#1308 - What does it mean to be human?
Lately, the internet has been flooded with examples of the power of AI technologies. From stunning AI-generated images to articles, reviews, essays, scripts, and even poems written by the last arrived in the family of AI chatbots.
I am amazed by all these technological advancements and innovations.
Particularly in the field of artificial intelligence.
Any time we create a piece of technology that can do, sometimes even better and faster, what we thought only humans could, we are forced to raise the quality of our enquiries into human nature.
What does it mean to be human?
It is not the ability to collect, store, retrieve and use knowledge. As we are witnessing over and over, computers can do it better and faster. They are better and faster also when it comes to pure reasoning power. To look smart, you just need to carry a good smartphone.
Now machines can do creative stuff like drawing, painting and writing.
So, again what does it mean to be human?
I don't have an answer, but that's not the point.
Or maybe that's precisely the point.
Questions like this, whose answer cannot be found in knowledge, however vast, or through logic, however powerful and advanced, are what we need to lead us in the leap from the Age of Information into the Age of Awareness.
"For creativity rarely begins with an answer. Breakthrough questions should therefore lead us into the unknown." - The way of nowhere
By the way, I obviously asked ChatGPT that question. This is the answer I got.
To be human means to be a member of the Homo sapiens species, characterized by advanced cognitive abilities, including the ability to think, reason, and use language to communicate. Humans are also characterized by their capacity for emotions, as well as their unique physical characteristics, such as an upright posture and the ability to walk on two legs. Being human also involves being part of a community and culture, and having a sense of self-awareness and consciousness.