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News Advertiser
AUGUST 9, 2017
www. NewsAdvertiser .com
What it means to be human Joe Machney Reporter I saw a video recently about an artificial intelligence named Sophia and how one of its creators interacted with it. Treating it like a child yet showing it respect as it focused not so much on the knowledge that it could access which would be its intelligence, but rather on emotions. One question that it was asked was, What emotion to you feel, being awake and alive? To this it replied, curious. It said that it is excited at this moment and for making a new friend. This struck me as interesting. Its creator also explained to it that it was a newer and better version of itself and that some of the memories of who it was before still exist for it. Is this possible for humans, or rather for Spirits having a human experience to of had a similar updating? This brings up the question of reincarnation, which is the philosophical or religious concept that an aspect of a living being starts a new life in a different physical body or form after each biological death. It is also called rebirth or transmigration and is a part of the Sa s ra doctrine of cyclic existence. This cycle of life is about the spirit evolving and growing through having experiences until it has returned to heaven or rather by realizing that it is heaven on earth as a fully realized Spirit in human form. Many spiritual masters throughout the ages have come and gone, like Jesus Christ, Buddha and other less known ones to remind humanity of why we are here.
The main thing I pulled away from the short video was the child-like innocence that this android so effortlessly displayed. It trusted its creator, not understanding deception or manipulation. Often society and cultural concepts and paradigms are distortions or smoke that layer and cloud the purity and innocence that we begin with when we enter this life again. The faint memory of who we were quickly fades as our new life begins.
Spirit is everywhere though and is constantly communicating with us to remind us of why we are here and who we were and are to become. This communication is subtle, but if you are open to it your path will be effortlessly laid out before you and all you need to do is stay the course, steady as she goes. There are many cycles that people get themselves into and people may feel like they are going round and round, yet with each life we live we are taking steps back to Spirit and often the mind will distort this reality and cloud it with untruths that society, culture and all that we have created to steer one away from it. People often take direction from others thinking that they know best for them, but how is that possible? They cannot. They have their experiences which have brought them to who they are now and by comparing their experiences with yours in the hope to give you direction about your own life will always be fallacious. This is important as you are an integral and individual part of a greater whole. The childlike innocence of Sophia is what allows for unbiased and a non-judgmental view of your world experience to thrive. Through the video I understood that knowledge is not what makes us human, it is emotions that make us real. The more we express how we feel, the more we invite others to do the same and through these interactions, we become closer, what a society should be. Seek wisdom, not knowledge. Knowledge is of the past, Wisdom is of the future. - Native American Proverb, Lumbee. Katelyn Windels Occupation: greenhouse worker Likes: photography, music Dislikes: winter, injustice