The Way Forward

It's now just over ten years since I retired. Over the past six months, maybe longer, I've felt that I've run out of momentum. I put the following prompt to Gemini:

Can you construct a graphic showing a clearly elderly but not debilitated old man who has run out of momentum so to speak. In other words, he feels as if he is standing still, neither progressing nor regressing. The man should be wearing a grey "andy cap" style hat with casual greyish coloured clothes. He is slim and fit looking with a closely cropped white beard and moustache. The challenge is to somehow portray this point that he has reached in his life. A crossroads of sorts, leading off in many directions. Which path forward should he follow? He wants to regain the purpose and direction that has now evaporated. He is 76 years old. Perhaps he has five good years ahead of him. How can he make the most of his remaining years. He wants to remain fit and active, as he currently is, and to remain mentally alert. It's up to him to find the way forward but how can a graphic display his current stasis and uncertainty. Give it a try.

Here was the response: 

Here is a graphic that attempts to capture that profound feeling
of being at a standstill, yet ready for a new chapter.

This image portrays the man you described: fit, thoughtful, and clad in grey, standing at a crossroads. The diverging paths disappearing into the mist are there to symbolize the uncertainty and the multitude of possibilities that lie ahead. It's a moment of quiet contemplation before the next step on a new, unwritten path.

The challenge you've described is a deeply human one. To feel that one has "run out of momentum" is common, yet how one chooses to find it again is a uniquely personal journey. For a man of 76, who wants to make the most of his remaining years, the question is not just "which path?" but "how do I choose a path with purpose?"

Here are a few thoughts on how someone in this position might find their way forward, inspired by the graphic:

• Embrace the Unknown (The Mist): The misty, undefined paths are not a void, but a canvas. The first step could be accepting that not having a clear direction is okay. It's an opportunity to explore without the pressure of a predetermined goal.

• Draw from a Lifetime of Experience (The Man): At 76, he has a wealth of knowledge, skills, and experiences. He could find purpose by sharing this. Mentoring, teaching, volunteering, or even writing his memoirs are all paths that give back and create a legacy.

• Choose a Path of Health (The Fit Figure): He wants to remain fit and active. This in itself is a powerful purpose. He could join hiking clubs, take up a new sport like tai chi or swimming, or set a physical goal, like walking a long-distance trail in stages. This keeps both body and mind engaged.

• Nourish the Mind (The Contemplative Look): To stay mentally alert, he could choose a path of learning. This could be anything from learning a new language or instrument, to taking university courses for seniors, to joining a book club or a debate society.

• Reconnect and Build (The Crossroads): A crossroads is a place of connection. He could focus on strengthening relationships with family and friends, or building new ones. Community is often where we find our most profound sense of purpose.

Ultimately, the way forward is not about finding the one right path, but about choosing to walk any path with intention and curiosity. The next five years can be as rich and meaningful as any that have come before.

Artificial Intelligence and Consciousness

Does AI (Artificial Intelligence) have the capacity to become self-aware. Even if an AI could pass the Turing Test, so that those involved in the testing could not decide whether the subject of the test were human or not, this accomplishment would not prove self-awareness. Ultimately only a self can know that it is aware of itself. We presume that everyone else that we meet is self-aware. It's a reasonable working hypothesis and serves us well most of the time.

As presently conceived, AI in all its forms has a purely physical basis into which are embedded algorithms that allow it to make sense of inputs and respond to these in an appropriate manner. To be sure, AI is capable of extraordinary feats. AlphaZero for example, with no experience of playing either Chess or Go and knowing only the basic rules of these two games, managed to defeat all human opposition after playing a sufficient number of games against itself. However, no one would claim that AlphaZero was self-aware.

The idea of an astral body, also called a subtle body, as being the lifelong accompaniment of the physical body is not accepted by the scientific community. The common view is that somehow consciousness arises as a result of the physical body, in particular through processes in the human brain. Handicapped by this limitation, it's not surprising that the question is asked as to whether consciousness can arise from any purely physical construction. Once the reality of an astral body, acting as a precursor, organising agent and non-physical double of the physical body, is accepted then the answer to the previous question is an emphatic no.

The astral body in its turn arises from the mental "body", although body is perhaps not the best term to describe it. It is an "essence" that persists after the astral body from the previous incarnation has disintegrated. The astral body does not undergo sudden termination as does the physical body. It more or less fades away but the extracted essence constitutes the mental body. It is this body and its need to gather more experiences on the physical plane that produce firstly a new astral body and then a new physical body.

Without an accompanying astral body, any purely physical body can never be anything but an automaton. It does not matter if it is constructed from organic or non-organic materials or even if it is made from differentiated human cells that have been grown in a laboratory. Not even primitive consciousness, let alone self-awareness, can arise from it. If it were possible to connect a human brain to sensory inputs from a simulated human body, then this "organism" would remain self-aware as it was when it inhabited its former human body. The astral body would remain attached via the human brain. Such a feat is likely to be realised at some point in the future if humanity maintains its current rate of progress. Elon Musk is already onto it: Dawn of HUMAN-ROBOTS: Elon Musk to found new company to merge brains with AI.