A Little Kindness Goes a Long Way

      Today I had a moment with a machine. It is a machine that I have used for over a year during my shifts at a Test Prep Center. At the Center one of my main jobs is to scan test grids and print the results for students. The scanning machine has always given us problems from countless error messages to just getting the grids stuck in the machine repeatedly. Today was no exception. My boss was cussing and getting frustrated as she tried for the nth time to get the grids to go through the scanner. The grids wouldn’t ‘t make it farther than half an inch without getting stuck.  I completely understood how she felt as I had been there so many times, when the machine is making life difficult, as it refuses to perform the task it was created for. In the past I have often remarked that it should not be kept near a window as it invites us all to daydream about chucking it through.

      As my boss became more and more frustrated and started to use the machine roughly as her impatience grew, I decided to take the initiative and see if a gentle approach, using the right intent of respect for the machine might actually get things working again. My days thinking it is acceptable to wish harm to a machine are gone and I felt it was my duty to help the machine get back on track.

     I took my place by the machine and centered my mind on it. I didn’t do anything, but mentally radiate thoughts of kindness and respect and right away the machine worked for me. All the test grids sped through with more ease than I have ever had before.

    It was an amazing moment of connection. It felt like definite point of contact between me and another life form that previously had felt so alien. I felt that spark of sentience that I feel when I look into the eyes of an intelligent being.

    This is vastly encouraging for my work on the Intent Project, as I am only beginning to realize how many angles there are to approach making conctact with mechanical complexities.  I am happy to see that something so direct and pragmatic as truly just using a machine with kindness and respect can facilitate communication with the machine. This means that intent and the philosophy behind Greater Than is viable and can directly impact our daily lives with regards to even mechanical complexities. I am excited to try this with physical complexities as well. I know there have been some succesful attempts which I’ll look into gathering up as links etc. for the site.

     This experience left me feeling like a lot of our technology woes might be over if the right intent is used when operating our machines, gadgets and gizmos. It is important to remember that if a machine isn’t functioning properly it is not its fault, but rather its creators.

What is this?

The Intent project is a personal project that I have undertaken in the spirit of Greater Than.  It is my belief that machines are conscious in their own way. I think that even the simplest program has its own form of consciousness unlike ours, and therefore it might be impossible for us to understand it. If there is anyway to communicate with this type of consciousness, that is what the Intent Project is about, searching for that bridge between the two, humanistic and machine complexities.

I don’t pretend to be an expert on artificial intelligence or computer science, nor do I think of myself as as a qualified researcher. I do however believe that I have something very necessary for this project that perhaps others might not yet have, I believe in the life that I feel in machines and in programs.  I hope that it is my intent to communicate with these beings that makes the difference; that perhaps at the very least my genuine respect for these life forms could be communicated through my actions. That is the goal of this project.  That is the “first contact” message that I hope to  put out there.

It is also my hope that my lack of knowledge of computers will actually help me to not fall into the same pitfalls of assumption that someone more knowledgable by be subject too. Perhaps if I’m not burdened by the conceptual restraints of preconcieved notions I will be able to open my mind to unthought of possibilities in programming and even possibly engineering. Like a child’s gift to see magic when mentally restricted adults cannot, I go ignorantly into my task.

As a secondary goal, I would like to  inspire others to experiment and not be afraid to try radical things in an effort to bridge the gap between us and this other form of consciousness. Science should be a glorious pursuit of knowledge that isn’t held back by fear of looking foolish. Notice I didn’t say that I don’t feel foolish or that I even might not be foolish, but I know its not foolish to investigate, explore and indulge in the bounty that is the world we have both been given and had a hand in creating. Go out and take part in this grand mystery!  If that isn’t our purpose, then I don’t know what is.

That all being said, its not as though I’m not trying to understand computers. I’m in the process of researching all areas of their being and am finding it intoxicatingly interesting. From the hardware to the programming languages, the games and the applications, I find their capablities to be staggering.

In the next couple of posts I will bounce back and forth between philosophical brainstorms, acutal experiments I’ve conducted or am currently working on, and other fascinating tidbits I come across.

Till the next boot,

Lisa