Reason and wisdom

Artificial Narrow Intelligence and Artificial General Intelligence are concepts we have been hearing a lot about lately. The former refers to artificial intelligence designed to perform only a specific task, appearing in various fields from housework to programming, driving cars to medical diagnosis. The latter has not yet emerged, but refers to artificial intelligence that possesses the ability and capacity to do everything a human can do. 

In my field of research, “communication and informatics,” we define intelligence simply as a container for information. When an event occurs, data related to it first emerges. Data means “reality.” Later, the data is given a “form/format” and delivered to its recipient, that is, to us, through a channel. We call this information. When we associate the information we receive (a state of connectivity), our “interpretations/meanings/decisions/emotions/awareness” regarding the event emerge. These are the pieces of knowledge we have acquired, and we call the entirety of the knowledge we have acquired up to this point our “knowledge base.” Reason can be defined as this knowledge base. 

We can define the goal of artificial intelligence studies as creating modular structures that contain knowledge bases functional in various fields. However, what is currently missing in these structures are meanings, emotions, and awareness. For example, these are missing in the answers artificial intelligence gives to our questions. Because, to put it simply, it provides its answers by calculating the frequency of use and the probability of co-occurrence of words that have been said on the relevant topics to date (and recorded somewhere on the internet). 

Considering the deep fake videos and artificial human voices produced by artificial intelligence, in addition to the many information confusions we experience today such as disinformation or fake news, political propaganda, and the rhetoric of influencers, it is becoming increasingly difficult for people to keep up with the transformations brought about by developing technology. When we are exposed to fake news, for example, we assume it is true. When inappropriate videos of a famous person produced with artificial intelligence are published on social media, we assume they are real and stigmatize the person. 

Right and wrong are getting mixed up, and our perceptions are becoming dulled. We cannot be sure of anything. In some cases, we can be easily persuaded. Then we find ourselves in such a situation: We have knowledge about many subjects, but we cannot make sense of how much of it is true and how much is false. Our emotions and decisions become biased or, conversely, can become polarized. 

One of the ways out of this situation is to increase our awareness. We can briefly describe this as being able to find the difference between truth and lies in an event. So, what should we do to increase our awareness? The short answer: We must possess wisdom. 

To achieve awareness, learning by living and acquiring knowledge is important, but these are not enough. We can give people life studies, science, and social studies from a young age. We can say this is wrong, this is right, take these and use them in your life, but this is not enough. Life is not long enough to experience everything. Moreover, just as some known truths may be false, information that is necessary for a period may become unnecessary over time. Therefore, we cannot act with mere knowledge. One must also possess wisdom. So how will we save ourselves from disinformation? Not by teaching, but by learning. In other words, without waiting for someone to teach us, without needing someone to say this is true or this is false, we will learn for ourselves, we will realize it. Possessing wisdom means knowing how to learn. That is, it means knowing the method (how to test the information one has acquired).

Being able to question means being able to look critically. Just think, who are we going to teach which information in this world of ours? Or if we were to make people memorize everything one by one, saying this is true and this is false, would this work ever end? Which one would we teach? Is a human lifespan enough? We cannot cope with experiencing problems one by one either. Teaching people information one by one is taking the hard road. It is essential to show (not teach) how to access and how to test information when necessary, and to enable them to look critically. 

We do not know when people will reach this stage of awareness (or we can call it consciousness). But we can say this: One must not be prejudiced. Look, I am not saying one must be educated or graduate from university, but I am saying one must not be prejudiced. This also emphasizes the difference between knowledge and wisdom. It is thought as if they are the same thing, but they are not. To survive, to live, at least to maintain our current conditions, we need to know more things than before. For example, at the simplest level, new roads are being opened in the city. There was a road you knew to go from one place to another, now there are fifty roads. Which one will you choose? Will you say, in a prejudiced way, I will not deviate from the road I know, even if it is longer and more difficult? Since accessing information has become easier, knowing how to make decisions and approaching problems with a questioning and critical perspective has become more important today. This is what I mean by knowing the method. It is no longer important to know the information, but to know the wisdom, that is, the method. If you know wisdom, you also reach awareness. With that awareness, you can find the answers to the questions of how do I solve this problem, how do I access this information. Otherwise, in the other case, we would have to stuff libraries full of information into our heads just in case we encounter a problem in life that requires it. Even in that case, could knowing everything be a solution? 

I think that in the future, the advantage of humans against artificial intelligence, which is thought to take over people's jobs and places, will be their possession of wisdom.