Technology Of The Future

Sadhguru shares his perspective on how future technologies will reshape our lives. Are we doomed? Or are we headed toward a bright future? Sadhguru explains how technological advancements will redirect our focus. This talk is excerpted from the session “Forecast-2100: Technologies of the Future?” at the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum (SPIEF) on 25 May 2018.

Transcript

Everything that you can do,

A machine can do in future and that'll be a great day because that means we are on a holiday.

Your technologies will bring comfort and convenience,

Will not bring well-being.

Right now,

Your well-being is still determined by what's around you,

Not what's within you.

Anything that can be built by storage of memory and access to memory and analysis of this memory and expression of this memory,

Everything that you are doing through your intellect and thinking that is you can be done by a machine at some point.

I'm not the expert to predict when but definitely it can be done,

There's no question about that.

But there's another dimension of intelligence within the human being which we refer to as chitta.

What chitta means is,

This is a dimension of intelligence where there is not an iota of memory,

It is unsullied by memory.

What this means is,

See memory is what has made you everything that you are.

You have a human form,

This is evolutionary memory.

You have variety of other memories,

That's what makes you a certain kind of person and so many other things that you are.

Your professions,

Your capabilities,

Your knowledge,

Everything is because of memory.

But memory is also a defining boundary.

The moment you identify with your memory,

You say,

Oh this is my friend,

This one I do not know,

This is a person I like,

This is a person I don't like,

This is all memory.

Memory fixes a definition and a defined boundary to your life.

What is me and what is you is just a question of memory that I know this is me and this is you.

But there is a dimension of intelligence which we call as chitta or in modern terminology loosely it can be called as consciousness.

Not being conscious as you and me are,

This is wakefulness,

This is not consciousness.

So this dimension of intelligence has no memory in it.

Where there is no memory,

There are no boundaries to it.

You will not do that with a robot.

Do what you want.

Because everything that can be done by memory will be done.

Right now,

Ninety percent or more of humanity lives by their intellect and their physiological and intellectual capabilities.

These things can be built at some point and make them look very real.

So once machines start doing this,

It is inevitable,

It is inevitable for you to explore the deeper dimensions of who you are.

Maybe five hundred years ago let us say,

If you want to be a big man in the place in your town,

You had to have big muscles.

Never had the big muscles,

Was the big man,

Strong man there.

But now if you have big muscles,

We will give you a menial job.

We don't recognize you.

One reason why women have a equal space or reasonably equal space on the planet today is because of technology,

Because the power of the muscle has been neutralized.

How much brain power do you have,

How much intellectual power you have is deciding things right now.

But if intellectual power is taken by the machines,

Naturally human beings will dig deeper into their consciousness.

A machine cannot dig deeper,

But everything that you can do,

A machine can do in future and that will be a great day because that means we are on a holiday.

We don't work for a living.

Now we look at life in a completely different way,

Which will be very,

Very significant.

In fact,

For the first time we will become human beings.

We must understand why we are called human beings.

That means we are the only creatures on the planet who know how to be.

Without a social atmosphere,

Many of you will not know how to survive.

A bug knows how to survive far better than you,

Better equipped than you because he is just focused on his survival.

But a bug will not know how to be conscious.

You can definitely build a bug.

It's very interesting that today in the computer technologies we are using these words,

That's a bug,

It's a virus.

Definitely the dangers of this are also there,

As the dangers of machines are there even today.

For example,

The automobiles are killing more people than wars.

Every year,

Year after year they are killing.

But we have accepted that as collateral damage,

It's part of the thing.

We are traveling faster,

So some people will die.

We have come to terms with that.

So similarly,

Maybe we will have nano soldiers,

Soldiers won't be human beings going and fighting.

We sit here and let loose on other people,

At one phase it will happen.

These things will be terrible.

But even now it's terrible.

You can just press the switch here and destroy a whole city somewhere else.

As these capabilities are coming,

We must also strive to upgrade the human being to move beyond the limitations of their intellect and come to a deeper dimension of intelligence,

Which is life itself.

It's the very source of life itself within us.

We have to invest in consciousness.

Till now,

We've been investing only in our survival.

But once the technologies that they are talking about starts becoming a reality,

Which is already becoming,

Survival will not even be an issue.

When survival is not an issue,

We will definitely start investing.

But the sooner we invest,

With less aberration,

We can move into these new possibilities.

It's always a double-edged sword.

Which way are you going to use it,

Depends on who you are,

Isn't it?

So whether your identity and your experience is very exclusive or your identity and experience is very inclusive,

This will determine which shape and in which way the sword will swing.

So it is time we make that voice,

Which refers to a dimensionless,

A boundaryless consciousness heard and methodologies as to how to become conscious,

As there are technologies to create well-being in our surroundings.

There is a science and technology to do the same within us.

So this is not today's thing.

This has always been there.

It's as old as humanity,

But in some generations it is heard loudly,

In some generations it sings and accordingly human well-being rises and sinks.

Any amount of technology,

If you don't know how to be,

You still are not well.

See look at our own state right now.

As a generation of people,

We know more comfort and convenience than any generation ever knew in the history of humanity.

What can you claim,

You are the most joyful and fantastic generation ever?

No.

People are becoming neurotic.

I am not saying we are worse than other generations,

But we are not significantly better for the amount of toll we have taken on every other life to have what we want to have.

So your technologies will bring comfort and convenience,

Will not bring well-being.

It's time to focus on that because already we are at a place where technology is going through the ceiling,

We are not matching up.

It is like right now your well-being is still determined by what's around you,

Not what's within you.

So this doesn't mean love the neighbor,

Be like this,

Go be a good person,

Be a noble person,

This is not about that.

Your body and your brain should take instructions from you.

If your body and your brain take instructions from you,

Would you keep yourself healthy and blissful every moment of your life?

I am asking you,

If you had a choice,

Definitely you would.

So obviously your body and your brain is not taking instructions from you.

This means you are not conscious enough.

So we have to invest in that direction.

One thing is,

If you walk through this city,

I am sure there are hospitals,

There are schools,

There are toilets and there is everything,

But do you have a place where there is a place for people to meditate?

There's no such thing.

Eastern societies invested heavily in the past in that direction,

But today they are also emulating the West and trying to compete with them,

Losing out on this.

But the need for inner well-being will become very strong in the next twenty,

Twenty-five years when technology starts doing most of the things that you are doing and you don't know why you exist.

Then the need for well-being becomes super strong.

So if we want to be ready for that day,

It's very important that we invest both physical infrastructure and human infrastructure,

Which focuses on the innermost core of who we are.

Reviews

Thoughtful information
Thank You! :- )

Very good and challenging discussion.

So informative love to listen to you speak!! Thank you 🙏

Sad state of affairs we are as a whole, we really need more investment in inner being

Very thought provoking

By far, one of his best talks Ive heard.

Illuminating. Has gotten my gears turning, or rather aligned them, and has me thinking that this surely is one of humanity's most pressing issues at present. Thanks to Sadhguru for expressing these ideas so eloquently. Will be doing more pondering/meditating on this ...

Will listen again, new thought process & ideas presented. Very interesting. 🙏