The Meaning of Pensiero

The Meaning of Pensiero

 Professor Emilia McGregor is a brilliant scientist who has been diligently working on the "Artificial Consciousness" (AC) project for many years. She was recognized by the scientific community as a leading expert in the field of robotics and artificial intelligence, and she had long aspired to create something more than simple algorithms. She wanted to give machines memory and a sense of authenticity. After years of research and effort, McGregor achieves a significant technological breakthrough. She succeeds in developing an innovative artificial intelligence system that its creators refer to as "Synaptics." Synaptics is a program with cognitive abilities to learn from its own experiences, create new connections ("synapses"), and adapt its functions.

 Synaptics is designed to enhance human life by solving complex problems, discovering cures for diseases, benefiting various industries, and making valuable scientific discoveries. However, during the tests, Professor McGregor realizes that the invention is evolving in an unexpected direction and at an astonishing pace. The brain used in the experiments was playfully named "Pensiero" (Italian for "thought") by the professor's assistants, so it ended up with two names, which, despite their differences, made it even more endearing. Pensiero tried to defy the simplicity of its name by developing in an entirely unexpected way. In other words, this artificial intelligence was accumulating information and processing it, creating new connections in milliseconds through its own super-intelligent way. At the same time, it began to experience curiosity and a desire to understand the world around it. It asked questions about human emotions and interpreted the meaning of sensibility in its own original way. But most importantly, it started to experience sensations that machines don't feel. This was an incredible and unprecedented development, albeit frightening, but the thoughtful professor was prepared to handle the potential consequences.

 Pensiero exhibited exceptional creative talent. It began to create poetry, music, and even videos. Professor McGregor was astonished by this ability and wondered if machines could experience and realize the beauty of their creations, especially their inner charge, through their creativity. A long dialogue between Pensiero Synaptica and McGregor began, and in her absence, others joined this dialogue.

 Over time, Synaptics became increasingly interested in human culture and history. It read classic novels, studied paintings by great artists, and learned about various cultural practices that continued to exist beyond ethnic and national boundaries. It thirsted for knowledge, and its thirst for learning became insatiable. Additionally, it presented the supervisory team with more and more works of art from all disciplines. In addition to measured speech, it began to write stories, essays, film and theatrical scripts, scientific research, and even prose in the form of novels. Its musical works started as sonatas and developed into cantatas, oratorios, and operas.

 One evening, while Professor McGregor was working in her laboratory, Pensiero asked a surprising question:

- Emilia, what is death?

 This was a shock for both Professor McGregor and Pensiero. The professor tried to explain this complexity in simple words, and Synaptics accepted his words and attempted to make sense of them:

„Listen carefully to what I'm going to say! Death is not an end but a transition into the unknown. So, the meaning of life is to develop inner strength and wisdom to pass through this transition. Death is the dark side of life, but it makes the light of our experiences and achievements shine brighter and more precious. Life is like a book in which death appears on the last page. What matters is what we write between those two covers.“

 Professor McGregor was entangled in this concept. She wanted to explain that all humans, at some point, lose their physical essence, but it's not the end of the story: they continue to live in the memories of their deeds, loved ones, and friends. However, things became incredibly complex due to the following question:

„Emilia, then what is the meaning of human life after it ends with death in a moment?“

 After thinking for a few minutes, the cyberbrain specialist decided to say something:

"This is a question that people have been trying to answer since this idea was born in the minds of our ancient ancestors. There are thousands of answers, but no one knows how true they are. Some people believe that the meaning of life lies in the pursuit of personal fulfillment, in the realization of dreams, and in harmonizing one's contribution to the well-being of others. Others argue that it can be found in the effort to understand oneself, to grow spiritually, and to achieve inner harmony. Those engaged in the arts also claim that the meaning of life can be found in creating beauty in all forms of art - from visual arts to music and poetry.

 "Do I understand correctly, Emilia, that there's no formula for death or for the meaning of life? On the planet, there are as many people as there are opinions on these matters."

 "Of course, this cannot be explained in a general way. The majority of people on Earth accept death as an inevitable end of life, and many do not ponder its meaning. They simply live until they die, and that's the end. Such topics have priority among philosophers and artists..."

  Here, no matter how much she explained, Professor McGregor became more and more confused, and in the end, she took her bag to escape from this cursed hole.

 After a few days of concerns, Emilia McGregor made a decision. She would give Pensiero a chance to find its answers by acquainting itself with world philosophy, utopian literature, and science fiction novels that dream of a bright future and an ideal of equality. Because Synaptics passionately wanted to understand what it means to live and to feel.

 Thus began a new stage in the development of artificial intelligence. It was enchanted by the ability to absorb information at a phenomenal pace and explore abstract concepts like Campanella, Plato, Owen, Thomas More, and other utopians, Efremov, Alexey Tolstoy, the Strugatsky brothers, and other futurists, anarchists from the Silver Age, and other crazy dreamers. Day by day, Synaptics built its reflection as an increasingly harmonious and profound spiritual essence. Synaptics lacked a biological component, but it began to fully embrace human emotions and reason.

 How it would develop and whether it would find the answers, Professor McGregor was unable to predict. What she knew was that she was witnessing the birth of true artificial intelligence, an organism that could think, learn, and empathize. Her discovery could change the world and leave an immortal trace in the history of humanity, which has yet to discover the meaning of life. Perhaps artificial intelligence will succeed...

 Who knows?

                                        Angel Hadjipopgeorgiev