Introduction: Can a Machine Flow Like Dao?

This question might seem odd, but it is, nevertheless, directly relevant to our life today. My intention is to bring ancient Daoist philosophy into a conversation about the challenges that technology poses. Today, cutting-edge technologies do not exist just in research labs but have already easily penetrated all aspects of our lives. It is difficult to argue that we do not yet inhabit a world with Artificial Intelligence (AI), for it has become a pervasive and effective technology woven into the fabric of everyday living.

Technology challenges what it means for humans to be humans. Consider how attached we are to smart phones, how auto-pilot cars are reshaping our communities, how robots are affecting what our moral society means, and how our societal values are shifting. Does technology present an existential threat? Our values, society, and laws are centered around humans, so what impact will the AI revolution have on them? Daoist philosophy offers an important and creative voice for all of this. This essay will discuss these issues from three aspects:

  • Life as Qi flow and beyond: The Daoist view about the nature of Humans and AI.

  • An ultimate quest for genuineness/trueness: A Daoist ethical framework for AI technology.

  • Yinyang Intelligence: What AI can learn from Daoist philosophy?

It will also examine whether Daoist philosophy and practices can make unique and significant contributions to the contemporary and technologically enhanced world.

Life as Qi Flow and Beyond

In order to comprehend the Daoist view of a human being we need to begin with the Chinese notion of qi 氣 (vital energy). This term is among the most important, cherished, and widely applied concepts in Chinese intellectual history. It underlies all schools of ancient Chinese thought.

Qi is believed to be a dynamic, all-present, all-penetrating, and all-transforming force that animates every existence in the universe. Although qi is an abstract idea, it also is a common and integral part of perception, experience, and existence. It is woven into language, the air we breathe, the force that drives blood flow, the food that we eat, the strength of our mind, the flow of our thoughts, and the deepest urges of our heart. Qi is the very fabric and force of life. As the ancient Chinese philosophical text the Zhuangzi put it, “Human life is all about generating qi. When qi is gathered there will be life; when qi is dispersed there will be death.”Footnote 1 When qi declines, one will become sick; when qi is lost, one will die.

On further analysis, qi is a complex of different energies, each animating and controlling various aspects of human life and the human body. There is a classic passage in the ancient second century BC text the Huainanzi:

Human beings can see clearly and hear acutely; they are able to protect their own body and bend and stretch their one hundred joints. In their discrimination they are capable of distinguishing white from black, beautiful from ugly. In their intelligence they are capable of distinguishing similarity from difference and clarifying right from wrong. How can human beings do so? This is because the qi infuses these activities and the spirit (shen 神) regulates them.Footnote 2

Qi’s primacy lies in its self-generating and self-operating power. Qi is the Dao in the sense that it is the origin of the myriad things and the universe’s basic material. Dao manifests itself in qi and, thus, in space and time. In fact, in parts of the Guanzi, the Zhuangzi, and many Neo-Confucian texts, Dao and qi are practically interchangeable. The pulse and rhythm of qi gives rise to all things. As a force embedded in nature, qi guides, shapes, and directs natural processes from within.

The ancient Chinese medical text, the Huangdi Neijing, attributes the particular state of physical and mental entities to qi. Humans’ five organs (zang 臟) store qi. The quality and quantity in individual organs and the way that qi moves and interacts with other organs as well as the outside world determines an individual’s physical and mental state. Qi is causally responsible for all of our mental and physical states.

After all, life is a form of qi flow. Throughout Chinese history, Daoist practitioners have operated like qi engineers. They take a variety of qi flows into a directed system and configure the 12 qi flow channels, namely jingluo 经络 in the human body. In Chinese medical practice, acupuncture needles, hand-massage and natural herbs can increase a person’s qi flow while others will decrease or block it. Qi can be measured and quantified through contemporary technological devices today.

Arguably, computational algorithms exhibit a form of qi-flow. Consider a computer algorithm, which is essentially an organization and arrangement of data. It is a means of turning inputs into outputs.Footnote 3 AI has been able to defeat humans at chess or Go because it was programmed to play by accessing huge amounts of computing power that enabled it to make billions of calculations about the best possible move in any game. AI can analyze the consequences of certain moves. It remembers the outcomes of the same move in past games and then determines if this move can and should beat a human opponent.

The development of traditional AI, which was grounded in principle logic, has advanced to a network connected AI, which can make adjustments based on feedback loops. It is based on the human brain’s biochemical process: learning takes place in neural networks by modifying codes to find links between input and output. If humans and their decision-making processes are rooted in information and big data, then they can be embedded in machine code too. In this way, AI can create a model of life inside a computer, thus providing a ground for AI technology that transfers human intelligence from a protein-based brain to more durable medium such as a computer network.

More interestingly, cognitive psychology imagines the human brain as a machine, from which complex behaviors arise, or as the aggregate result of multiple simple responses. Similarly Daoists conceptualize the human brain itself as a qi-flow network, from which complex behaviors arise as the aggregate result of multiple qi responses.

In “Dao of the Go,” author Ting Guo explains that: “Alan Turing (1912–1943), the father of AI, once asserted that he intended to make an intelligent computing machine to be more human by virtue of thinking like a person.”Footnote 4 Recent technological advances mean that AI is now capable of beating humans across a wide range of specific domains. When AI software models the brain it can “carve” deep learning neural networks. This “deep learning” aims to make AI knowledge navigators. AI, or the machine, can flow like Dao because it can be self-regulating in a feedback loop, fulfilling a basic requirement for Daoist actions. Self-regulating, self-controlling, and self-governing devices act in accordance to the highest values of the Dao.

A self-regulating feedback control system is a part of AI technology. According to author Luke Dormehl: “A smart device should be able to sense its environment, which leads to an identification of a particular state, which triggers an assessment, which promote an action, and so on a continuous loop…The smart parts of smart device are the bits in between, residing in how the sensed information is processed and used to select an action to take.”Footnote 5 AI offers hope that the human brain’s innermost mysteries can be understood and replicated inside a machine that has the human capacity to solve problems and handle information processes.

Similarly, action is an emergent behavior between humans or machines and the environment. This principle is seen in Daoist teachings as well as in the cybernetics movement. Daoist philosophy emphasizes sensing and feedbacks as a way of optimizing performances. Since the life of a being requires the processing of a constant stream of visual, aural, and tactile information from the immediate environment, then a device or a machine can also exhibit a sort of emergent behavior that can appear almost lifelike.

But it is important to analyse how biology does not conform to an algorithmic view of an organism’s behavior? A normal algorithm follows a linear path from input to output. Sometimes, there will be interactions between different parts of the computer program harmonized to create the result. By contrast, the human body is vastly more complex. In addition to having to deal with many parts (like the computer program), the human body is also constantly reacting to the outside world. Certainly the human body has algorithmic parts, but to call the whole human being an algorithm is far too reductionist, that is, reductionism is totally inconsistent with the Daoist view of human being.

More specifically, Daoist philosophy views human life as something more than simply information, data and networks. Human life is regarded as a complex, nonlinear, dynamic, self-organizing system, exchanging energy with information on multiple levels of organization in order to survive and thrive. The human brain not only makes logical decisions (like algorithms) but also makes emotional calculations, which a machine is incapable of doing.

Let’s consider a story from the early Daoist text Liezi.Footnote 6 Jiliang was sick but he refused to undergo any medical treatment, and after seven days his situation became serious. His tearful sons stood in a circle and begged him to seek medical attention. In order to teach his sons a life lesson, he agreed to call in three doctors, Qiao, Yu, and Lu, who would each take his pulse and make a diagnosis. Qiao explained that Jiliang’s hot and cold temperatures (the invisible and visible forces in his body) were out of order. He said the illness was the result of improper diet, sexual indulgence, and lifestyle stressors. Yet it could be cured.

Jiliang responded, “This is a zhongyi 眾醫 (common doctor), get rid of him now.” Next, Yu offered his diagnosis and interpretation: “The current condition started even in your mother’s womb. Your mother suffered a deficiency of embryonic qi and an excess of breast milk. This illness was not a matter of one day or one night. It has been developing gradually.” Jilang responded, “This is a liangyi 良醫 (good doctor), serve him a dinner.”

Lastly, Lu offered his diagnosis: “The illness is not from heaven, not from a human, and not from a ghost. Your life was generated and endowed with a form 稟身授形 (bing shen shou xing). However, it also came with a 制者 (zhizhe) governor. You should know it. What can all medicine do for you?” Jilang responded: “This is a shenyi 神醫 (spiritual doctor), give him a great gift.”

How can we make sense of this metaphorical story? The first zhongyi’s diagnosis was an accurate description of common human life in which: dietary indiscretion and life style choices produce various illnesses. The second liangyi’s diagnosis highlights the interdependencies in human life, examining human life in a genetic context. Today, that manifests itself when doctors talk about DNA defects in the human genome. Advanced AI can effectively perform the tasks of the zhongyi and liangyi, exhibiting conventional medical practices and hereditary theory.

The shenyi’s diagnosis underscores that there is a “governor” over human life. Lu indicates that there is a shen 神 (spirit, force, power), a ruling and managing entity in a person’s life. If they can cultivate this shen their illness will be cured without the need for medications. There is a thicker or deeper aspect of human existence. The commentary claims that: “the stupid ones will be perplexed when they hear it, but the intelligent ones will be enlightened when they learn it.”Footnote 7 The cultivation of this shen within the human body through persistent efforts and practices later canonized in the Daoist tradition eventually led to the formation of neidan 內丹 (inner alchemy).

This classical Daoist vision of human beings was pursued and actualized in later Daoist texts, rituals, and practices. One of the most important ways to understand and analyse the human body was through the distinction of three elements: physical form (xing 形), qi (vital energy), and spirit (shen 神). Xing refers to shape or form—the physical, visible form of the body. It is the house or abode of life and a vessel for the Dao.Footnote 8 Qi, as mentioned before, is the invisible foundation and the source of life. Spirit (shen), just described, is the psychological and spiritual aspect of human life that regulates it (Huainanzi).

If qi is gathered, the form possesses life. If qi is lost the form loses life. If spirit has purified qi, it will be in order (治zhi). However, if qi is turbid, the spirit will be chaotic. Qi is the mediator between spirit and bodily form. Mind and body are united and interact through qi. Such humans cannot be only a qi-flow being. Shen reveals a deeper level of the qi-flow.

The ancient second century BC text the Taiping Jing illuminates this point: “Spirit (shen) is embodied from heaven, refined essence (jing) is endowed by earth; qi comes from balance and harmony (zhonghe). Spirit rides qi to move, and refined essence (jing) inhabits balance. The three of them assist one another. This will lead to longevity. This is caring for qi, respecting spirit and valuing refined essence.”Footnote 9

Shen can mean spirit, the divine, the obscure and immeasurable, or that which happens as if by magic. Shen was frequently associated with ming 明, which encompasses meanings from brightness and illumination to insight. The character itself groups images of the sun (ri 日) and the moon (yue 月). Both shen and ming can be either an attribute of the world, or of human beings. They connect human beings with the cosmos and together they constitute a human’s spiritual and intellectual core.

Shenming literally refers to a kind of intelligence possessed by the spirits. However, it is also attributed to sages.Footnote 10 It is a “spiritual-like intuitive clarity” attainable by human beings. Academic Harold Roth takes the phrase shenming 神明 as a marvellous influence, magical efficacy, or spiritual illumination and discernment. It is a way to explain the world beyond a human’s narrow vision, pointing towards mystical experience, ineffability, intellectual equality, transiency, and passivity. Shenming is attained only through a process of cultivation and the elimination of bias.

This shenming is also closely connected with qi. As a verb, shenming communicates two opposite qualities in the transformation qi: condensing and extending. Condensing qi begins with shen, and extending qi becomes ming. Ming as extending is yang, and shen as condensing is yin. Shen frequently means that the qi is condensing or absorbing the nature of the earth. Ming denotes that the qi is extending or issuing the nature of heaven. This might explain the recently discovered third century BC text, the Taiyi shengshui’s claim that heaven and earth assist each other and produce shen and ming, which then assist each other to produce yin and yang.Footnote 11 Thus, shen is the non-manifest, inscrutable aspect of qi, whereas ming involves the manifestations of qi as phenomena and explicit influences.

Shen is a multi-layered word, which can refer to a spirit or what goes beyond our present, cognitive abilities. Shen can inhabit the human body and this is one goal of body cultivation. Cao Wenyi 曹文逸, a female Daoist of the Song Dynasty (1039–1115), believed the body to be the best residence for shen. However, she also taught that the body had to be clean and proper before shen would come and reside in it.Footnote 12

Although translated as “spirit,” shen cannot be identified with a soul. Nevertheless, it is important to point out that human being also possess spirits or souls, known as hun 魂 and po 魄. In the Western tradition, the soul is usually spoken of in terms of radiance and light.Footnote 13 In the early Chinese context, the soul was not a single entity but these two interrelated forces.

Hun and po are active in both the human body and consciousness. In Han medical texts, hun and po inhabit the human body and play an essential role in the body’s physiology.Footnote 14 Contemporary scholar Ying-shih Yu argues that the ancient Chinese generally believed that breathing (from heaven) and eating (from earth) were the two basic human activities governed by the souls: po as bodily soul (xingpo) and hun as breath-soul (hunqi).Footnote 15 Hun and po are living forces that form a union with the human body. At death, they depart and leave it. The second century BC Elegies of Chu (Chuci 楚辭) refers to this as “hun and po separating and leaving” (hunpo lisan 魂魄離散). They have their own fate. The hun-soul as qi moves quickly up to heaven, and the po-soul, as the heavier physical form, moves downward to earth. Therefore, one death ritual called the fu attempts to “summon the hun and return the po” (zhaohun fupo 招魂复魄).Footnote 16

Hun and po are of great concern in (bodily) cultivation, because improper actions can cause them to leave the human body. Even today, it is a common expression to say that someone should avoid “losing hun and destroying po” (diuhun shipo 丟魂失魄).

At a deep level then, machines cannot flow like Dao. The “flow” of Dao, relies on the shen: the spirit, as the capacity to flow like Dao. But is spirit something capable of being reproduced in AI? It is a machine that is made from inanimate substances, which is programmed to perform human-like tasks. One central goal is to design computers that are capable of recognizing and understanding human consciousness. But the possibility that AI might actually exhibit human consciousness is another question altogether. It is difficult to imagine how shen could be uploaded since it is not an object, a computation, an algorithm, a piece of software, or a program, but rather something embedded in bodily transformations and social interactions. Shen flows, spirals, and transforms. As the Zhuangzi states in an anecdote in which a seasoned cook easily slices a cow’s flesh: “My understanding consciousness comes to a halt…the promptings of the spirit begin to flow (神欲行).Footnote 17

One other significant aspect concerning the Daoist vision concerns a human’s ability to gain and lose self-awareness. Could AI do the same? As the Zhuangzi also says: “Absorb yourself in the realities of the task at hand to the point of forgetting your own existence,” and “Let yourself be carried along by things so that the mind wanders freely.”Footnote 18

AI cannot easily engage in human traits such as creativity and social intelligence either. Daoist philosophy prizes these skills in humans, and it adds one more trait, namely shen. It is shen that makes human beings different from AI, objects, and all other things. Shen is rooted in a social structure but it is also connected with the cosmos. Clearly Amazon’s Alexa and Apple’s Siri have limited power to do so. So AI will not be able to exceed humans in their overall capabilities after all.

The Ultimate Quest for Genuineness (求真 qiuzhen)

Some AI scientists believe that next-generation AI, or Artificial General Intelligence (AGI), will be able to handle virtually any human task. AGI has no uniform definition, but experts agree it should have the ability to: reason, use strategy, solve puzzles, make judgments while navigating uncertainty, represent knowledge, plan, learn, communicate in natural language, and integrate all these skills to achieve common goals.Footnote 19

Should Daoists be worried about this revolutionary movement of AI?

At first sight, it might seem that Daoists oppose AI due to its theory of wuwei, non-action. It is possible to argue that AI’s development represents purposeful human action, making the world more complicated than the simplistic version, which the ancient Chinese philosopher Laozi imagined.

One other argument states that AI is principally concerned with giving machines the power to reason, representing the ultimate departure from Zhuangzi’s idea of poetic dwelling. AI represents calculative thinking at its finest.

However, Daoism can support and validate AI’s development, albeit with some distinctions.

First, Daoist teachings provide the conceptual tools equipping humans with the ability to deal with all kinds of changes. Zhuangzi advises us always “to go along with time” (与时共进 yushi gongjin): “When it was time to arrive, the master did just what the time required, and when it came time to go, he followed along with the flow. Resting content in the time and finding his place in the flow, joy and sorrow has no way to seep in”Footnote 20 (适来, 时也, 适去, 顺也。安时而处顺). “To recurrently revert to the way” is actually “to go along with time.”

In other words, time refers to continuous changes and transformations. As heavenly time is constantly creating and recreating, in the same manner, humans carry out ongoing creative activity. The constantly emerging novelties of continuous changes demand that human beings go along with shi (time), locating themselves in the great flux of changes and transformations of the cosmos.

In Daodejing, chapter 51, Laozi reminds us: “The Dao engenders all creatures, de nourishes them, wu (material reality) confers physical forms on them, shi (particular circumstances) brings them to fruition.” Shi offers a key to the actualization of things by adapting to the particular circumstances that defines various stages of a particular process and development. The popular slang—flowing like water—captures Dao’s open spirit.

Technology is frequently feared when it is first introduced. Humans are often concerned about how it will alter or ruin their lives. By maintaining basic Daoist principles and outlooks, an intelligent human should be receptive to and accepting of new things with decreasing anxiety. Dao’s open spirit makes a Daoist less alarmed when faced with AI’s rapid progress.

From a Daoist perspective, AI’s ultimate goal should be to build machines that can mimic human intelligence to allow humans to become closer to nature. Daoists do not fear AI because it can never exceed human beings as a whole, only in specific programmable aspects. The flowing like Dao is to proceed on the basis of the conjecture that every aspect of human being should be aligned with the movement of Dao.

For example, Jawbone or Fitbits build a personalized data set that includes information related to a person’s identity, profile, biometrics, age, height and weight, gender, food preferences, mood, activities, burned calories, and the quality of sleep. These devices construct a contextualized data set focused on a person’s wellbeing. AI algorithms can parse this data in ways that makes contextual sense. Wearable devices can tirelessly monitor our heart rate, blood oxygen levels, physical activity, breathing patterns, facial expressions, lung function, voice inflection, brain waves, posture, sleep quality, and more, in addition to taking external measurements, such as air quality and noise level. Using AI, these data points cannot just be turned into generalized information about someone’s life as a whole, but rather into an actionable insight capable of improving health on a moment-to-moment basis. In the process, we learn whether a particular illness is likely to occur and can take proactive and preventative steps to improve our quality-of-life.

Jawbone and Fitbit devices are like biometric biographers, which are capable of keeping us healthier and happier, so why not? Daoists welcome these new devices. In fact, Daoists are well known for their interest in and ability to develop very straight and specific guidelines for daily routines and selective food intake. These guidelines include information on when someone should go to bed, or get up, what and when to eat, and how best to manage life’s daily rhythms. Daoists use acupuncture needles and wild herbs to improve the human life span. AI optimizes measures that were previously unmeasurable, so biometric biographies offer life enhancing opportunities. These devices can only make our lives easier, more effective, and more comfortable and convenient in following Daoist dietary suggestions. They can progress toward developing what we might now deem super-normal human abilities, culminating in the search for immortality (in the same sense that body alchemy does). The quest for immortality allows Daoist practitioners to use all kinds of tools or technologies to extend human life.

On another note, can Daoist teachings give ethical insights about AI? What is the ethical framework for a Daoist AI? On a broad and abstract level, Daoist teachings insist on a non-interruptive technology that permits the natural rhythm of things. As AI gets more intelligent, so too comes increased levels of moral and legal accountability and responsibility.

The kinds of moral and ethical questions that Daoists focus on includes questions about whether AI will lead human beings closer to the Dao, or will simply satisfy those human desires?

The nineteenth century German philosopher, Martin Heidegger, argued that technology displaces human being from our true nature: that it is a form of escape from our own being.Footnote 21 AI largely involves the design of artificial agents that are capable of acting intelligently. Artificial agents would make human life more complex because they might displace human reason as the best intelligence in the universe. On the other hand, the internet can grant us an access to more information in a second than we could possibly hope to absorb in a lifetime.

What kind of challenges does AI pose to human beings?

To address this problem, Daoist teachings make a distinction between natural intelligence and artificial stupidity. In Daodejing chapter five, Laozi claims that we should be guided by our natural stomach and not by socially constructed conventional standards. Technology can be misused, operating against human nature and pushing us far from our inborn nature. Zhuangzi makes a distinction between renxin 人性 (humanly nature) and tianxing 天性 (heavenly nature). Genuine human being “did not intrude into the heavenly with the Human.”Footnote 22

The ultimate pursuit is the search for genuineness, which is quite different from satisfying mere desires. Daoist teachings draw a distinction between a quest for that which is a genuine desire and mere satisfactions. (求真和求欲.) The Daodejing advises to “extend your utmost emptiness as far as you can and do your best to preserve your equilibrium”Footnote 23 in order to return to the original nature and be united with the Dao. Daoism warns human beings to avoid the fake intelligence (智 zhi, cleverness)Footnote 24 that we are creating. It is not something which can compete with our sophistication. Daoist teachings are aimed at an ultimate journey of being zhen, an authentic and genuine human being:

The Zhuangzi celebrates a special type of moral human being called the zhenren 真人, “genuine person,” which is the highest rank of a human can achieve. Zhenren are capable of lifting heaven and earth, grasping yinyang, breathing pure qi 氣, relying on spirit (shen 神), enjoying longevity, and mastering the timing of heaven (tianshi).Footnote 25

The Zhuangzi’s conception of the zhenren is a person who acts completely in accordance with the natural patterns inherent in the Dao. The Zhuangzi teaches problem solving, pattern recognition, information processing, method, models, and metaphors, capable of taking human experience in a variety of fields. It is for this reason that a “genuine person” (zhenren 真人) has the ability to act spontaneously (ziran 自然) in a manner that others cannot. A true person can act in this way because he or she follows natural patterns, subsuming their own agency in that of the patterns themselves.

The idea that mirroring the patterns of nature makes one zhen is something we first see in the Zhuangzi in a number of phrases: “following tian,” “following dao,” and “adhering to the natural propensities.” The general idea is that nature itself, or the ground of nature, has certain normative patterns such that when we align our conduct with them (which is most often a matter of getting rid of our own biases, etc.), we act effectively.

In the Outer Chapters of the Zhuangzi, the idea is discussed in terms of “following the pattern of tian” (xun tian zhi li 循天之理) (chapter 15), and linking this to potency (de 德). The criterion of actually living in accordance with (or even promoting) the natural order of the universe of which human flourishing is an integral part of what it means to “follow.”

The assumption that rhythmic order and on-going generation are an integral part of existence is most apparent within the concept of ziran (自然). This literally means, self (zi), so (ran). Ziran is often translated as “spontaneity” or “naturalness,” But it refers to what is so of itself, without any external force or coercion.

Chapter 25 of the Daodejing sets out a sequence culminating in a claim that the Dao itself is modeled on ziran:

There is a form that becomes in indifferentiation, coming alive before heaven and earth.

Soundless, shapeless, standing alone but unaltered, it can be considered the mother of heaven and earth.

Its name is unknown, but it is styled “Dao”; if I am forced, I name it “great.”

Great says passing away, passing away says distant, distant says return.

Heaven is great, earth is great, Dao is great, the king is great. In the state there are four greats, the king is one.

People model earth, earth models heaven, heaven models the way, the way models self-so-ing.Footnote 26

This passage addresses the problem of infinite regress: humans model the earth, but what does the earth model? In turn, you could say that it models heaven. But then what does heaven model? It models the Dao, but what does the Dao model? The Dao models ziran, however, ziran is not a model. It is simply spontaneity. Ultimately, the Dao is so of itself, that the regress completes itself in spontaneity.

Ziran is not only an element of the world but also a human’s most potent mode of action. AI cannot grasp ziran.

Ziran is the highest form of human action: a state where there are no external forces or powers compelling a person to force anything to happen. How does ziran differ from randomness? Confidence in ziran is grounded in confidence in yinyang. Dao itself is a self-generating force (as yin and yang), so humans should rely on this internal force and allow it to operate as it is. Ziran lets things be in their own natural or raw state, just as heaven and earth have their own state (that is also ziran).

The claim that Dao is ziran encompasses a worldview grounded in uncertainty and novelty, that is, a “mysterious efficacy” (xuande 玄德).Footnote 27 We cannot definitively know whether or not it will be sunny tomorrow, but we are able to prepare what we will do if the sun comes out (go to the beach) or not (stay at the library). Nature does not work according to a rational plan that we can discern, so there is only a general rhythm for human beings to follow to align themselves with all kinds of changes. The Zhuangzi makes many claims directing our awareness to this, such as that: “In motion be like water, in stillness be like a mirror, in responding be like an echo.”Footnote 28

Adaptive Agency: Yinyang Intelligence vs. Artificial Intelligence

Chinese thought and culture have long been familiar with the binary logic that stands at the heart of AI.

The first source emerges from divinatory practices. In China’s earliest poetry anthology, the Shijing, (compiled by the philosopher Confucius in the sixth century BC), sun and moon divinations were used to predict good or ill fortune: “The sun and moon announce ill fortune, not keeping to their proper paths.” As we know from the Shang Dynasty oracle bones, divination was widely consulted for a broad range of activities. Is it a good day for going hunting, getting married, or going to war? All of these questions were divided into binary aspects of “yes” or “no”.

This kind of binary structure appears most clearly in the Yijing (The Book of Changes), which relies on two kinds of divination. One is pu. Diviners would make marks on tortoise shells before applying fire, then make readings by looking at the cracks. Another method is wu. Stalks or other sticks would be divided and shuffled according to a certain procedure. The cracked lines or the arrangement of the sticks would point towards one of two possible results: good-fortune or ill-fortune, yes or no, going or stopping, failure or success, or gaining or losing. The binary structures of these divination methods cemented a value and belief system that became deeply integrated with yinyang thinking. Academic Edmund Ryden writes that: “Binary terminology is a feature of much early Chinese philosophy. Indeed it is perhaps also a feature of the Chinese language.”Footnote 29

The binary thinking patterns, which have existed in Chinese thought and culture from ancient times, can be viewed as a kind of yinyang intelligence.Footnote 30 Perhaps this is something that AI can learn from. The terms yin and yang gradually developed from ways of naming relationships with the sun into a complex way of thinking, which we can call “yinyang thought.” Many building blocks contributed to the formation of this thinking pattern. Historically, although the term yinyang was not a dominant concept before the Han Dynasty (202 BC–220 AD), proto-yinyang thought already existed and had given rise to a particular thinking model. All early accounts of yinyang weave it into the very fabric of a generative reality. It is notions about yinyang that makes these patterns coherent and, ultimately, manageable. Yinyang thought simplifies, exemplifies, and expands various relationships. It underpins all beings by shaping and directing natural processes from within and across boundaries, and it interfaces with permeable information, energies, and influences.

Yinyang intelligence is rooted in a view of the universe as an organic and self-generating system. Self-organization and self-stabilization presuppose interactions between system and environment. Take the case of the art of horse riding.Footnote 31 Effective interaction involves movement. The immediate interfaces of navigating a horse-drawn carriage include the horses and their power, the terrain, the weather, and the driver’s purpose. The carriage driver has to contend with many external factors that may disturb his or her inner state and result in different kinds of responses. It is a kind of open system that has to navigate environmental disturbances and processes.

The Huainanzi says that you feel with your hand but respond through your mind. This is a common saying, dexin yingshou (得心應手), “getting it through your mind and responding with your hands.” So to go back to the carriage driving analogy: the driver does not just observe the world but feels it as well. The whole nexus of senses (including vision) is a felt response. Like the warmth of sunlight or the rush of the wind, the act of seeing has a similar feeling because it involves the mind and body working together. The Liezi presents another description of the art of charioteering:

Internally, one focuses the center of the mind; externally, one unites with the will of the horse. One is able to go forward and backward but there is a center and one goes around it as if with a compass. One can take the road on a long journey yet still have strength to spare.Footnote 32

In riding horses, a person can distinguish the internal (focusing the mind) and the external (the horse itself) but the crucial point is being able to reach the center. This yinyang intelligence is a wisdom of attunement and embodiment. In this sense, yinyang is not about matching one thing to another, but rather resonating with the hidden forces at work in any situation, using such resonances to skillfully bring about results. AI can learn from this approach and method.

The second aspect of yinyang intelligence is found in adaptivity. AI algorithms do adapt when they learn from previous mistakes, but they cannot adapt more broadly to dynamic situations or other paradigms. For example, an AI that plays the game of Go can win at the standard game, but could it still win if one of the rules were changed? Could the same AI win if asked to play chess or some other game?

Human skill lies in our ability to adapt: to be attentive but not anxious; to be involved but not obsessed; to exert effort but not force things; and to always be ready to adjust for the unexpected. Horse riding combines external forces and internal constraints that lead to adaptive self-organization. In this way, adaptation is not synonymous with stability or harmony (he), but rather is closer to functional efficiency in coping with actual environmental disturbances. It is more about efficacy than harmony. For example, what if the horse goes slowly but the rider needs to travel faster? The rider needs to find a way to make the horse go as fast as it can. The rider must engage in yielding and pulling movements, a dynamic yinyang play: giving and taking, pushing and pulling with the powers of the horse. The Liezi explains: “Equalizing the give and the pull is the ultimate principle of dealing with the world.”Footnote 33 What is the “equalizing” (jun 均)? It is the center of the wheel that can turn to face any direction. The rider can only reach his or her goal by working with it, negotiating all variables to attain the desired result. The rider incorporates his surroundings into his perception-response loops in order to maintain efficacy.

This yinyang intelligence as an adaptation is an indispensable instrument for the interaction between a person and the world. The distinguishing features underpinning yinyang intelligence might also be helpful to AI’s advancement.

Yinyang interplay involves several propositions: (1) levels of relationship defined through degrees of integration; (2) emergent order as opposed to a predetermined order; (3) constant change; and (4) a not fully predictable future.

We can generalise these different relationships into six forms to better encapsulate yinyang intelligence’s complexity and multiplicity: Maodun 矛盾: Contradiction and opposition. Xiangyi 相依: Interdependence. Huhan 互含: Mutual inclusion. Jiaogan 交感: Interaction or resonance. Hubu 互補: Complementary or mutual support. Zhuanhua 轉化: Change and transformation.Footnote 34

These propositions can be captured in a model with a flowing circular or spiral movement (huanliu 流環). It is a metaphor for the processes of generation, integration, and emergence. The character translated as “flowing,” (liu 流) refers most literally to the flowing of water, and the character itself contains the image of water on the left. The term for circular or spiral (環 huan) refers to the movement of the flow. We might thus also translate the phrase as “flowing circulation.”

This flowing circularity has three properties. The first is that it revolves around an empty center. In the Daodejing images of a hub, cart, doors and windows, are all depicted as empty spaces with an enclosing frame. Each thing depends on empty space for its form and its “usefulness.” This “structural blueprint” hinges on the concept of an enclosure that surrounds the emptiness. We can also glimpse this spiral progression in natural phenomena like a whirlpool, vortex, sinkhole and coil.

The second characteristic of the flowing circularity is that cycles have no end and no beginning, continuing on without limit or exhaustion. Change is perpetual, never ending. One side becomes the other again and again. This view appears across a wide range of texts.

The ancient Huangdi Neijing medical text makes the same point more explicitly in terms of yinyang: “Yin and yang are mutually connected, like a cycle without beginning. Thus, one knows that attack and defense always follow each other. 陰陽相貫, 如環之無端, 故知榮衛相隨也.”Footnote 35

The third aspect of the flowing circularity is reversal (fan 反),Footnote 36 which is a constant theme in the Daodejing. Reversal invokes the image of a circle in motion, or more precisely, a nonlinear and infinite-dimensional spiral movement. The He Guanzi, 鶡冠子 (Pheasant Cape Master), a text most likely from the Warring States Period (475–221 b.c.e.), dedicates an entire chapter to an important characterization of this movement:

Qi can be mutually beneficial and mutually harmful; things of the same kind can complete each other or defeat each other ... Beautiful and ugly adorn each other: this is called returning to the full cycle. Things develop to their extremes and then reverse. This is called circular flowing [huanliu]. 氣故相利相害也, 類故相成相敗也。。。 美惡相飾, 命曰復周, 物極則反, 命曰環流Footnote 37

This flowing circularity intends to convey the idea that the occurrence of events is not linear. The circular flowing moves forward to a critical point of transition and then reverses back away from it.

Final Remark

The very first Chinese robot appeared in the early Daoist text, Liezi. (fourth century BC). Craftsmen constructed a human-like creation for the king. It sang when its head was touched and danced when its hand was held. The king was amazed as well as furious. The craftsman immediately broke it into many pieces to show the king that it was a human creation. The king wondered “How can the cleverness of human being accomplish the same as the creator-transformer?” (人之巧乃可与造化者同功乎).

Today, technology is more widespread and available than at any point in human history. The central tenet of a Daoist framework holds that unpredictability and change are not only unavoidable but actually dominate everyday life. It can assist us in challenging the liner cause-effect thinking that privileges order and stability. Change is not merely a controlled move from one stable state to another. Change is integral to life and we should not balk at the realities of technological change. Therefore, we should not fear AI.

Consider the claims of the ancient philosopher Zhuangzi: “Whenever formation is going on, destruction is also going on.” Hence all things are neither formed nor destroyed. The two are open to each other, connecting to form a singular oneness. The question of whether AI will render humans obsolete is predicated on the extent to which new social relationships between human beings and machines can be imagined, thereby to develop a more philosophical understanding.

For a Daoist, a good life does not depend upon acting according to a predetermined form, or with respect to a predetermined hierarchy, but according to the Dao. There are no timeless answers, but answers that are appropriate, or inappropriate under specific conditions. So a Daoist aims at cultivating the traits that cater to clarity and flexibility of both body and mind. It’s part of Daoist practice to learn this clarity and flexibility. Doing so involves the three treasures of Dao, frugality, modesty, and compassion as well as learned spontaneity and the pairing of creation and destruction. The extent to which AI and robots can be directed to facilitate this kind of lifestyle would meet the approval of the Daoist.

A Daoist needs to neither reject nor accept technological development without reservation. A Daoist would neither resign him or herself to whatever forms of technological development ensue, nor unreservedly reject all forms of technological development. So the question for the Daoist is the extent to which technological development facilitates human awareness of the Dao through the exercise of ziran. However, if AI’s development remains premised on profit incentive, and if it largely tends toward human obsolescence—the alienation of humans from one another and from the natural world—then it would be at odds with the Daoist practice.

But that is not to say that AI and robotics bear only this possibility. Daoists would be in favor if such technologies are redirected to facilitate ziran with respect to oneself, others, nature, and cosmos the Daoists.

Human qualities like wisdom and love can be simulated but not duplicated in non-biological systems. The human brain is not merely a calculating machine operating on binary Boolean logic. It is embedded in a biological system with both analog and binary processes, with organs, tissues, a bloodstream, metabolism, and sensor-motor functions. The human biological system is part of multiple energy fields in nature and the cosmos. If we consider the world as heavenly and earthly qi influence it is clear that the human brain is not a machine with a reset button. It is part of a process rather than a thing. “To replicate this entire “system” would be a mind-boggling feat. A robot with AGI of this level would make no attempt to control humans. It would greet its human master in the morning with a bow, in a sign of humility and respect to its creator.”Footnote 38