MIRZA ASHRAF: July 24, 2015 — mirzashraf@hotmail.

com_________________________

Science helps make a living; Wisdom helps make a life!

Wisdom and Artificial Intelligence

Can Science Create Wisdom?

INTRODUTION:
Throughout the history of mankind there are two phenomena that have shaped human life. One is
the development of natural sciences, and the other is sociological and ideological proliferation of
human wisdom, which have virtually changed the whole mankind. Both the scientific rationalism
and the social idealism of moral and ethical thoughts are the outcome of human intellectualism.
Man's evolution and his search, starting from his needs to live a comfortable and well protected
life to his exploration of the universe, has been the subject of science. But the belief about how
life should be lived, what men and women should be, and how to treat one another, emerge from
moral enquiry and human wisdom. Though the great achievement of man is the development of
science and technology, but it is the ideological storms that have altered the way of life. Without
science, humans would have been living in natural habitat, a life like the animals. But without
wisdom they would have been uncivilized barbarians, not curious about where they came from,
how they came to be where they are, and where they seem to be going. Wisdom gave birth to the
term philosophy—a composite of two Greek words, philos (love) and sophia (wisdom), meaning
love of wisdom. The wisdom that philosophy teaches relates to what it might mean to lead a life.
In pursuit of the ideal life, human wisdom displays ethics and morality, setting out a systematic
examination of the relations of human beings to each other about how life should be lived when
ethics are applied to the society.

One of the instincts leading humans to philosophy is evident in their quest to know more
and more about life and the universe. Its subject became investigation of fundamental principles
that can be used to understand mankind and its responsibilities in this life through rational and
scientific inquiries. Up till the end of twentieth century, philosophy led mankind to the pursuit
for science which was understood through philosophical cognition. With the advent of twenty-
first century, as humans have taken a big leap in the development of science and technology,
philosophy is being understood through science. In the present era of our history the grand role
of philosophy as the supreme form of intellectual life, the queen of sciences, the chronicler of
time and eternity, the guide of religious or worldly life, seems to has been demoted to that of a
handmaiden of science. Stephen Hawking, the author of 'A Brief History of Time' argued that
fundamental questions about the nature of the universe today could not be resolved without hard
data such as that currently being derived from the Large Hadrons Collider and space research.

1
While speaking to Google’s Zeitgeist Conference in Hertfordshire, he said, “Most of us don't
worry about these questions most of the time, but almost all of us must sometimes wonder: Why
are we here? Where do we come from? Traditionally, these are questions for philosophy, but
philosophy is dead.” He further said, “Philosophers have not kept up with modern developments
in science, particularly physics. Scientists have become the bearers of the torch of discovery in
our quest for knowledge, and new theories lead us to a new and very different picture of the
universe and our place in it.” I believe, 'Philosophy is dead,' is perhaps, a bold statement by the
great scientist, which is rather in itself a testimony of wisdom and philosophical judgment. When
we use science we use reason, when we use reason we use philosophy. Therefore, philosophy is
not dead; without it Stephen Hawking could not have become a famous scientist and a man of
wisdom as he is today. He might be reminding us Aristotle's saying, "Wisdom must be intuitive
reasoning combined with scientific knowledge." Today philosophers argue that development of
artificial intelligence should not be seen as a change in philosophy's cognitive role of a subject of
human brain's intellectual approach, nor it is to be understood as a gradual alienation from man's
life in favor of science. But we need to know, is it an act of progressive transformation of
philosophy actualized by the immense scientific revolution in the world? Or, is it going to be the
greatest crisis of human history when artificial intelligence (AI)—a development of the computer
system able to perform tasks that normally require human intelligence—surpasses human
intelligence that we will have science without wisdom?

WHAT IS WISDOM?
Before we deal with the subject of artificial intelligence, it is important to know what is wisdom
and what is its relation with science. Wisdom, incited by human insight, is a golden-ticket tour of
the human mind in all its dimensions. Knowing oneself is the beginning of all wisdom. It makes
us know not to take second step before realizing at our first step that there are things we cannot
and should not do, even if we have full knowledge of everything. Wisdom is higher than all
knowledge, is ineffable to illustration, unintelligible to an intellect, unutterable in any word,
unlimited by any limit, and un-affirmable by any affirmation. It cannot be judged by any judge
nor can be computed by any computer. Wisdom helps us make a life. Science helps us make our
living. We must not mistake science or knowledge for wisdom. Science as a knowledge produces
greater knowledge, facilitates the development of technology, and increases our power. Wisdom
guides us how to act, apply, and make a best use of scientific knowledge and its achievements.

Wisdom is multidimensional human practice that instigates through self-knowledge, self-

transcendence, self integration, nonattachment, compassion, and a deeper understanding of life.
Just as human consciousness, wisdom has also become a subject of study and research for
neurobiologists. According to Trevor Curnow, a Professor of Philosophy at the University of
Cambria and an internationally recognized authority on wisdom, argues in his book Wisdom: A
History: "Is wisdom a kind of knowledge? Or is it a kind of skill? Or is it a kind of perception?
Or is it a kind of personality trait? Or is it a combination of some or all these things? ... If it

2
becomes analyzable in terms of certain mental capacities, whether cognitive, reflective, affective
or whatever, then it might be possible to identify the neurobiological infrastructure associated
with it." But wisdom is something esoteric that often passes from one wise person to another. It
is universal. Professor Curnow explains its three forms: "First, wisdom is regarded as essentially
divine. Second, humanity may receive it by revelation [or intuition] and preserve it by direct
transmission from one person to another. Thirdly, the age of revelation is over, so wisdom is
only accessible through tradition. ... Yet the association of divination with wisdom seems to me
to be too well established and too strong simply to ignore. But if divination is a part of wisdom,
and a definition of wisdom can find no room for divination, then definition cannot be adequate."

Wisdom gives rise to compassion, and compassion gives rise to wisdom; truly, we can't
have one without the other. For philosophy, wisdom and compassion are like two wings that
work together to enable flying, or two eyes that work together to see deeply. But whatever we
are learning and teaching in our schools is not wisdom; we are learning and teaching sciences
and technologies; we are giving and getting information. Wisdom is the ability to think and act
by understanding and using scientific and general knowledge with experience, common sense,
and above all personal insight. Wisdom is a capability or disposition to perform the action with
the highest degree of adequacy under any given circumstance. It involves a deep understanding
of people, objects, events, situations, and willingness and ability to apply perception, judgment,
and action. It is a disposition to find the truth coupled with optimum judgment as to what actions
should be taken at an appropriate time regarding certain situation.

WHAT IS SCIENCE?
The word science comes from the Latin word scientia, meaning "knowledge, a knowing, an
expertness." Science is knowledge based on a procedure of assessing theories impartially in the
light of evidence. No thesis about the world is accepted permanently by science independently of
a solid and confirmable evidence. Scientific approach assumes that the universe has a kind of
unified structure, which means it is comprehensible. But a glance at the history of physics
reveals that the comprehensible thesis of the universe keeps on changing. In seventeenth century
physics revealed that the universe consists of minute billiard like balls of corpuscles, which was
later on superseded by the discovery that the universe consists of point-particles surrounded by
the symmetrical fields of force. This gave way to an advanced finding that of a self-interacting
field varying smoothly throughout space and time. Today, we are informed that everything is
made up of quantum strings embedded in ten or eleven dimensions of space-time. Tomorrow,
physics can provide new assertions or proofs of the comprehension of our universe. The
metaphysical assumption of the 'comprehension of universe' though remains same, but is
problematic, because it is un-testable. However, based on human wisdom and knowledge, a
common hierarchy of assumption regarding comprehensibility of universe between physics and
metaphysics is that there is something—a cosmic purpose, a cosmic program, a physical entity, or a
God—present at all times in all phenomena.

3
 We are living in an era of Scientific Enlightenment in which an incredibly instantaneous
technological development is changing everything in our life. At this point, past decades of
scientific and digital era have produced great comforts of life and easy access to knowledge.
Today, there is an alarming call, "The Robots are coming! Artificial Intelligence is coming!" At
the same time the ethicists are predicting, humans are just a few years away from a major
catastrophe being caused by an autonomous computer system making a decision for them. Of
course today's science is on the road to produce artificial intelligence similar or maybe superior
to human intelligence. It is also feared that the researchers might instead create something alien,
complex, and ungovernable. No doubt, science produces greater knowledge, enhances our
understanding of the natural world and the universe, but the important point is, does it help create
wisdom which is more important than knowledge? We know that without wisdom human beings
do not know how to use ethically scientific developed instruments for the benefit of mankind.
Today, as we have stepped into an era of Scientific Enlightenment, we need this to help us
achieve social progress to develop an 'Enlightened Humanity.' It is important to identify the
progress-achieving methods of science and apply them wisely by correctly generalizing them
rather than applying them to only acquire and impart knowledge. Thus, in our quest for making
social progress towards a wisely enlightened world, scientific knowledge must be combined with
instinctive insight of wisdom.

CAN SCIENCE TEACH WISDOM?

For the past millenniums we have known that it is the job of a philosopher to establish a society
by wisely implementing ideas of new scientific enlightenment and its achievements. To achieve
social progress, scientific enlightenment involves social methodology as a primary inquiry. In
other words, social inquiry is more fundamental than science. This would involve biologically
evolved human intellectualism than an artificial intelligence. Though before the appearance of
modern scientific enlightenment our emphasis to wisdom did not matter, because we were not
overloaded with modern scientific means to create many problems for ourselves and do greater
damage to our planet. But today, we possess unprecedented powers bestowed to us by science,
which can create a new crisis of our time if we have science without wisdom. Our social progress
depends upon our cognitive power and our moral life on our wisdom. The irony is that our
wisdom is being prevailed upon by artificial intelligence (AI), or artificial-general-intelligence
(AGI), and soon to be followed by the artificial-super-intelligence (ASI), which is posing a threat
to our existence as humans. Thus the crucial questions before us are: Can artificial intelligence
create wisdom? Can super-computer be equipped with a wisdom chip to act spontaneously and
wisely as an incomputable and unpredictable situation demands?

Human knowledge and wisdom are two different capabilities of the brain. Wisdom is
human judgment for action in a known or unknown situation. It is a big challenge for the
computer scientists to re-produce this in the form of 'artificial wisdom.' Wisdom is not a
computed feature of the brain. It is spontaneously revealed by the imagination from knowledge,
experience, awareness, emotions, rationality, consciousness and from many undefined channels.

4
Scientists working on artificial intelligence may possibly discover a way or a process of
uploading human mind with all that exists in an individual's brain, such as, memory, perception,
emotion, experience, wisdom and consciousness, as an artificial neural network or mind-transfer
from a physical brain to a computational device. Some scientists believe that theoretically it
would be possible that a person's brain can be scanned, mapped, and its activities transferred to a
computer hard drive. This means, that mind uploading program would make human mind a
figment of computer's imagination. Uploading a human brain also means scanning all of brain's
salient details and then reinstantiating those details into a powerful computational substrate. But
science is organized knowledge, while wisdom emerges instinctively from self-knowledge and
self-transcendence. Human brain's neural networks are collections of hundred billions of neurons
that constantly reproduce, rewire, and reinforce themselves in accomplishing a project. The
biologically evolved brain's neural network requires no programming which is parallel with a
hundred billion neurons firing instantly to accomplish a single task to learn and create something
new. A digital gadget has a fixed architecture having a devised operating system based on input,
output, and processor. If ever we are able to capture a person's mental processes, then the
reinstated mind will need a biological human body, because human thinking is directed toward
physical needs and desires. Above all it would deprive us of our natural feelings, our mammalian
origins, our long brain building childhood, and our instinctive nurturing.

SCIENCE, WISDOM, AND CONSCIOUSNESS:

There are some big questions before the philosophers and neuroscientists such as: how can we
scientifically define or philosophically recognize wisdom and consciousness? For science the
most uphill task is how to measure or compute wisdom and consciousness? and an important
question is, can a computer, equipped with a nonbiological intelligence, be ever able to match
biologically evolved human wisdom and consciousness? We know that human brain projects
wisdom and causes consciousness by a series of specific neurobiological processes in the brain,
which is regarded as a crucial attribute of human being. It is an ineffable patchwork of different
abilities developed over millions of years of man's evolution. Neuroscientists are still working to
explore how the brain creates consciousness; its process of uploading into artificial intelligence
chip is a big challenge. The scientists considering human brain as a kind of biological machine
are trying to figure out how it works and causes consciousness with its biological mechanism.
They are trying to build an artificial brain that has an equal mechanism to biological human brain
causing consciousness. But silicon-consciousness might need human emotions, their diversity of
choice, their aim, and goal to achieve success according to one's own wish.

Human beings' many virtues like, free will, aestheticism, creativity, and various natural as
well as nurtured qualities are not same in every one of them. Intelligence, consciousness, and
wisdom are multifaceted and their nature cannot be defined or computed as one standardized life
form. We cannot distil down to few and final words, the distinction of great masterpieces of art
by De Vinci, Picasso, and the work of music maestro Mozart, to be digitally computable so that
when uploaded in a computer other people will agree with it to be the one and only definite
5
description. What about the thoughtful teachings of great sages of past and present, for example:
"It is the part of a wise man to arrest the impulse of kindly feeling, as we check a carriage in its
course"—Cicero, 44 BC. Shakespeare, (1596) in his play The Merchant of Venice opines: "
The Quality of mercy is not strained.
It drops as the gentle rain from heaven
upon the place beneath. It is twice blessed:
It blesses him that gives, and him that takes.

John Milton, (1667) in Paradise Lost argues:

Only add.
Deeds to your knowledge answerable, add faith,
Add virtue, patience, temperance, add love,
By name to come called charity, the soul
Of all the rest: then will you not loath
To leave this paradise, but shall possess
A paradise within you, happier far.
The novelist John Cheever remarks, "We do not receive wisdom. We must discover it ourselves
after experiences which no one else can have for us and from which no one else can spare us."
The famous poet of twentieth century T.S. Eliot says:
Where is the wisdom we have lost in knowledge?
Where is the knowledge we have lost in information?
However, that will not stop scientists from continuing to do their home work of further insights
to gain the nature and properties of wisdom, consciousness, and intelligence. If scientists are able
to invent a silicon-consciousness that would mean that consciousness can exist by itself free from
the constraints of the physical body. It can be a great lead to those theologians and philosophers
who assume consciousness is human soul, to prove that after death the soul can exist for ever.

END OF THE HUMAN ERA:

We are today, on the road to a scientific civilization, believing in scientific knowledge as our
destiny. Stephen Hawking, the physicist remarks: "In contrast with our intellect, computers
double their performance every eighteen months. So the danger is real that they could develop
intelligence and take over the world." Professor Vernor Vinge, a computer scientist believes:
"Within thirty years, we will have the technological means to create superhuman intelligence.
Shortly after, the human era will be ended. Is such progress avoidable? If not to be avoided, can
events be guided so that we may survive?" Accomplished inventor, and champion of Singularity,
Ray Kurzweil in his books, The Age of Spiritual Machines: When Computers Exceed Human
Intelligence and The Singularity is Near, defines Singularity as a "singular" period in time
beginning around the year 2045, when artificial intelligence will be trillions of times more
powerful than today. Machines and biology will become indistinguishable.Given the incredible
power of new technologies, and development of artificial intelligence to super intelligence, we

6
should be asking ourselves, how would we be able to best coexist with the machines? Ray
Kurzweil speculates, "Machines will follow a path that mirrors the evolution of humans.
Ultimately, however, self-aware, self-improving machines will evolve beyond humans' ability to
control or even understand them." But he does not reflect upon the fate of wisdom, whether these
machines will be as wise as a human being. While artificial intelligence is of human level or
even above in its data of knowledge and information, it is only a wise thinker who can imagine
to make wise decisions for the best of human beings. Would it be wise to authorize a machine
with artificial intelligence to determine lethal combat decisions contingent upon legal and ethical
questions of the political and military leaders.

Creativity is the most important theme of wisdom. It is thinking imaginatively and then
coming up to the solution of a problem that is far from being obvious. In other words it is
creative wisdom that helps inventors to perform miraculous feats and provide solutions. Just as
creativity is an individual's capability, in the same way appearance of wisdom also depends upon
a person's own intellectualism. If the scientists continue developing artificial intelligence without
wisdom or prudence, the machines as human beings' servants may prove to be their executioner.
In a provocative article The Future Does Not Need Us, Bill Joy argues, "Our most powerful 21st
century technologies—robotics, genetic engineering, and nanotech—are threatening to make
humans an endangered species. ... This techno-utopia is all about I don't get diseases; I don't die;
I get to have better eyesight and be smarter and all this. If you described this to Socrates [who
said to know thyself is the beginning of wisdom] or Plato, they would laugh at you." For the
scientists it is possible to place chips in the robots to shut them off if they become dangerous, or
by creating fail-safe devices to immobilize them in an emergency. This means controlling the
robot's artificial intelligence will still depend upon human wisdom. However, if the robots are
designed to possess same consciousness and wisdom as we human beings have, it will be the end
of human era. — MIRZA ASHRAF

Books Cited and Consulted:

Barrat, James: Our Final Invention, Thomas Dunne Books, New York, 2013.
Curnow, Trevor: Wisdom: A History, Reaktion Books Ltd., London, UK 2015.
Feser, Edward: Philosophy of Mind, Oneworld Publications, England, 2010
Hall, Stephen S: Wisdom: From Philosophy to Neuroscience, Vintage Books, New York, 2011
Kaku, Michio: The Future of the Mind, Anchor Books, New York, 2014.
Kellogg, Ronald T: The Making of the Mind: The Neuroscience of Human Nature, Prometheus Books, NY, 2013.
Kurzweil, Ray: The Singularity is Near, Viking Penguin, New York, 2005.