Chilling headlines dominate our news feeds: “AI Will Take Your Job,” “Robots Poised to Run the World,” “The Rise of Sentient Machines.” We’re bombarded with warnings of a future where artificial intelligence and automatons might usurp humanity, taking over our lives, our economies, and perhaps even our very consciousness.
But what if the real invasion isn’t a future threat, but a present reality? What if the “robots” aren’t metallic beings with glowing eyes, but rather the vast majority of humanity itself?
This deeply unsettling notion was put forth by the enigmatic spiritual teacher G.I. Gurdjieff in the early 20th century. While most people worried about the impact of the industrial revolution, Gurdjieff was focussed on a different kind of mechanisation – the internal kind. According to his teachings, the “robots” are already here, and they are, in fact, most of us.
The Mechanical Man: Gurdjieff’s Startling Claim
Gurdjieff didn’t speak of literal androids. His “robots” were human beings living in a state of deep, unconscious sleep. He posited that vast swaths of humanity operate much like sophisticated, biological machines – mechanical, predictable, and devoid of genuine consciousness or free will.
Consider your daily routine: waking up at the same time, following the same path to work, engaging in predictable conversations, reacting to situations with pre-programmed emotional responses. How much of this is truly a conscious choice, and how much is simply a repetition of learned behaviours, habits, and automatic reactions?
Gurdjieff argued that most people are not truly “awake.” They are, in his view, merely puppets of external influences and internal conditioning. Their thoughts are not their own, but echoes of what they’ve heard or read. Their emotions are triggered not by deep understanding, but by superficial stimuli. Their actions are not born of genuine intention, but of habitual impulses. In essence, they are like complex machines, running on pre-recorded programs.
Symptoms of the “Robotic” State:
Lack of Self-Awareness: The inability to genuinely observe one’s own thoughts, emotions, and reactions without identification.
Automatic Reactions: Responding to situations out of habit or conditioning, rather than conscious choice.
Internal Contradictions: Holding conflicting beliefs or desires without noticing the inconsistency.
Borrowed “I’s”: Believing oneself to be a unified, consistent self, when in reality, different “I’s” (moods, desires, opinions) take control at different times.
Sleepwalking Through Life: Experiencing life as if in a dream, rarely present in the moment, constantly dwelling on the past or future.
Predictability: Others can easily predict their reactions, opinions, and behaviours because they rarely deviate from their established patterns.
For Gurdjieff, the majority of humanity lives in this mechanical state, fundamentally incapable of true self-development, genuine compassion, or creative action. They are, he suggested, like highly sophisticated biological robots, programmed for survival and reproduction, but lacking the inner spark of conscious presence that defines true humanity.
More Disconcerting Than AI?
The modern fear of AI-driven robots taking over the world is rooted in a concern about losing control to an external, non-human force. But Gurdjieff’s vision is arguably far more unsettling. He suggests that we have already lost control – not to an external threat, but to our own internal mechanisation.
The chilling reality isn’t that robots will one day walk among us, but that they already do, wearing human skin. And the most startling part? Most of them have no idea.
The Path to Awakening: A Call to Be Truly Human
Gurdjieff’s message, however, was not one of despair. Quite the opposite. He presented his teachings as a profound call to awaken, to escape the sleep of mechanical existence. His entire system of self-development, known as “The Work,” was designed to help individuals move beyond their robotic state and become truly conscious, integrated human beings.
This process involves rigorous self-observation, intentional effort, and sustained attention to the present moment. It’s about dismantling the internal programming, recognising the mechanical reactions, and striving for genuine presence and conscious choice.
In a world increasingly concerned with the external threats of artificial intelligence, Gurdjieff’s ancient wisdom offers a potent and timely counter-narrative. Perhaps the most urgent question facing humanity isn’t how to control the robots we create, but how to awaken the true human being from within the “robot” that most of us have become.
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