All Welcome Our AI Overlords

I must say I am a big fan of AI and I am thrilled by the possibilities it offers…

As readers of this blog know, I have a hobby, and that hobby is astrology. Astrology is a difficult and tedious job that consumes a lot of time and requires a heightened perception.

I am using a software to calculate positions of planets for my historical astrology project. Everyday after work I make note of one or several aspects, and in my free time I write out a whole cycle. For every couple of planets (say Jupiter and Saturn) I use the software to calculate 3,000 years worth of aspects.

Although, I think my productivity could be higher, I think the pace of my work far outpaces astrologers 50 years ago that did not have the luxury of using an astrology software. Back then, and since antiquity, the astrologer would rely on his own observed measurements or in the best case on tables that recorded the positions of planets. Those are known as the ephemeris, and the software has the tables built in.

Now imagine if I could automate the process. Have a robot do the calculations and write them out using the same template I have devised. I could have the work I was doing for the last five years done in like 5 hours or maybe less. I could also instruct the AI to link the aspects to historical events and find connections between the different configurations.

Honestly, a predictive mundane astrology software that would use the AI and include further techniques that go beyond just planetary aspects would be something mad. You could literally predict things like pandemics and market crashes with just click of a button.

Some people fear the AI would replace humans. I personally think it will enhance humanity. The AI is literally an extension of human mind. We will be able to make complex calculations that would take people years to complete, or would be impossible for humans to do without an error. We could outsource tasks to the AI that would take a lifetime to achieve.

Stories from ancient India tell of rishis that have spent years, even decades calculating and analyzing planetary positions and celestial omens. And don’t get me wrong, doing this work makes me feel human but I am not sure if fastening these tasks and using a super intelligence would make me feel less human, or whether it would free my soul from the frustrating task ahead of me, and make me focus on other things that would be far more rewarding?

PS: We are off to a good start…