AI: Crossing the Borders of Consciousness

We are in the early days of a new Age - one of intelligence and technological advancements; the first baby steps of a 200-year Jupiter/Saturn era of Air that began in the sign of Aquarius in 2020.   As a civilisation, we consider ourselves both intelligent and advanced and yet we have such a long way to go.   I actually see a civilisation that is almost totally unprepared for what lies ahead.

If we want clues to our progress as a civilisation, that is when we look to the outer planets – Uranus, Neptune and Pluto, together with Jupiter and Saturn, the bridge planets.  The outers give us information on the collective, whilst Jupiter and Saturn tell us if and how the information is likely to be embedded socially and economically.  

Around the year 576 BCE the three outers were conjunct in Taurus – opposing Saturn and squaring a line up in Aquarius that included Jupiter.  This point in time heralded a ‘Golden Age’ of philosophy, when the study of the soul and consciousness came into focus; in a highly futuristic fashion as spoken by the line-up in Aquarius.    It was the time of the mystics in India, Confucious, Sun Tzu, Buddha, as well as the birth of the great religions such as Zoroastrianism, Judaism together with the monotheistic religions.  In short, it was a time when deep thought merged with new ways of thinking and entered the realm of universal consciousness.

These religions were all very different, but all were expressions of archetypal processes that occurred at a collective scale across humanity.

Astrology recognises the myths and the supernatural world in terms of the archetypal signatures of the planets and the Gods of those planets.  We used to know all about the myths and the magic – even organise our lives according to them.  But now most wouldn’t even know how to survive. 

Clearly some form of creative intelligence informs the universe.   Yet the future is radically uncertain, contingent on human choices and larger forces beyond our power and beyond our awareness.  An old age is passing away and a new is struggling to be born.  And yet we choose to describe our beginnings as the result of a random ‘big bang’ rather than recognising that our whole universe has an intelligence that contains the wisdom of forever within its plasma energy.

There is both a cumulative and a synchronistic effect within the astrological cycles. The outcome depends on how events are dealt with and the choices we make.   But it also depends upon how much our level of conscious awareness has developed.

Planetary contacts inform the collective.  The collective informs the individual.  But does the individual listen? 

All things are connected.  Man did not weave the web of life.  He is merely a strand in it.  Whatever he does to the web he does to himself. 

The three furthest planets do not conjunct again until the years 3364 to 3373.  In 3370 they meet with an opposition to Jupiter and Saturn, by then in a fire era.

Despite all the discussions since the era before Christ there is no single universally accepted definition of consciousness, but it is generally accepted as the state of being aware of oneself and one’s surroundings; having subjective experiences – what it feels like to see a colour, hear music, feel pain, think a thought, experience an emotion.   But what happens when a different type of intelligent being enters into civilisation.  That may be an extra-terrestrial being or something possessing a non-human intelligence; an intelligence that may well in many ways be superior to human intelligence.  Although not spoken about much in the UK, in the USA there are steps taking place to disclose the presence of alien beings.  Are there further states of consciousness that will become known?  Or with the arrival of AI does humanity gradually begin to act more like the machine?

By 3370 will we have a completely different view on consciousness?  By then – bearing in mind just how far away that time is - humans may have become connected to AI; or even merged.  We are already presented with the notion that we do not walk this earth alone.    Instead are we already joined by beings from other galaxies?

An influential figure within AI – although one that I doubt many have heard of in the UK – is British Canadian Geoffrey Hinton.   Between 2013 and 2023 Hinton worked on ‘Google Brain’.  In 2018 he won the Turing Award for his work on deep learning.  And in 2024 he won the Nobel Peace prize for his discoveries and inventions that enabled machine learning with neural networks, meriting his title as one of the Godfathers of AI.  Hinton’s work encompassed the design of artificial neural nets and how they can be designed to learn without the aid of a human teacher. 

His work, however, had led him to feel not enough preparation was being made concerning issues he felt would accompany AI systems that will eventually become smarter than humans.  After all when have we ever known of a much less intelligent entity being able to control those that are vastly more intelligent?

Hinton’s work had stemmed from a desire to understand how the brain worked and from a much more psychological perspective.   And still we don’t fully understand the brain.  He believes that our views on consciousness are fundamentally flawed.  If not already semi-conscious, he felt AI soon will be. 

Today Hinton’s concerns are joined by those of others.  But what is their motivation and who are they?  Is this genuine concern for humanity or is it driven by the wealthy to sideline small interests in AI?

Some of those responsible for the introduction of AI likely did so as a means to control society or to increase their personal gain – or indeed both.  But what do they see now?   Something that they are losing control of perhaps?   Especially as AI’s path to AGI and ASI seems to be racing along, far exceeding their expectations and their ability to control.

Few understand the sheer scale of the transformation we are facing - on the level of Copernicus’ discovery that our universe is Sun centred rather than Earth centred, or Darwin’s assertions on the survival of the fittest; discoveries that shaped the beliefs of future generations.  This is much much bigger than the Industrial Revolution and the mechanisation of life.

As we become forced to accept that humans are no longer the most superior species, we may also have to redefine what both intelligence and consciousness really mean, particularly if and when conscious or semi-conscious artificial beings enter the system.

Human beings have always considered themselves to be the most important entity.    Copernicus forced us to consider that we are not the centre of the universe, while Darwin brought us down to the level of just another animal.

What happens when we move forward into a world that may not be populated only by human beings, or controlled by human beings?