Imagine a future in which your personal computer becomes a
doorway into a world of enhanced intelligence and creativity,
emotional stability and previously unrealized personal success.
In this world, the computer has become more than just a word
processor or a web browser; it has become both an instantaneous
communication tool for contacting seminar leaders or personal
therapists and an interactive councilor that uses artificial
intelligence to provide personal coaching and wise guidance. Or
even further in the future, computer aided methods of
transformation of human consciousness. Could that colorful
screen upon which you may be reading this become that door? This
is a question that has intrigued those who have studies the
potential of the PC, and the answer may be that this reality is
closer than we realize.
In 1990, Simon and Shuster published Would the Buddha Wear a
Walkman? by Judith Hooper and Dick Terisi, both editors at Omni
magazine at the time and co-authors of the best selling book,
The Three-Pound Universe.
In the chapter, "Using Your Computer to Expand Your Mind," they
say: The computer is more than a number crunching word
processing, artificial brain. In the right hands it's also a
mind-expanding, creativity-boosting, even mind-altering tool. We
have already accepted the microcomputer as a machine that can
assume some of our tedious menial chores. But it has a potential
as a mind-enhancing device as well. And the key is the software.
Here is an excerpt:
"We have divided the field into five categories: smartware
(which makes you smarter, more organized, a better writer, a
better negotiator), psychological software (such as Eliza),
stressware (aimed at reducing anxiety), games/head trips (trips
into alternative realities) and spiritual software (intended to
make you deeper). Thus far we have looked at some of the kinds
of software programs the authors predicted. But as the
technology of the compute leaps forward and our understanding of
the mind become increasingly better, some of these other more
far-out mind/computer software programs will become possible."
In this chapter, they spotlight the founder of Mindware and Mind
Media in Bruce Ehrlich and Digital Psychology." How does he see
the future of comptuters, psychology and self-improvement?
Ehrlich predicts that such software [mind software] will
eventually transform computer-human interactions. "The
computer," he says," will become a friend." He foresees a
dramatic growth in future years in what he calls "electronic
Buddhas." This is a program designed to enhance the users
spirituality. Another growth area is "psychoactive software How
can a computer become a wise Buddha or guide? Or become
psychoactive. Here are some of more wild-eyed guesses
One of the most important theoretical areas in computer science
concerns artificial intelligence. One area of AI is expert
systems. For example, a computer is trained to emulate a medical
doctor in diagnosing a disease. These programs already exist,
and have shown to be superior to human doctors in many cases in
pinpointing illnesses.
Imagine then the computer developing an expert system model of a
Zen master or psychotherapist. Expert systems that go far beyond
Eliza's simple trickery to programs that teach real wisdom.
Now combine this with biofeedback, the technology we have talked
about below. The most recent biofeedback breakthroughs have
involved the recording and training of actual altered states of
consciousness experiences. There actually has been recording
flesh-and-blood Zen Masters as they enter Samadhi, the highest
state of being in the Zen school.
Already, computers are giving us multimedia biofeedback rather
than the primitive tones of three decades ago. Certainly at the
current rate of technological progress, virtual reality will
becomes available as an interface on the home PC. Already there
is a graphical VRML (virtual reality markup langauge). Soon,
goggles and gloves will supplement screen and mouse.
Consider the power of a virtual reality computerized biofeedback
system. A system augmented by an artificially intelligent
computer coach. Or perhaps a real human guiding a group of
people over the Web. Still another possibility, a group of
humans supporting each other in their exploration consciousness
linked up through a computer network. Shades of virtual group
therapy!
Looking to the future of software for enlarging the capacity of
the human mind and consciousness, turning comptuers into true
self improvment machines, capable of helping us achienve
self-actualization. We may see:
* The power of computers doubling every two years,
* The creation of a global community"-linking everyone's ?homes
by PC through interactive video and the World Wide Web
* New technologies such as biofeedback and virtually-reality
areready for prime time.
* The rapid and dramatic breakthroughs in our understanding of
the brain, consciousness and behavior.
Computers and software as an expander of human intellect,
creativity and consciousness has a glorious future that we only
begin to imagine. Web at
http://www.mindmedia.com/links.
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