timothy-leary-chaos-cyber-culture

Computers will not replace real people. They will replace middleandlow-level bureaucrats. They will replace you only to the extentthat you use artificial (rather than natural) intelligence in your lifeand work. Ifyou think like a bureaucrat, a functionary, a manager,an unquestioning member of a large organization, or a chess player,beware: You may soon be out-thought!NATURAL INTELLIGENCEHumanists in the computer culture claim that there is onlyone form of inteUigence natural intelligence, brain power whichresides in the skulls of individual human beings. This wetware isgenetically wired and experientially programmed to manage thepersonal affairs of one person, the owner, and to exchange thoughtsHesse seems to be sendingwarning signalsthat are relevantto the situation in 1986. %First, he sujjeststhat humanwith others.All thought-processing toolshand-operated pencils, print-beinjstend to center theired books, electronic computerscan be used as extensions of naturalintelligence. They are appliances for packaging, storing, communicatingideas: mirrors that reflect back what the user hasthought As Douglas Hofstadter put it in Godel, Escher, Back "Theself comes into being at the moment it has the powerto reflectitself And that power, Hesse and McLuhan, is determined by thereligions on the thoughtprocessinguses. ...device their culture% Second, controlthought tool used by the culture.Individual human beings can be controlled, managed byof the thoujht-processinjthinking machines computers or bead games only to the extentmachinerymeans control oithat they voluntarily choose to censor their ovm independent thinking.society. The underlyingMACISTER LUDI BEGINS TO QUESTION AUTHORITYantiestablishment tone oiIn the last chapters of The Glass Bead Game the hero,Joseph Knechl, has risen to the highest post in theCastalian order. He is "Magister Ludi, Master of the GlassBead Game."The Glass Bead G^surely have caughtthe attentionof George Orwell, anotherThe game, by this time, has become a global artificial-intelligencesystem that runs the educational system, the military, science,engineering, mathematics, physics, linguistics, and above all,prophetoi the informationaesthetics. The great cultural ceremonies are public thought gameswatched with fascination by the populace.society. ...% Third, HesseAt this moment of triumph the Mind Master begins to havedoubts. He worries about the two-tier society in which the CastaUan"computer" elite run the mind games of society, far removed fromthe realities of human life. The Castalians, we recall, have dedicatedsuj^ests that the emergence ofnew intellipce machines willthemselves totally to the life of the mind, renouncing power, money,family, individuality. A CastaUan is the perfect "organization man," acreate new relijfions.monk of the new religion of artificial intelligence. Rnecht is alsoconcerned about the obedience, the loss of individual choice.Hesse seems to be sending warning signals that are relevantto the situation in 1986. First, he suggests that human beingsSECTION 11.2 CYBEKNETICS ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE n