Pacific Rim
In an otherwise banal sci-fi action movie that came out in cinemas some time ago, an interesting theme was treated. With the help of the mind-machine interface, two brains were connected. Otherwise too, the film offered something worth contemplating.
Alien beings emerge from a rift in the Pacific and threaten mankind. To combat them, monstrous robots are built — but these are so complex that they must be controlled by two pilots simultaneously, whose brains are connected. All the thoughts and memories of one are revealed to the other.
This story is very inspiring! It makes one think, for example, of a tradition of the Kabbalists — that mystical tradition within Judaism that deals with the hidden dimensions of divine unity. According to their conception, Adam Kadmon, the "primordial man," existed at the beginning — a cosmic primal being. When this primal being descended into the material world, it disintegrated into 600,000 individual parts. Each of these parts, according to Kabbalistic teaching, is an individual soul.
The prophecy now says: at the end of time, these 600,000 parts will reunite. The original Adam Kadmon rises again — not as a single being, but as the perfect unity of souls, in which each part contributes its unique contribution to the whole, without losing its individuality.
Now the interesting thing is this: what appears in the Kabbalah as a spiritual end-times vision could become reality through today's technology. With the help of the mind-machine interface, the interface between brain and computer, this vision could one day become real. What if not only two pilots — as in the film — share their thoughts, but 600,000 people? What if the boundaries between individual consciousnesses became permeable without the individuals disappearing in the process? Imagine: 600,000 interconnected brains, supported by AI, quantum computers, and nuclear fusion. What problems could they solve? What inventions could they bring forth? What kind of world could they create? Is this what the followers of Dajjal are striving for — a gigantic hive mind under the leadership of their Messiah?
That this need not all be merely fantasized science fiction is shown by an experiment at the University of Washington, in which, with the help of an EEG, a magnetic coil, and the internet, one person's thought moved another person's finger. "It was both exciting and eerie to see a mere thought from my brain transformed into an actual action of another brain," said one of the test subjects.
But yet another theme in the film serves well for contemplation: the control of the robot.
The word 'robota' comes from the Czech author Karel Capek, from the play R.U.R. (Rossum's Universal Robots), published in 1920. The word means something like corvée labour or hard work; indeed it is even contained in the word "labour." It comes from the old Bulgarian word rabota, which means service.
From the very beginning, a certain primal fear has been thematized in films and stories (such as in Westworld, Runaway, Terminator, Robocop, Enthiran, Matrix, all the way to I, Robot): the robot wants to free itself from its slave labour and become master itself. It begins a war with those who created it! We want to investigate why this fear sits so deep, and for that we must go back a little.
Today's physics tells us the following: time is not a fixed, unchanging quantity that exists independently of us. It is rather an "emergent phenomenon" — that means: time only comes into being at all through the fact that we perceive. It "emerges" as soon as an observer comes into play who is located within the system that he is observing. Put more simply: without perception there is no time. Time is not like a river that simply flows along whether we look or not. Time is rather like an image on a screen — it appears only when the device is switched on and someone looks at it.
Our consciousness, which was formed by eating the fruit of knowledge, is precisely what caused us to "descend" into this world of space and time. In other words: through the fact that we became conscious perceivers, we entered time in the first place. Before — in a state of unity — there was no division into yesterday, today, and tomorrow, no here and there. Only perception split reality into subject and object, into inside and outside, into past and future.
And this "emergent phenomenon" — time — disappears again when perception ceases. This happens at our death. When the body dies and the consciousness that was bound to space and time dissolves, then time also falls away. What remains is that which was always there — beyond space, time, and form. What remains is being itself, or the pure substance of reality.
If God is unity and we return to unity after our death (Truly, from God we come and to Him is the return), then at that moment all our thoughts and deeds could be revealed to the others, as is also described of the Last Day. At that time it becomes evident who has a clear conscience, that is, who does not need to hide his thoughts and deeds.
This is a very good meditation: one simply imagines, as in the film, that everything one does and thinks is visible to the others! Surely this would protect us from many sins that we do not want others to know about. We would wish that we had thought well of others and had only their best in mind, instead of thinking and speaking badly about them!
When the veils of the world of time, space, and form are drawn away, the soul is called upon to confront the substance of its reality. Equality and essential conformity with this substance in this confrontation is what religions call 'salvation.' The absence of an adequate conformity to this substance, the absence of the qualities and balance of being with which one is confronted, the absence for example of goodness, sincerity, humility (human counterparts of the holy qualities of grace, truth, and majesty), calls forth the opposite. Hell is not the revenge of a cruel God, but the consequence of the nature of reality! God can forgive all sins except one: the denial of His reality, that is, that nothing is absolutely real except Him!
[Cyril Glassé, The Concise Encyclopedia of Islam]
At the moment of death the truth comes to light, not only for others, but above all for ourselves! We will then see to what extent we have betrayed our own self and were fooled by this world, which seduced us into acting against our true nature.
But when do we act according to our true nature and when not?
Very roughly, of course, when we follow the commandments of the religion, which correspond to our true nature and protect it.
For 'fine-tuning', however, the idea of being in a robot helps! We imagine that we are a pilot within our body.
We slowly begin to check the functions of the body, just as a pilot checks his aircraft before take-off:
- How is the breathing? Is it shallow or from the belly? Breathing should be deep and regular. Control of the breath is an important tool for controlling all further functions of our 'biological robot'.
- Where do the thoughts go? Let us slowly think "La ilaha..." while inhaling and "...illallah" while exhaling. Although we concentrate part of our attention on these thoughts and our breathing, there still remains room for other thoughts, whose power is however reduced or kept under control in a certain way.
- We begin to move the fingers and hands, as if the pilot is controlling his elevators and rudders.
- We stand up and walk a little, but careful, do not forget: it is not we who stand up, but our biological robot! Yes, it works, we do not fall over! The thing apparently has an autopilot that takes over the entire coordination of motor function! The truth is that Allah creates everything! In reality we do nothing at all!
- Next exercise: brushing teeth (can also be replaced by other daily actions, such as spreading butter on bread). Always try to concentrate on simply sitting calmly in the cockpit of the biological robot like a pilot, paying attention to belly breathing and dhikr, and letting the robot and its autopilot do the work.
At some point the following will happen: the concentration fades. We no longer pay attention to breathing and dhikr, and we identify again with the robot! The thoughts, our senses, this world, take possession of us! We believe again that we are the doer! We believe again in the reality of this world and are pulled along by it, very much as if we were watching television and for the moment forget that it is only a film! The robot, which is actually supposed to serve and work, declares itself to be the master, and we become its slave! This is the moment in which we give up our true self in favour of the illusion of the mirror, according to the hadith: The comparison of the one who remembers Allah and the one who does not remember is like that of a living one with a dead one; or: People are asleep. Then, when they die, they awaken!
Only wakefulness preserves us from becoming victims of our lower soul (nafs), this world (dunya), and Satan! All spiritual exercises have above all one meaning: to keep us awake and to remember Allah. These include the obligatory prayer, dhikr, and the prayers that are performed according to the Sunnah — the example of the Prophet, may God bless him and grant him peace — for the daily actions.
Whoever keeps himself awake will at some point, inshaAllah, become aware of how Allah creates everything, and that he himself is in truth a non-doer. He will become aware of when he is following his lower soul and this world and when he is trustingly submitting to Allah, that is, is a true Muslim. He will become a seer who is guided by God to his destiny.
Abu Hurairah (may Allah be pleased with him) reported that the Prophet (may God bless him and grant him peace) said:
Allah, the Exalted, says (in a Hadith Qudsi):
To the one who takes a waliyy of Mine (one close to Me) as an enemy, I have declared war, and the best with which My servant can draw near to Me is to perform the duties I have prescribed (fard). And My servant draws near to Me through voluntary acts (nafila) until I love him. And when I love him, then I am his ear with which he hears, and his eye with which he sees, and his hand with which he grasps, and his foot with which he walks. And if he asks Me for something, then I give it to him. And if he asks Me for refuge, then I grant it to him.
(Sahih Al-Bukhari)
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