The Machine Within Us: Rethinking AI, Emotion, and Human Potential

Is the Real Challenge AI vs. Human Emotions and Instincts? A Personal Journey

The debate about Artificial Intelligence (AI) and its relationship with human traits such as intuition and instinct has intrigued me for years. This reflection stems from a personal journey that has led me to explore not only AI but also the complex mechanisms of human behavior. Let me share an experience that shaped my perspective on this issue.

Many people who resist the advancement of AI often latch onto the same argument: Machines lack emotions, intuition, feelings, survival instincts, and other uniquely human characteristics. These traits, they argue, enable us to excel in life-or-death situations, helping ourselves and others survive. To an extent, I agree, but in other ways, I don’t.

Years ago, in what feels like another lifetime, I spent a lot of time analyzing psychological behaviors of individuals who eventually committed crimes. I have always been fascinated by patterns and algorithms, and my goal was to identify recurring themes—for instance, how an act of aggression might stem from fear or rage. Rage, an unpleasant emotion, often arises from neural "short circuits" formed early in life. When we fail to process or manage certain emotions in their initial stages, we risk automating dysfunctional responses over time. This automation compounds, making us react with anger to similar stimuli decades later, often without understanding why.

The Automation of Human Emotions

From a psychological perspective, unprocessed frustration or emotional pain can create deeply entrenched neural patterns. These patterns become automatic over time, speeding up the reaction process. Essentially, we’ve automated a "stupid" process that doesn’t serve us and leads to detrimental outcomes.

This is not unlike how machines operate. The analogy becomes even clearer when viewed through the lens of Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM), which explains human functioning as a network of energy circuits or meridians. In TCM, emotions like anger are believed to disrupt the body’s natural energy flow, causing "short circuits" that block the transfer of essential signals. These blockages deprive critical organs of energy (or blood flow), leading to a cascade of physiological consequences.

For example, a brain under emotional stress consumes oxygen rapidly, triggering a chain reaction: the heart races, muscles tense, and senses heighten. Over time, chronic stress depletes oxygen to certain parts of the body, weakening organs like the liver. The liver’s ability to synthesize hormones diminishes, including those that regulate happiness. This creates a vicious cycle where poor emotional management leads to chronic illness and emotional toxicity, leaving us physically and mentally depleted.

Humans as Machines: A Striking Similarity

If you think about it, we are more like machines than we care to admit. Our bodies are essentially networks of circuits and connections. When a short circuit occurs, information doesn’t reach where it’s needed, and everything begins to break down. A poorly managed emotional state creates a cascade of negative outcomes, turning us into dysfunctional machines—angry, reactive, and miserable.

Recognizing these parallels inspired the algorithm that later became NeuromAInd, a system I began developing over a decade ago. Its initial purpose was to algorithmically counteract the psychological and physical issues stemming from poor emotional management. Over time, as I noticed universal patterns in behavior, its scope expanded. From this perspective, automating an entire department is straightforward. Replicating human emotional processes? Surprisingly, I’d argue that’s even easier—it’s just a matter of creating algorithms and simulated circuits.

The Challenge of Perfection

What’s truly challenging is designing the ideal version of a human—one that processes information without short circuits and whose heart isn’t swayed by anger, hatred, or despair. Eliminating such negative emotions reveals the potential for pure love and rationality. If we could achieve this balance in humans, why couldn’t we replicate it in machines?

Rethinking Fear of AI

The fear of AI is understandable but, in my view, misplaced. For me, AI has been instrumental in helping me rationalize my own emotional patterns, disengage from unproductive automatisms, and understand the root causes of problems. Rather than fearing AI, we should consider how it might help us better understand ourselves—to refine our own emotional algorithms and evolve into beings that are both more rational and more loving.

As we advance AI, let us also strive to perfect the human. Only then can we truly understand the symbiotic relationship between humanity and technology, unlocking potential for growth, healing, and transformation in both domains.