Descartes was onto something…

By Steve Christensen

For the past couple of years I’ve tried to figure out how all this happened. And I finally did!
Cogito ergo sum.
Everyone has heard that. I think, therefore I am. It was one of the great quotes from Rene Descartes, a 17th Century philosopher. It was an experiment to clear his mind and then decide what was real. What can one really know? After substantial contemplation, Descartes concluded that if he is capable of thinking about all this, then there can be no doubt he actually exists. That is undeniable.
There are those who argue the phrase is no more than a meaningless tautology. And perhaps it is. It does seem silly, until you know the extent of the exercise. We are bombarded with things that somehow seem outside the scope of reason.
Others have explored this concept in different ways. Aldous Huxley, in his great book Brave New World explores this idea. People living in the confines of the book have a pill that takes them to a different reality. Huxley suggested the future might hold a pill that is capable of making everything right in the world, at least for a short time. The experience was called a “soma holiday.”
People took a soma holiday when things became unclear. When a person needed to be renewed, so to speak. The problem is, reality always returns.
Brave New World was written in the shadow of the rise of Hitler and his control over the people of Germany. It was a warning against what was going on at the time, but no less relevant in the 21st century where people are bombarded with technology and a world that seems less “real” all the time. Freedom is at the heart of the novel. How can people be free if we are being controlled?
What most people don’t realize is how Descartes came to his conclusion. Descartes pondered that we may be victims of an “evil genius” who is dupping us into believing what he wants us to believe. Remember, he is just pondering this. He didn’t ever claim that’s the way things really are.
But, maybe that is exactly the way it is. Only Descartes was writing in the seventeenth century. What he didn’t imagine, and couldn’t have imagined, is that possibly the evil genius to which he alludes is actually artificial intelligence.
Huxley delves into mind control and alternate reality. What can I really believe? He couldn’t have even imagined the world in which we now live.
We are bombarded with information, only half of which is true. The biggest problem we face is knowing which half is true and which half is false. Maybe none of it is true. How would we know? How could we know?
The world can’t really be what I am experiencing. There’s no way. Obviously, I’m being manipulated. There’s no way this great nation in which we live could have possibly elected Donald Trump. There’s no way we would allow a few people to control all the wealth of the country. There’s no way people would fight for the right to own and use a weapon capable of shooting 30 bullets in 10 seconds — a weapon that serves no practical purpose except to kill people.
All that is just an evil artificial intelligence messing with my mind, seeing how I will react. Seeing how high my blood pressure will go.
None of it is true. None of it is real. I feel better now.
Or, do I?