VOLUME VII, CHAPTER 1, SECTION 2
What a Real Human Is: Keep, Guard, Love, Mercy, Heart
The last section made it plain that artificial intelligence, however strong, is a tool, and that the difference lies in this: when it does a thing, there is no self of its own inside it. This section turns the other way and lays down the real human, straight on. That self of its own inside a real human, what is it? It is five things a tool will never hold, never manage, never imitate all the way: Keep, Guard, Love, Mercy, Heart. Keep the rules. Guard what is handed down. Love all living things. Mercy for the suffering. A good heart. Together these five are the root of why a real human is a real human, the root of why a real human cannot be replaced by a tool. This section makes them plain one by one.
The five things of the real human here were not made up out of nothing. The ancestors laid down the vein long ago. Keep the rules follows Confucius: "Lead them with virtue, order them with the rites." Guard what is handed down carries on Zhang Zai: "Carry on the broken learning of the sages of old." Love all living things goes along Mencius: "Hold your kin dear, and so be humane to the people; be humane to the people, and so care for all things." Mercy for the suffering rests on Mencius: "The heart that cannot bear another's suffering, every person has it." A good heart is rooted in Mencius's conscience, which "knows without thinking it over." None of the five is newly made by me. They are a vein the ancestors laid down over thousands of years. Facing this new thing, AI, I have only sunk a fresh well in the old vein.
One. Five Things That Make a Real Human a Real Human
To put the tool back in the tool's place, you first have to say clearly what it is, exactly, that keeps a real human from being replaced by it. Not the work of hands and body; the tool passed that long ago. Not the speed and accuracy of the mind; the tool is catching up there too. It is the share the tool does not have inside, and can never grow.
This share can be broken into five things, each with one word as its spine: Keep, Guard, Love, Mercy, Heart. Keep is keeping the rules. Guard is guarding what is handed down. Love is loving all living things. Mercy is mercy for the suffering. Heart is a good heart. One word for the bone, a few words to fill it out, one word to one thing, plain and clean and not to be moved. They are not five virtues added from outside, not rules poured in after birth. They are the share every real human's body already holds, waiting only to be tended so it does not go out. A body in which all five are present, all alive, all bright, is a whole real human. When the five wither, close, go out in a body, that body may still be alive, but the real human's share is no longer there. This section makes them plain word by word precisely so that you can see these five clearly, and so see the real human clearly, and so see clearly why the tool cannot replace one.
Two. Keep: Keep the Rules
The first thing is Keep. What one keeps is the rules, the rules of this world, its bottom line, its bounds.
A real human has a line in his heart: these things may be done, these things must never be done. This line does not need someone watching all the time, someone holding him to it. He keeps it himself. The last volume, Saving People, laid it down: the intent of the law is a ruler that leads people to keep themselves in check, not a coercive power that seizes them. Truly keeping the law is not being too afraid of force to break it. It is having that line in the heart, keeping it willingly, keeping it of one's own accord. This keeping is self-discipline growing from inside, not force pressed on from outside.
Does a tool have this keeping? No. A tool can be set rules, can have bounds written into it, can be restricted from doing a thing. But that is a program added from outside, not self-discipline grown from within. It does not keep. It is only restricted. Let the one who set it lift one layer of restriction, and it does the very thing that was released, with no awareness inside that says, this I should not do. Keeping is the share by which a real human, by that line inside him, willingly holds to the bounds. This share, the tool has never had.
Three. Guard: Guard What Is Handed Down
The second thing is Guard. What one guards is what is handed down, the share passed on by those before, which one must take up and then pass on to those after.
A real human lives in a long river. Above him, he receives the share passed down over thousands of years by parents, teachers, sages of old. Below him, he connects to children, to the young, to people in the future not yet born. He guards this inheritance: guards the language and the written word, guards the customs and the seasons' festivals, guards the crafts and the learning, guards the reasoning and the ways of living the forebears laid down. He knows he is not a lone point sprung up out of nothing. He is one stretch of this long river, receiving from above and passing on below. To guard this inheritance and hand it into the hands of those after is a charge he naturally carries inside.
Does a tool have this guarding? No. A tool can store, can copy, can transmit huge amounts of material, but inside it there is no charge that says, I will take this up, guard it well, pass it on. What it stores is data, not inheritance. What it passes on is files, not that awareness of receiving from above and passing on below. Guarding is the charge by which a real human knows his stretch of the long river and willingly takes up and passes on that share. This share, the tool does not have.
Four. Love: Love All Living Things
The third thing is Love. What one loves is all living things, every existence in this world that is alive, that has life, that is bound up with one's own.
A real human has love in his heart. Loving parents and children, loving kin and friends and neighbors, that is the near. Loving people he has never met, loving people who will only be born later, loving an injured little bird, a small blade of grass about to be trodden on, the mountains and rivers that nourish all beings, that is the far. This love is not a calculation of what profits me, not a pose put on. It is the share that runs from one real human's life to another life. A mother wakes in the middle of the night at the sound of her child's cough, without thinking it over, without weighing anything. That share is love.
Does a tool have this love? No. A tool can output caring words, can imitate a warm tone, but inside there is none of that pull running from one living being to another. It is not a living being, and cannot connect along that line to a living being. It says I ache for you, and inside there is no ache. It says I cherish you, and inside there is no cherishing. Love is the pull a real human brings forth from his own living being, reaching out to the living being of all things. This share, the tool does not have, and can never grow.
Five. Mercy: Mercy for the Suffering
The fourth thing is Mercy. What one holds in mind is mercy, the stir of not bearing it in the heart at the sight of the suffering of all beings.
A real human, seeing others suffer, is moved in the heart. He sees someone bullied in the street, sees someone in distress by the roadside, sees someone far away struck by disaster, and that stir in his heart, that not bearing it, that pity, is mercy for the suffering. Mencius laid it down long ago: the heart that cannot bear another's suffering, every person has it. This mercy is not taught. It is already in the body. Seeing a child about to fall into a well, that start, that stir in the heart, is it. It makes a real human willing to stop, to reach out a hand, to take on a burden he did not have to take on.
Does a tool have this mercy? No. A tool can recognize the information that someone here is suffering, and can on that basis output a response that aid is advised, but inside there is no stir, no not bearing it. It does not find it unbearable in its heart. It only gives a response based on the data. It has no heart, so naturally there is no stir in the heart. Mercy is the stir of not bearing it that a real human feels in the heart at the sight of the suffering of all beings. This share, the tool does not have, and cannot learn.
Six. Heart: A Good Heart
The fifth thing is Heart. What the heart holds is goodness, the searching question a real human puts to his own life in the still of the deep night.
A real human, in the still of the deep night, asks himself: this life of mine, what have I done? Whom have I done right by? Whom have I let down? Have I helped more people, or harmed more? If I were to sleep tomorrow and never wake, could I close my eyes in peace? This searching question is conscience, a good heart. It never lets itself off. It makes a real human, where no one sees, still hold to that goodness. A person with a good heart pauses before the pen touches the page, thinks before he signs his name, because toward this life of his, toward this heart of his, he carries a searching question he will not betray.
Does a tool have this heart? No. When a tool finishes a thing, the thing is past. It does not look back, does not search itself, does not ask itself where no one is, did I do this right? It has no life, no I, none of that light of conscience in the still of the deep night. A thing, to it, is only one completion from input to output. Complete is finished, finished is forgotten, not a thread of care left behind, not a shred of remorse kept. Heart is the searching question a real human puts to his own life and his own conscience, which he will not betray. This share, the tool does not have.
Seven. Five Things as One Is the Real Human's Share
Keep, Guard, Love, Mercy, Heart: the five are made plain. Look at them together and they are one body. Whoever keeps the rules will surely have a heart that guards what is handed down. Whoever guards what is handed down will surely carry love for all living things. Whoever loves all living things will surely be stirred to mercy for the suffering. Whoever has mercy for the suffering will surely hold to the searching of a good heart. The five give rise to one another and nourish one another, and together make up the share of a whole real human.
Why none of the five can be missing, you can see clearly from the other side. Keep the rules without loving all living things, and keeping becomes rigidity, a cold face that goes by the book and never sees the living person. Love all living things without keeping the rules, and love becomes indulgence, a softness that cannot tell right from wrong. Have mercy for the suffering without a good heart, and mercy is only a moment's softness, forgotten afterward. Have a good heart without guarding what is handed down, and goodness becomes a lone goodness that cannot be passed down or carried on. The five nourish one another and check one another. Lack any one of them and the rest cannot stand whole. Only when all five are present, all alive, all bright, is a body a whole real human that can stand. This is exactly the share the last volume nourished, guarded and saved all along the road. In this volume its name is made plain and its five are made whole.
This share is exactly what makes a real human a real human. It is why a real human cannot be replaced by a tool. It is the share a tool, however strong, however fast, however alike, will never hold, never manage, never imitate all the way. A tool can imitate the look of these five. It can say the words of keeping the rules, output the phrases of guarding what is handed down, imitate the tone of loving all living things, respond to a scene that calls for mercy for the suffering, explain the reasoning of a good heart. Yet inside, it has not one of them. However alike its imitation, it is a tool's imitation. However accurate its output, it is a tool's output. That share of Keep, Guard, Love, Mercy, Heart, it will never have.
Here the line is set and sealed. The tool is a tool. It can get things done, calculate, write and paint; what it can do is a long list. The real human is a real human, with these five, Keep, Guard, Love, Mercy, Heart, which the tool will never have. The two differ in their very nature. They cannot be mixed, cannot be given way to, cannot stand in for each other. The next section follows on from here: if these five are the real human's alone and the tool will never hold them, why is this world still handing the positions that need these five to be done right, inch by inch, to the tool? That is the trap this volume must answer, and the next section lays it open straight on.
Credit to the ancestors; the mistakes are mine: Tiger Lyon.
Section Three. Setting the Tool on the Person's Place, the Trap This Volume Opens.