Is All Intelligence Artificial?
Talk by Jack Petranker, Senior Teacher
It will be held both in person and on zoom
The emergence of versatile and powerful Artificial Intelligence has led to a fascination with what truly counts as intelligence. There are endless debates about whether AI will soon become more intelligent than human beings, if they are not already. Going a step further, people debate whether AI is becoming conscious.
In this talk, Jack Petranker, CCI’s senior teacher will explore what intelligence is, and how it differs from consciousness and awareness. He will suggest that intelligence, far from being humanity’s greatest achievement, is a tool developed by human beings to achieve certain results—a tool that threatens to take over our more fundamental awareness. AI is one step down that path. Move beyond a focus on intelligence, and we can rediscover the deeper knowing that makes human existence such a great gift.
Date and Time
Monday August 24, 2026, 5:30 – 6:30 pm PT
Location
2210 Harold Way, Berkeley, CA 94704
Price
This event is FREE and open to the public!
Instructor
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Jack PetrankerInstructor
Jack Petranker (he/him) is the founder of CCI and regularly offers courses and retreats. He is the author of When It Rains, Does Space Get Wet? (Dharma Publishing 2006), and has written numerous academic articles in consciousness studies, organizational change, political transformation, and the value of work as a spiritual practice. Jack holds an MA in political theory from UC Berkeley, and a JD from Yale Law School. He is also the Director of Mangalam Research Center in Berkeley, CA.
