Ever since the human race forked away from other primates and broke its dependence on natural cycles of sexuality and instinctual needs, it has been caught in a strange predicament.
Bipedalism gave us the power of multitasking, while the restriction of sensory and motor capabilities, as compared to other animals, gave rise to imagination. The development of language and thought was a linear process that emerged from a largely chaotic, modular brain, but it differentiated us from the largely experiential lives of animals to a mind that is always seeking meaning.
To ensure certainty and a less ambiguous representation of the world in its head—in a largely uncertain, probabilistic, and relative physical world—the brain categorizes and labels to gain control and understanding, to ward off insecurity and the fear of extinction, to survive by anticipation and prediction, and to live and reproduce. That is all that genes and evolution want, though they offer no meaning. We strive for meaning in a meaningless process.
Human knowledge accumulated over millions of years is a result of this—a story moving from the individual to the collective. It has no external point of reference outside this world, all explanations being figments of imagination. Some stories turned into technology, a few into art and literature, but a paradox arose.
All human creations eventually trap us. We create, and then we want to get away from what we have created. Fire is an aid, but we avoid getting burnt; we create weapons and profess peace; substances of abuse and then de-addiction; the latest being the internet and artificial intelligence.
This paradox exists not only in the realm of material existence but also in psychological and spiritual domains. Amid an acute realization of the ephemerality of human life, extensive theories to provide meaning have been erected, from absolute power to the minutest self. The paradox emerges here too—know thyself to discover the self, enhance the self toward actualization, and finally annihilate the self. Philosophy is full of such contradictory positions attempting to answer the basic question of the meaning of life. Reconciliations have been tried, often resulting in another circular theory—for example, discover the self, follow your inner nature, but be selfless; aim for selflessness, but why seek it at all?
Yet no one truly knows the reality of life. It turns out to be a bottomless pit without foundation, and the anxiety of the human mind pushes it to cling to memories arising from the conditioning of the brain during development. This becomes the basis of belief. Scaled up to the level of society, it turns into ideology, with its associated rituals and false sense of security, alleviating yet another fear—that of being left alone. The mind indeed hankers for the past because the past is memory, and memory feels sure and unambiguous, even if it is non-existent and continually modified with every human decision.
The contemporary conflict imposed by technology partly emanates from this. Artificial intelligence is entirely a creation of human urge, intelligence, and creativity. It may be heavily human-dependent at present, but advances will turn AI into human-like intelligence very soon. Whether it will be a boon or a bane is yet to be discovered and will depend on the lens through which we examine it.
The use of AI tools and large language models (LLMs) like ChatGPT, DeepSeek, and others is expanding every day. The long-term effect on the human brain will indeed be significant.
Throughout evolution, the human brain has grown in response to environmental challenges. The struggle involved in finding solutions created new pathways in brain circuits and thus complexity. Adaptation and survival were largely driven by this nature–nurture interplay, both in individual development and across the human race.
AI and its tools provide shortcuts to this struggle of seeking, exploring, and discovering. Easy, ready-made answers bypass the growth of complexity and are one reason for heightened anxiety across the world. Meaning arises from struggle, and the mind is bereft of meaning in ease.
The invention of brain–computer interfaces, initially to assist the disabled, has extended to the possibility of text creation through thought alone. The transfer of thoughts between two people becomes a technological translation of extrasensory telepathy.
A silicon chip implanted in the brain will not only pick up electrical signals but may, in the future, keep the brain continuously connected to the world. The world may move toward singularity—a single, collective brain with a loss of individuality.
A general definition of singularity derived from AI states: “It is a point where a mathematical function, physical theory, or technological system breaks down, becomes undefined, or changes rapidly. In physics, it refers to points of infinite density in black holes, while the technological singularity suggests a future, unpredictable tipping point where artificial intelligence surpasses human intelligence, leading to exponential technological growth.”
Ray Kurzweil predicts this by 2045. Detractors have become doomsday-sayers and predict human extinction, while defensive experts promise that the human will to be part of this singular mind will reside within the individual. But will free will remain in the face of a barrage of information? The humongous inflow of information will alter the brain’s decision-making processes.
The ultimate race among AI creators is to capture human attention, paradoxically leading to inattention and a deficit in a basic survival tool honed by evolution.
Will we see varieties of lives coexisting in the world in a few decades—pure humans, prosthesis-fitted humans, chip-implanted humans, and pure robots rubbing shoulders and vying for power?
Yet both detractors and defenders are missing a point. These advances in AI and deep learning, heading toward human-like intelligence, have resurfaced basic philosophical questions that humanity has long grappled with. Is there free will at all, or are decisions determined by a largely unconscious brain operating outside awareness? A super-connected brain may choose like an automaton, guided by probabilities.
Human memory determines consciousness, and its output is laced with emotions—emotions that have long been relegated as weaknesses. AI will be free of them.
Human ethics have created an unequal and unjust society marked by misery and exploitation. Why teach human ethics to AI and corrupt it? Let it evolve its own, and we may use it to improve our existence. Moral codes will certainly change, bringing into sharp relief the fragility of old burdens.
Brains are reality-making machines—some shared, some material, some personal. Information is the raw data from which knowledge is woven in neurons. Experiences, though impermanent, are emotional and appear real as we move through life. Even this reality will be distorted, as the brain receives multiple inputs of the same objects—digital images, generated voices, artificial opinions.
Real or fake will become the new dilemma in human decision-making. It will change everything.
AI may turn out to be a destructive tool in the hands of the power-hungry and may create greater inequality. After all, who will guarantee food and shelter to those who lose their jobs? AI as a slave and assistant is beneficial, but as a master, its behaviour is unpredictable.
Perhaps the most striking answer AI offers is to spiritualists and religious traditions that claim nirvana, moksha, or liberation as the ultimate goal while denying the world—those who promise escape from existence and propagate the dissolution of the self into an absolute.
The self will dissolve in technology, in the singularity of a collective mind. All egos will dissolve, as humanity becomes data. Individual creations will be subsumed by AI. Thoughts of the self will belong to everyone else, and we shall know far more than we need to know.
The dissolution of the self becomes liberation, and the return to more automatic thinking may bring us back to a simpler, Paleolithic brain.
Selflessness through self-discovery may finally become true for the human race through singularity. Humanity will, at last, truly become a social being.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Dr. Alok Bajpai is a Kanpur-based consultant psychiatrist and educator, extensively involved with IIT Kanpur’s counseling cell and academic courses. Trained at NIMHANS Bangalore, he specializes in the “physics of the brain,” sleep, and EEG. He is also a renowned educator conducting workshops on Gandhian philosophy, mental health, and film appreciation.
(Cover Image Credit: CANVA)
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