Pure Information

Did you know our brain is not aware of our five senses but rather interprets the signals it receives, without knowing where they come from? This fundamental aspect of human experience has profound implications for how we understand and interact with the world around us. Just the thought of this inspires me.

Our perception of reality is inherently limited by the nature of our senses and the properties of our physical surroundings. We interpret information through words, sounds, and visual imagery, but we also experience emotions, art, and deep feelings that are not easily translated into words. Our physical means of expression may be limiting us from accessing deeper layers of meaning and more complex hierarchies of information. This is where advanced technologies like OpenAI's ChatGPT come into play; these computer systems are so advanced that we cannot fully comprehend or express their inner workings, much like our own minds. Yet, we still convert their output back into relatively simple forms, such as text.

If we could transfer information without any limitations or intermediate channels, we might be able to access the essence of reality. However, as tempting as this may seem, our minds might not be suited for handling such complex structures, so we will need to educate ourselves and start small, almost like learning how to read. Developing this ability to process unfiltered information could become a new skill in the future that we need to learn and control.

I vividly recall a TED talk from several years ago in which a paralyzed individual was given information through a sophisticated skeleton that transferred vibrations in a specific pattern. This allowed him to perceive information through touch in a way that could not be conveyed through traditional means. Our brains are not limited by our senses or physical surroundings, as evidenced by the fact that we can dream, contemplate, create, love, and fantasize. This demonstrates that information is fluid, and we are incredibly adaptable in processing the data that we encounter.

Pure information is a concept that goes beyond text, speech, images, and media. It encompasses the objective existence of an abstraction or object being described by the subject in its purest form, independent of its visual characteristics, for example. One could argue that the actual information is made up of more than just the parts we perceive as real using our familiar and common channels. To process such pure information, we might even need to consider limiting or disabling certain senses that could be considered essectively just noise at one point.

I think this transition to computed information and symbiotic conversion is fascinating and will hopefully be explored further in the coming years, with companies like Neuralink potentially playing a significant role. As we continue to develop our relationship with AI, we may progress from using AI as a passive output to receiving input from the AI, proactively informing us before we are even aware. The challenge will be controlling this process and ensuring that it is used for good rather than evil, with appropriate mechanisms and ethical considerations in place.