The illusion of a separate individual

We are born without an identity. Soon the pain and pleasure of body and our biological conditioning identifies us with the body. Then one begins to identify with things one owns starting with toys this continues into adulthood. There is identification with ideas and thoughts like a nation, tribe or ideal. Also there is the identification with relationships and people. 

This identification is what defines an individual. But the pattern of identification followed by every human being is the same although the objects might be different. So are we just part of the collective human consciousness or separate units.

Comparison, individual and identity

An individual is usually identified by his wealth, looks, skills , thoughts, opinions. Usually this identification leads to a conflict with other individuals which surfaces as comparison, competition, jealousy, envy. This can further lead to inferiority or a superiority complex, anger, depression , anxiety or a false fragile sense of happiness depending on which side of the comparison one is.

And if every human being is caught in this trap how different are they actually are from one another. Is there any individuality other than the unique memories we have which even computers have. Essentially the psychological content of all human beings follow the same patern. The individual ego is all that one identifies with. Until this ego is dissolved is the source of all suffering.This dissolution will occur when one sees the danger of this identification with ego and the conflict it implies.

Experiments with digital twins

I recently got to know of Deepak Chopras digital twins ai website. It has a paid subscription so I decided to ask meta ai take the role of Deepak Chopras by limiting it's answers to his books. It pretty much gave me the same answers as Chopras ai website with citations from his books which is probably replying close to how Chopra would have.

So if an LLM is trained on collective knowledge of mankind and represents the mind of humanity, given there there is enough training available from individuals it can think  like any individual with his memories and thoughts would. In case of Chopra it is his 95 books but potentially it memories could be extracted based on search history, social media interactions and in general web activity, phone calls, email. This is until there are neural interface devices that can read memories directly from the brain.

Potentially each individual can be digitally cloned and interacted with. Computers can think like him and better and faster than him.

So everything of an individual other than their first person subjective experience and awareness can be digitised and mechanized.  

It's then hard to say what being human is unless one is experientially inward looking and  self aware. Any form of other outward engagement is machine predictable and more importantly redundant. Mankind is destined to get sucked into entertainment.

Actually even this blogposting activity is similar to an AI based text summary of some youtube videos my brain has been trained on unless there is experiential awareness and understanding.

Consciousness, existence and inference

I can't be sure that the world is real or are we in a simulation of VR. My memories and thoughts are borrowed from the world so is the body and they can be replaced. But I am sure that there is an awareness of something. I am not even sure if something exists independent of the awareness. So awareness or consciousness is all I am sure of. And consciousness is always in the now. Time is a mental construct of memories and imagination, so that too can't be trusted. Nor can I be sure of space which is a part of the provisional simulation called the universe. 

Perhaps the idea of a continuous I or ego can also be a questioned similar to the world and time because it depends and borrows from the experiences in the world  stored as memories. All thoughts and emotions are based on these memories so they too have shaky foundation. All one can be sure of is awareness.

Maya the virtual reality that depends on consciousness

I can't be sure that the world is real or are we in a simulation of VR. My memories and thoughts are borrowed from the world so is the body and they can be replaced. But I am sure that there is an awareness of something. I am not even sure if something exists independent of the awareness. So awareness or consciousness is all I am sure of. And consciousness is always in the now. Time is a mental construct of memories and imagination, so that too can't be trusted. Nor can I be sure of space which is a part of the provisional simulation called the universe. 

Perhaps the idea of a continuous I or ego can also be a questioned similar to the world and time because it depends and borrows from the experiences in the world  stored as memories. All thoughts and emotions are based on these memories so they too have shaky foundation. All one can be sure of is awareness.

Ai , humanoids and self awareness

With computers human memory was made redundant. With AI use of memory to "think" has been replaced, Ai can even have a personality. If we combine that with humanoid robots all human sense organs can be replaced. Perception of machines is much more accurate than humans. 

Then the question is if machines can be self aware, i.e. aware of one's own aliveness when all senses shut down. Is the machine just reacting to signals with further signals or is it aware of itself. I think it's the former. Therefore meditation in self awareness and the subjective experience are the only differentiator between a man and a robot. A machine can fake effects of joy but doesn't experience it. A man's turing test is being able to sit in Samadhi and the subjective experience of joy and misery.