AN ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE

In the last decade of the nineteenth century in America there was a significant battle going on for the soul of the culture. This event had a number of expressions. The experimental utopian communities (Shakers, Quakers,Oneida Community, etc.) had existed for some time, and in their own way contributed to the landscape of American culture through simple manufacturing systems, useful gadgets (washing machines, sewing machines, etc.) However, these communities were beginning to decline due an interest in Free Thinking, Spiritualism, lack of births, and a trend of population movement to the cities, etc. In fact, these were just symptoms of a much more serious dilemma facing the growing wealth and importance of America on the world stage. The nature of this time in history saw a polarization of important thinkers divided roughly into two camps. It was in effect a spiritual dilemma. Henry David Thoreau had expressed his musings, The James brothers theirs, and many other thinkers of the era. For the purpose of this entry by way of example I am concerned with the dialogue of the healers and the healing professions. Plural. During, and after the Civil War medicine struggled with the questions of how the body heals and what should be the underlying approach to the healing arts. Profound damage had been done during the civil war to life and limb and the "soul" of the new America. Big rifts occurred between those who professed a mechanistic approach to healing using all the technologies developed during and after the war. They believed that the body was essentially a machine that could be manipulated in a variety of ways that would bring about healing. The other general group did not totally denigh the development of new technologies of healing (surgical, inoculation, etc.), but they observed that regardless what was done to the body externally the individual either got well or not according to some other factor. They attributed this to energy. Some felt that this had a supernatural source I.E. God, and others that is was magnetic or cosmic in origin.
This became a pitched battle between the "Mechanistic Healers" and the "Magnetic or Energetic Healers". Science as we know it today was still in its infancy in America. Medicine was a mix of both of these ideas being based on the Greek, Roman and European models. The Greek leaning more to a divine origin and the European more nature based and mechanistic. Gradually these two camps (Mechanists and Energetic) became so polarized that the idea of "Empiric" Science (I.E. Mechanistic approach) became the stronger camp, and organized into what we know today as Medicine. The Magnetic Healers became Osteopaths, Chiropractors, Naprapaths, Herbalists, etc. Still the question of why and how we heal has never been answered. Mysteriously the patient would get well or die.
There are those who feel that by some external or artificial method we can change our nature or condition and mold ourselves into some idea of ideal health. These individuals or groups believe that some change of activity, removal of an organ, even a psychological change of view, or choice of behavior will heal the problem. Still we have no actual "Empiric" proof of these results, only percentage data. Even that has widely varied results. Again the question of actual "Change" remains a mystery.
I love to use friends as examples in these entries because they are the most important to me in my journey. Recently one friend has made it clear that all behavior is a "choice" and thus we are, in this way, responsible for our behavior. I have found that generally these types of people think that they maintain a "moral high ground" for the rest of us. Yet I see their behavior is a vain struggle to artificially change their lives. It appears to be an artificial attempt at change. A "Mechanistic" attempt. I cry for them in my heart. They are so sincere and simple, and ultimately tortured. There are others that totally "go with the flow" and they get carried away for years in a fog of temporary delights. Haven't we all been here? They are enamoured by the illusion of the texture of life, and can't understand why the rest of us just don't take a vacation from our "productivity" to experience the "Now". This is the other extreme, "Energetic" attempt to be happy. Neither approach seems to bring successful results. So I have been pondering this problem for some time.
I have always said that "you can lie to anyone, but if you lie to yourself this is the greatest sin". I still think this is true. Please understand that I don't encourage lying. Anyway, it appears that if we spend sometime every day observing, and listening to ourselves we will come to know ourselves both mechanistically and energetically. We will see what we can change a bit, and what is our "nature". We will find intuitive ways to stay healthy or make healthy decisions. Also I have observed that we can learn from this approach to Love others less defensively knowing who we are, and not being threatened by someone else's questionable behavior. It seems that Health is a combination of taking care of the machine inside and out, and energetically keeping the flow of life lively and loving. Not developing an "Artificial Intelligence" to artificially change our nature.