison, about 300,000 Km of cable
connections made of axons. The brain’s total wire is about the same as the mean
distance from the earth to moon. The processing speed of brain could easily beat
that of the computer: The brain could generate nerve impulses about 100 billion
(10 11 ) per second, whereas a modern microprocessor would fire about one
million instructions per second. The fastest microprocessor i9 from Intel is
capable of 5.3 GHz. 6 So the brain has many more synapses than transistors in a
computer and the computer is 100 times slower than the brain. 7
However, both our brain and our artificial intelligence system use algorithm for
processing information. It is basically a logical step of: If – then, or if not –
then, with sequences with loops.
Surrender to Computer:
6 https://newsroom.intel.com/news/intel-delivers-worlds-fastest-gaming-processor/#gs.t7fufv
7 https://www.cell.com/current-biology/comments/S0960-9822(08)00800-2
But we think that googling is the ultimate goal for our ordinary search. In a
sense we have become a slave to computer and other artificial intelligence
gadgets, rather than claiming mastery over these electronic instruments. Eric
Weiner in his travelogue The Geography of Bliss describes how the computer
has become a presiding deity in the religion of artificial intelligence. He says: 8
“When Ambition is your God, the office is your temple, the employee
handbook (becomes) your holy book. The sacred drink, coffee, is imbibed
five times a day. When you worship, Ambition, there is no Sabbath, no
day of rest. Every day, you rise early and kneel before the God Ambition,
facing in the direction of your PC. You pray alone, always alone, even
though others may be present. Ambition is a vengeful God. He will smite
those who fail to worship faithfully, but that is nothing compared to what
He has in store for the faithful. They suffer the worst fate of all. For it is
only when they are old and tired, entombed in the corner office, that the
realization hits like a Biblical thunderclap. The God Ambition is a false
God and always has been.”
You might be surprised to know from Amazon that the customers said, “I love
you” to Alexa 19,000 times a day, which is a massive 1,200% more from 2019.
Such is the influence of Artificial Intelligence on us!
At this point of electronic evolution, I would like to bring in the contribution of
an Italian Jesuit, Fr Roberto Busa by name, who was instrumental in displaying
hypertext on a computer screen. He was the pioneer in the usage of computers
for linguistic and literary analysis. He met Thomas Watson, the founder of IBM,
in 1949 and worked for nearly 3 decades to bring in text on to the computer.
And today much water has flown under the bridge of artificial intelligence and
we enjoy the benefit.
8 E. Weiner, The Geography of Bliss, Transworld Pub, London, 2008.
We know that artificial intelligence is intelligence demonstrated by machines,
currently trained by human beings, unlike the natural intelligence possessed by
humans, which involves consciousness and emotions. Alan Kay, the well-
known American computer scientist, who was elected a Fellow of the American
Academy of Arts and Science, the National Academy of Engineering, and the
Royal Society of Arts, and who was a pioneer in object-oriented programming
and windowing graphical user interface design would say: 9
“Some people worry that artificial intelligence will make us feel inferior,
but then, anybody in his right mind should have an inferiority complex
every time he looks at a flower.”
The universe, wherever we turn, is filled with greater intelligence and
magnificent source of knowledge to learn from.
Is AI our final Invention?: 10
Jaspreet Bindra, in his recent book The Tech Whisperer, asks the question: Is AI
Man’s Final Invention? The concept and use of Artificial Intelligence dates
back to the late eighteenth century. There was something called Mechanical
Turk (launched in November 2005). The Turk was a machine that could play
chess with you and even defeat you. It created quite a stir around the world and
travelled all over the world, until it was discovered that an actual human being
was hiding inside this contraption, who mechanically manipulated the Turk’s
arms to play chess!
A more realistic history of AI dates back to the 1950s. Its logical starting point
began with the publication of Computing Machinery and Intelligence by Alan
Turing in 1950. In 1956, John McCarthy of MIT coined the term ‘artificial
https://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/alan_kay_160916#:~:text=Alan%20Kay%20Quotes&text=Some%20peo
ple%20worry%20that%20artificial%20intelligence%20will%20make%20us%20feel,he%20looks%20at%20a%
20flower.
10 J. Bindra, The Tech Whisperer, Penguin, Gurgaon, 2019, pp.225-265.
intelligence’ at a conference at Dartmouth College, New Hampshire, USA.
According to him, ‘Artificial intelligence is the branch of computer science
concerned with making computers behave like humans’. A better definition
came from Kaplan and Haenlein, more related to the computer science, as, “a
system’s ability to correctly interpret external data, to learn from such data, and
to use those learnings to achieve specific goals and tasks through flexible
adaptation”. 11 The first industrial robot, Unimate, came out from a GM plant in
New Jersey in 1961. It picked up momentum in Hollywood movies, especially
in 1968 with the film The Space Odyssey 2001 and then later in 1968 in Electric
Dreams that featured a love triangle between a woman, a man and a PC. In
2009, interest in ‘deep learning’ came up. And today the tree of AI has many
branches such as Machine Learning (ML), Natural Language Processing (NLP),
Image Recognition, Machine Vision, Robotics etc. We are still on the road of
exploration and discovery.
After the US and Soviet Union Cold War, a new and more chilling Cold War is
now on and this is between the US and China. Vladimir Putin, the President of
Russia, seemed to have said: The one who becomes the leader in this sphere
will be the ruler of the world. 12 This is the war in the realm of AI.
Now, Artificial Intelligence is being understood as Augmented Intelligence, as
IBM has now started defining AI. It is because AI actually ‘augments’ human
intelligence rather than replaces it. Some other forums would call AI as
Assimilated Intelligence, since it collects various data (human and otherwise) in
the world, assimilates or digests them and then derives some intelligence from
it.
11 https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0007681318301393
12 J. Bindra, The Tech Whisperer, Penguin, Gurgaon, 2019, pp.219.
Impact of AI:
The impact of AI is very much felt as AI is an all-pervading technology. AI
makes it comfortable, convenient, and efficient to communicate with anyone,
anywhere on the globe. AI has refined, reformed, and revolutionized into a
practical and accessible necessity of all aspects of life.
According to one widely quoted report, AI can effect a 14% increase in global
GDP by 2030, which would be the current GDPs of China and India put
together. In healthcare, AI would ensure accurate diagnostics, X-ray and other
scans, and early identification of potential pandemics. The other impacting areas
would be automotive with driverless cars or even flying cars, financial services,
logistics as well as transportation, technology, robot-operated manufacturing,
energy etc. Robots are often used to perform precise tasks that might be difficult
for humans to perform and they could be manipulated from far away. IBM’s
supercomputer DeepBlue defeated World Chess GM, Garry Kasparov, in
- 13 Sophia is the recent example of what the field of robotics has to offer.
MIT’s Mini Cheetah is the first four-legged robot to do a backflip.
Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs), Miniature Pilotless Aircraft or Flying Mini
Robots, Drones, especially bioinspired drones, are rapidly growing in popularity
and utility. From speed deliveries at rush hours to scanning an unreachable
military base, drones are proving to be extremely beneficial in places where one
cannot reach or is unable to perform in a timely and efficient manner.
On the highway of AI, we see big data coming in and now the facial-recognition
software is the companion, as the new kid on the block. Facial-recognition
13 https://www.ibm.com/ibm/history/ibm100/us/en/icons/deepblue/
camera at a sports stadium in China led to the arrest of a criminal who was there
and who had been on the wanted list of the police for over three years.
In the world of AI, one expects soon the singularity. Ray Kurzweil, the well-
known futurist, defines singularity as the time when machine intelligence would
surpass all human intelligence. It is expected that by 2029 computers might
have human level intelligence, and by 2045 singularity will be realized. But we
could see that AI has already started taking over our world of intelligence,
though in a gradual way. And we human beings seem to be like a frog in a pot
of slowly boiling water. The water heats up slowly and gradually, and the frog
enjoys the warm comfort. Before the frog could realize, the water reaches the
boiling point and the frog starts boiling too.
We used to remember phone numbers of our family members and friends – It is
not the case anymore. A few years ago, we used to remember the route or we
could interact with fellow human beings to find our way through. Now, our sole
companion is Google Maps or the GPS. We might become, perhaps, human
vegetables in the hands of AI gadgets. The fear is also lurking, namely, AI
would come in at the cost of human jobs and even human superiority. At that
point, what would happen if the machines created by us and who have become
more intelligent than us, begin to think of their welfare instead of ours?
However much the AI is taking the place of human beings, there would be still a
few things that cannot be performed by any AI or robots. They are the jobs that
need communication skills, empathy, compassion, trust, creativity, or any work
that needs reasoning as the basis. We need humans for psychotherapy, medical
care, fiction/story writing, teaching, management etc. In short, whatever human
efforts or work are based on love, care, and affection can be generated and
performed by human beings only.
Need of the Hour:
AI might be, for a starter, googling. But we need to dig deep within us and put
to use the inner intelligence we possess and enshrine within us. I am reminded
of the parable that Jesus told his followers. A leader invited his servants and
gave one 5 talents (Talent could be understood as Jewish gold coin) and another
one two and a third person one talent and went abroad (Mt 25:14-30). When he
came back, the first one exhibited an additional five talents; the second one
came up with an additional two talents; but the third one brought back just one
talent given to him. The first two made use of their talents in self-actualization,
whereas the third one kept his talent hidden and untended. We need to put our
intelligence to use and we should not take shelter under artificial intelligence.
Human beings could grow and multiply in self-actualization, whereas AI
gadgets would have only the initial inputs as the one-talented servant.
Sometimes we might develop our talents just mechanically without worrying
about the use for the humankind. We could think of the short story The Dancing
Partner by Jerome K Jerome written in 1893. A young lady Annette, who
enjoyed high socializing, was complaining how young men are not able to
dance for a longer duration. A technician overheard it and created a dancing
machine, rather a robot, by name Fritz. For the next social function his
mechanical Fritz makes the debut. Annette is coaxed into a trial run of dancing.
The dance begins. Initially Fritz demonstrates to be an excellent and
entertaining dancing partner. But as the night ages and even when the musicians
tire, Annette and Fritz proceed to only dance faster and faster, with the machine
repeating pre-recorded monologue: ‘How charming you are looking tonight!’,
‘What a lovely day it has been!’, ‘Do you like dancing?’ etc. 14 It’s at this point
the other guests realize Annette has already fainted and only keeps dancing
14 https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/The_Dancing_Partner
because she is strapped to Fritz. The rescue attempts send the robot crashing
into a wall and badly injures Annette. It is a story of Schadenfreude (malicious
joy) as the dancing robot could bring together dance and doom – What was
lacking in the robot was safety devices (nor sensitivity). Any scientific or
technological advancement should have the wellbeing of the society in mind.
Otherwise, there is a possibility of Babel-Tower-repeat (Gen 11:1-9). People of
Babel attempted to build ‘a tower that would reach to the heavens’ but ended up
in confusion and pandemonium.
Artificial Intelligence is believed to change the world but would it change the
human being for the better? – Much depends on the use of AI. Artificial
intelligence should not usher in artificial relationship. There is a need for
intuition and compassion for human beings to live in solidarity and harmony
with fellow human beings. And these are lacking in the computer-world.
Whatever we are and whatever we do, we are often shuttling between ‘contact’
and ‘connection’. What we have in the workplace can be labelled as ‘contacts’
where working atmosphere, sharing of common goal and achievement of target
would be the focus. But when we come back to the family and friends, we look
for lasting and meaningful ‘connections’ which make our lives worth living.
And the bridge that connects us with contacts and enriches us with connections
is ‘communication’. We communicate love and care and receive the same to
make our life meaningful. We should not lose sight of these. AI might enhance
contacts, but it cannot facilitate connections nor can it nurture human
communication.
Danger of Misusing Science:
Science, including Artificial Intelligence, is ever growing. There is also the
danger of misusing science. The current discovery or opinion of the scientific
world could be the latest but never the last word on life and reality. We must, on
our side, bear the responsibility for our growth in maturity and wisdom. As
Scott Peck says in People of the Lie: “The gravest misuse of science may be
attributed not to those scientists themselves who proclaim personal opinions in
the guise of scientific truth but to the public, (that is) industry, government, and
poorly informed individuals, which employs scientific findings and concepts for
dubious purposes.” He cites an example. “Although the atomic bomb was made
possible through the work of scientists, it was the politicians who made the
decision to build it and the military who dropped it. This is not to say that
scientists bear no responsibility for the manner in which their findings are put to
use. But it is to say that they don’t have control over the situation”. 15 The same
situation might arise with regard to Artificial Intelligence if it is not
meaningfully monitored and effectively controlled. As Scott Peck would put it
in People of the Lie: “The fact is that modern science has become so
inextricably interwoven with big business and big government that there is no
longer such a thing as ‘pure’ science”. 16
Conclusion:
When we think of the singularity of AI, let us also remember the singularity of
the Big Bang, which was one point or particle of infinite density containing the
entire mass and space-time of the universe. According to Harari, in his book
Homo Deus, homo sapiens (which we are now) will mutate to become homo
deus, a species and intelligence augmented by AI becoming a human god. 17
According to the Jesuit paleoanthropologist Teilhard de Chardin, scientific and
technological advancements are part of ongoing evolution, which in
effect is trying to bring forth a convergence. Convergence, for Teilhard,
means unification of mankind to a universal personality in whom
15 M.S. Peck, People of the Lie, Touchstone, New York, 1983, p.258f.
16 M.S. Peck, People of the Lie, Touchstone, New York, 1983, p.262.
17 Y.N. Harari, Homo Deus, Vintage, London, 2015, p.24.
everything (though diverse and complex) in the universe meets and
melts, so to say, and fuses into one reality. 18 The individual
consciousness evolves into a universal consciousness. This is the
Omega Point (a maximum level of complexity and consciousness
towards which the universe is evolving). 19
The debate about AI would be between one extreme view of Mark Zuckerberg
that AI ‘would bring so many improvements to our quality of life’ to the other
extreme view of Elon Musk that ‘AI is the fundamental risk to the existence of
human civilization’. 20 We should be careful not to lose our analytical and critical
thinking and compassionate feeling as well as consciousness of others around us
as part of our society. AI might become expert in correlative ideas but only
humans can have inspirations and insights. As Harari asserts in Sapiens we
might soon be able to engineer out dreams and desires too. But the real quest or
progress is not ‘What do we want to become?’, but ‘What do we want to
want?’ 21 And the real question, however, is that who will have the final word –
us humans, or our AI creations? 22 In short, who has the final say, the creator or
the creation?
Francis P Xavier SJ
19Mar2021
Cf. 1. Inaugural Address for International Virtual Conference on: Impact of Artificial
Intelligence on Business and Society @ LIBA (20Feb2021).
- Invited talk: 2 nd National Conference on Material Sciences, Physics Dept, Loyola College
(Chennai) 19Mar2021.