Would a Prabhupada-bot, an artificial intelligence system that knows all of Prabhupada’s works, be equivalent to him or his books?

Answer Podcast

Transcript

This is an AI-generated transcript and may contain some errors.
If in future, scientists could develop, say a Prabhupada bot, where all of Prabhupada’s teachings are integrated into a computer system. And we ask questions and we will get from that device, that robot, answers which Prabhupada would give to those questions.
So what would be the difference between learning from a Prabhupada bot and from Prabhupada himself? Or from any spiritual teacher who is there and living and who is there in digital format? Not digital format, but a digital representation. Firstly, there would be consciousness in the robot, no matter what we do. Consciousness, where it comes from itself is a mystery.
The Science Magazine on its 125th anniversary made a list of 125 questions which they don’t have answers to. The first was, where did the universe come from? Second is, where does consciousness come from? So we don’t even know where consciousness comes from, so we have no idea of how to produce consciousness. We know that the brain has certain phenomena happening, which we are mapping very precisely now.
But there is a correlation of that with consciousness. But that’s not causation. The two are separate things.
This is associated with that, but this and this are different. Ultimately all brain phenomena are just electrochemical signals. So electrochemical signals don’t have consciousness.
That’s called the hard problem of consciousness. We have feelings. Considerably, if a robot could do everything that you and I could do, then why did, even if we accept that, why did nature give us feelings at all? From a functional perspective, what purpose do feelings serve at all? Are feelings simply an add-on to our functionality? But then for us, our feelings are what drive our functionality.
And we all want to experience happy feelings. So the replication of the mechanical and even some intellectual aspects of a conscious being could be done. But the experience of it all, when Prabhupada would quote a verse glorifying Krishna, Prabhupada would describe a verse glorifying Krishna, and a computer would do that.
The computer is not experiencing anything at all. Therefore, there could be information that could come, but the transformation would require some association with somebody who is transformed. The education of devotion is meant primarily for the transformation of the desires.
Education is meant for transformation. Our attraction is towards worldly things and we want to develop our attraction towards Krishna. So bhakti sanjayati, associating with devotees who are devoted to Krishna, that we will get devotion to Krishna.
So Prabhupada won’t be able to, it itself doesn’t even understand consciously what it’s speaking. It doesn’t understand Krishna, it doesn’t love Krishna. So by hearing it, we won’t get love for Krishna.
Now it’s possible that we can get some understanding and that is good. And if we are already practicing the process of bhakti, and we are just looking for a particular verse, a particular quote, a particular point, we might find it. So in that sense, the Prabhupada board is not much different from the Veda ways or from Google search.
It’s just that it makes the searching easier for us. Instead of me typing, we ask, and instead of asking just like a search engine, we ask that search engine assembled in a form, which might look like Prabhupada also. But in principle, any digital device, all that it is doing is number crunching.
Phenomenally, incredibly high speed, just 01010101 digital states are changing. And that isn’t at all related with consciousness. So therefore, we need those who are devoted to Krishna to enrich our devotion to Krishna.
And Robo, no matter how sophisticated, will not infuse us with that devotion. It may aid us in our devotion, but it won’t replace the need for those who are devoted to Krishna and those who can transmit and transfer that desire to us. And overall, the information processing ability of machines is already exceeded way, way beyond that of human beings.
In some ways, we are not able to, machines are not able to do information processing the way we do. But in future, they may learn that. But beyond information are emotions, beyond emotions are intentions.
So emotions, intentions, all these are also part of consciousness. We consider intelligence only as as information processing. Then we may say that intelligence already artificial intelligence has that.
But if we consider intelligence in terms of ethical decision making, this is this is right, this is wrong. That is something which requires consciousness. So therefore, a Prabhupada won’t ever give us what Prabhupada can give us.
Or those who are representing Prabhupada can give us. Would a Prabhupada would be as good as Prabhupada’s books? I would say it will depend on whom you ask. Like some devotees even now feel that reading the physical Bhagavatam is different from reading the digital Bhagavatam.
We should actually pick up the books and read. But many devotees who travel and they read and they are nourished spiritually. So I would say that if it’s Prabhupada’s teachings, then the medium itself doesn’t matter.
So now Prabhupada’s potency can come through to a book. It can come through a digital book. It can come through a Prabhupada bot also.
But the problem here is that with respect to a book, we are not so enamored by it. With respect to maybe digital representation we are more enamored by it. With respect to a bot we will be even more enamored by it.
That is one of the reasons why there is a danger of idolatry which is talked about in the Abrahamic religions. That we may have a representation of God but over a period of time we may just focus on the representation and forget the one who is represented by it. And then the representation can become the competitor of the represented.
So similarly that could happen, that won’t happen with a book. But when there is a robot which performs actions similar, which looks and talks similar to Prabhupada, that could happen. So if we ourselves don’t get distracted by that, then we could have that.
We have now audio books. So there are devotees who are reading out Prabhupada’s audio books. But in future, if we invest time, energy and money, we could have Prabhupada’s voice being used to make Prabhupada’s audio books.
And then that would be wonderful. We could hear his audio books in his voice. So just as there are standard voices like Alex and so many voices which are used in devices.
So similarly we could make Prabhupada’s voice. But would that mean that Prabhupada’s potency is more there or less there? No. It depends on if we are connected with Prabhupada.
Yes, Prabhupada is there. If we are reading in Prabhupada’s voice, we may ourselves feel more connected with him. But it’s the devotional intention that has to be fostered.
That is fostered, that is wonderful.