Question: American scientists have discovered that in extreme situations people rely more on robots than on their common sense or manuals.

Researchers at the Georgia Technological Institution asked 30 volunteer students to perform a certain task in a medium size hall. Suddenly, the fire alarm went off and the hall was filled with smoke. The students had a choice of either leaving the hall by using the door through which they came in or to leave the hall through a small side door, toward which a robot pointed at, intentionally erroneously. It turned out that most of the volunteers, 26 out of 30 obeyed the robot and went toward the dead end.

On the one hand, this is progress since we are creating these advanced machines ourselves, but on the other hand, we obey our robots and become as foolish as they are. Could you explain this paradox?

Answer: I don’t understand the actual experiment. How can you not believe a sensor that shows you exactly where you should run to in time of an emergency? What can a person obey? His own instinct? Even if a person knew where the exit door was because he came in through it, perhaps there was a fire there and the robot indicated another exit and determined the safest way out. So why shouldn’t a person trust it? I would also obey the robot’s orders.

Comment: It seems that there were also other people who showed the students which way to go and yet they trusted the robot. Many times, when we use a navigation system, for example, we feel that it is the wrong way but still follow its instructions blindly.

Answer: This is natural, because we begin to respect these instruments in which our confused logic and doubts don’t exist. So I would also trust such instruments more. We launch satellites that orbit the earth, fly, and dive into deep waters, all thanks to such instruments. The human factor can play a very negative role here. This is the reason that I believe that we should trust instruments more than people.

Comment: We don’t totally trust people even in everyday life.

Answer: Why should we trust them? It is actually because of the human factor that there are explosions in nuclear power stations.

Comment: Many say that robots will become stronger than us.

Answer: Nonsense.  Only primitive people who don’t understand how mechanical systems work can say that. A mechanical system can never be smarter or stronger than the person who created it, but in critical situations it is safer since it has no self-doubts.

Question: Will personal relations between people be able to exist in the presence of such technology?

Answer: We are advancing toward such technologies not in order to communicate with each other. Who needs mutual communication these days? Even when we hear one another on the computer, we don’t actually communicate with one another; we read or see something on the screen and that’s it.

Our developing ego pushes a person to be an individualist who is isolated from everyone. If we provide a person with the basic necessities and lock him in a room with a computer, he will not need anything else, absolutely nothing. Even if he is in jail in conditions that are comfortable for living alone, he will not need anyone else.

This trend will continue until people feel that despite this convenience it is as if they are dead. On the one hand, it is very comfortable for our ego, but on the other hand, it is death. We are such a state when we are separated from one another, we are comfortable. On the other hand, we draw away from one another and disconnect the ties between us and then we feel that we cannot live without one another. This is the paradox, like between two lovers who love and hate each other.

This paradox will continue in human society as long as people draw away from one another. This will lead us to a contradiction and oppositeness that we will not be able to solve in any way but only according to the Biblical rule “love will cover every transgression.”

In other words, when there are huge egoistic distances between us, we will be able to build a bridge of mutual love, mutual cooperation and connection, above them. Egoism and altruism will not operate on one level but on two levels. It is actually the combination between these two levels of love and hate that couples lack. We have to make sure that permanent love will overcome hatred.

The greater the distance between these two parallel levels, the greater the love will be than the hate and the stronger the connection. Love is actually built on mutuality when there is an opposition below and connection above.

Question: Will technology help us here?

Answer: Nothing will help us except the wisdom of Kabbalah. This is the only thing that will enable us to establish such a connection; this is the technology.
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From KabTV’s “News with Michael Laitman” 3/1/16

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In the News (washingtonpost.com): “The world’s largest underground aquifers – a source of fresh water for hundreds of millions of people — are being depleted at alarming rates, according to new NASA satellite data that provides the most detailed picture yet of vital water reserves hidden under the Earth’s surface.

“Twenty-one of the world’s 37 largest aquifers — in locations from India and China to the United States and France — have passed their sustainability tipping points, meaning more water was removed than replaced during the decade-long study period, researchers announced Tuesday. Thirteen aquifers declined at rates that put them into the most troubled category. The researchers said this indicated a long-term problem that’s likely to worsen as reliance on aquifers grows.”

My Comment: Through the selfish relationships on the level of Adam (Man), people cause an imbalance in the lower levels of nature: still, vegetative, and animate. And leads itself to the threat of self-destruction.

The solution cannot be on the level of the still, vegetative, and animate, but specifically on the human level, through balancing relationships between people and bringing humanity to a good mutual connection. Therefore we must implement global education.
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Question: What do you think about the increasing presence of nuclear weapons in different nations?

Answer: This is very good. If there had been no nuclear weapons, Russia and America would long since been at war with each other instead of not since the Second World War. What stopped them was only nuclear weaponry because they understood its significance. For the first time in the life of the military, for whom war always promoted power, they are afraid of war, of nuclear war.

Everyone is afraid of nuclear war, therefore people who “hold the button in their hands,” understand that one shouldn’t play with it. There are limits to where we can fight a bit, mainly in third world nations: I trip you, you give me a slap, etc.

Hitting each other in a political lobby or through the third world is understood by everyone and is perceived as being normal. If 100 people die here and 100 there, it is not taken into account. In contrast, everyone understands that a nuclear war is unpredictable, to the point that it would be impossible to rein it in.

Question: And what if every small nation had nuclear weaponry?

Answer: Is Saudi Arabia a big nation? It is a rich nation that can buy anything.

Comment: But don’t you think that some crazy person could press the button?

Answer: I don’t think that there are that many crazy people in the world, it only seems that way to us. Gaddafi was not crazy, as we now understand. Neither is Fidel Castro nor the present leader of Korea.

The leader of Korea is a smart man and if he makes some noise with the help of the weaponry, it is for one purpose only, “Give us food” because they are starving. Gradually we feed them, placate them, and we don’t even know about it., Even the Americans directly or through a third nation, and also Russia and China. What can you do? Everyone understands each other perfectly.

So I don’t think that there is any uncertainty here. When you understand that you have a serious trump card and the other one does too and you are both holding each other by the throat, that is everything. So I think that nuclear weaponry is an excellent means for restraining and sobering up humanity from childish behavior. I very much hope that in the future care and wisdom will prevail.
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From KabTV’s “News with Michael Laitman” 2/26/16

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Question: Does the wisdom of Kabbalah have a formula for a happy family life?

Answer: Of course, after all, the wisdom of Kabbalah tells us about the unity of people and the private level of unity is the family.

Question: Do you mean that people who educate society according to the wisdom of Kabbalah can replace family psychologists? After all, preserving the integrity of the family today is a great problem: There are domestic difficulties daily; life isn’t easy, and the nuclear family is starting to fall apart.

Answer: Families are not breaking up because of the daily troubles but because it is in the interest of industrialists, advertisers, and the like. While a couple needs one apartment, a divorced couple needs two apartments. Today’s global economy is interested in having more consumers, and divorce doubles the number of consumers. Moreover, the elite don’t need millions of people who procreate.

Comment: But the industrialists also live in families.

Answer: They are merely 1% of the world’s population and have no need for all the rest. Why do they need seven billion people! As far as they are concerned it is better to reduce the world’s population even without wars by simply reducing procreation. Thus they will be able to cut down the world’s population by half during one generation.

Question: Does the wisdom of Kabbalah know how to keep the family together?

Answer: It isn’t simple. The wisdom of Kabbalah gradually tells people how to interact with each other correctly.

Comment: I heard in one of your lectures that if one partner studies the wisdom of Kabbalah while the other partner is far from it, they don’t have many chances of keeping the family together.

Answer: Of course there are problems. If one partner is greatly interested in life on the spiritual level and the other is interested in life on the corporeal level, there are disagreements and conflicts and they feel that they have different impulses. But even then no one says that they should get divorced. On the contrary, it is necessary to keep the family together no matter what.

We try to do it by any means. I understand that it isn’t easy today. Still, it is better to keep the family together, especially if there are kids. First, I am against divorce. And second, one should somehow interest his or her partner and make it understood that you have a dream, something that you are really interested in. The right thing to do is to interest your partner in your field of interest, since by studying the wisdom of Kabbalah, a person begins to discover the real meaning of life.

Everyone is interested in this matter to some extent.
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From the Webinar on zahav.ru 2/10/16

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Comment: A famous blogger wrote that it is becoming increasingly more difficult to astonish people with news about what is happening in the world. People digest the frequent bloody news about terror, about youth that can stab a man with a knife, and don’t mourn the casualties anymore because you would have to do it every day.

Answer: We have had the thirst for such sights since ancient times when they used to kill and maim people, stage battles, etc. Humanity cannot do without it. It isn’t only the need of modern man but a human need for blood.

We are undergoing a serious crisis of consciousness and it is becoming clear that we are miserable nothings. And somehow this has to break. Therefore, the Internet, different problems, ISIS, and radical Islamic organizations push the world forward quickly. These are vital forces in our evolution. Changes occur very intensively and we are beginning to perceive and realize everything very quickly. If people were stuck in the past at one point for ages, today they undergo a lot during one generation.

Question: What will this feeling lead to?

Answer: It will lead to a great outcry stemming from the recognition of the meaningless of our existence. We will not even be able to choose whether to live or not, whether to leave this life or not, so we are controlled by our egoistic nature. In addition to the fact that we exist, we were given a mind to understand that we are miserable and worthless and exist for no reason and for no purpose.

This unclear outcry will be revealed in humanity, and then we Kabbalists will be able to say: “We know what to do in this situation. We have actually been waiting for it for almost 6,000 years and today we can tell you how to turn this deep, terrible hopeless cry into a sigh of joy, a merriment that has no limits. It is possible. We will be very happy to share this opportunity with you.”
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From KabTV’s “News with Michael Laitman” 2/26/16

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In the news (openquaternary.com) : “The explanations for a rapid dispersal of modern humans after 100,000 BP remain enigmatic. Populations of modern humans took new routes – crossing significant topographic and environmental barriers, including making major sea crossings, and moving into and through risky and difficult environments. Neither population increase nor ecological changes provide an adequate explanation for a pattern of rapid movement, including leaping into new regions (saltation events). Here it is argued that the structural dynamics of emotionally complex collaboration and in depth moral commitments generates regular expulsion events of founding populations. These expulsion events provide an explanation for the as yet elusive element to dispersal. Alongside cognitive and cultural complexity we should recognise the influence of emerging emotional complexity on significant behavioural changes in the Palaeolithic.”

My Comment: Undoubtedly egoism grew in each and every generation, arousing more and more problems between fathers and sons and between a person and society. This required correction, meaning connection and unity in opposition to the egoism.

But since the wisdom of Kabbalah, the method for uniting above the ego, had not yet been revealed in those generations because of its smallness and the specific lack of the ability to determine individual egoism as evil, people preferred to stay away from each other to mitigate the hostility.

And only in ancient Babylon did egoism show itself as the only problem in humanity. But even then, only a small group of people accepted the method of unity above and against the ego and began to call themselves a people, not on the basis of their local origin, but freely chosen by them ideologically.

And in our time we must finally choose unity as the principle for a new society, specifically in contrast to the global egoism and the involuntary global connection between us. Balancing opposing tendencies is possible only when we elevate global connection above global hatred.
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Opinion (Vardan Baghdasaryan): “The world in the past year significantly shifted in the direction of fascism. Clearly identified are three major ideological projects.

“First, fascism – postmodern. … liberalism was transformed into neo-liberalism.

“Neoliberal ideology – it is not so much liberal ideology as fascist. It claims hard power of the minority. And the majority is to be suppressed for the sake of power “archaic” minority. The legalization of same-sex marriage in the United States was a fundamental landmark of neo-liberal fascism.

“Second, fascism – the religious-fundamentalist. It is largely caused by a life post-modern fascism is the response to it from the traditional society.

“This reaction, as can be seen from recent events, purposefully provoked. The flow of refugees and migrants sent from the Middle East to Europe, making conflict practically inevitable.

“Perhaps the formation of fascism under any religious signs. But if in the center of any of the traditional religions is the principle of humanity, the ideology of fascism – differentiation into friends and foes. …

“Third fascism – a classic Nazi. As fascism programs postmodern reaction to jihadist fascism, so it, in turn, triggers in response the reaction of Nazi fascism. Neo-Nazism combined the idea of ‘defend Europe against alien’ and an increasing migrantophobia sentiment among European populations. …

“And now, the nationalist and Nazi party are close to the political center, gaining more votes of the electorate.”

My Comment: Exiting the deadlock of fascism is possible only through going beyond its framework.This means it will be necessary to present a new global governmental ideology. This government must resist all versions of fascism and get support from the next level of human development. A government like this can exist only according to the unique practical method, which is consolidation according to the wisdom of Kabbalah.
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Opinion (Rotislave Ishchenko, political analyst): “Today, there is little doubt about the long-term and systemic nature of the global crisis. But what exactly does ‘systemic crisis’ mean?

“Formulated differently – system crisis. Not economic, not financial, not  political, not regional, but a global crisis of the entire system of relations (political, economic, financial, social), established after the collapse of the USSR and the emergence of a unipolar pax Americana. That is a form of organization of the international community that no longer meets the needs of its development.

” The standard output from such a situation, repeatedly tested in during the twentieth century – World War. Actually, the entire twentieth century and was a continuation of the same World War II. Twice (in 1914-1918 and 1939-1945), it was poured into molds of open military clashes involving blocks, uniting the leading powers of the world. The last stage (the confrontation between the two superpowers and their control systems) was held in the form of the Cold War and characterized by persistent economic, informational and ideological struggle. This occurred against a background of peripheral wars and revolutions, in which the main opponents of the armed forces are involved informally or not involved at all. Nuclear capabilities, operating to this day, has reduced to zero the possibility of direct military clash of the superpowers (if not to take into account the possibility of error). …

“Thus, in a systemic crisis (i.e., exhaustion of sustainable development opportunities existing global system) US bet on ahead of massive destruction. However, they proceed from the fact that they control resources will be enough to survive the inevitable period of general chaos at the lowest cost and start creating a new system is in pole with respect to the rest of the world position. …

“With Washington’s position the old world must be destroyed everywhere except the United States. In this case the weaker will die first, and have a chance to survive only the strongest and the weakest who will be in a strong alliance.”

My Comment: Outwardly everything is true, except for one thing—a plan exists in creation, and a person who considers himself to be the master of history and its accomplishments is mistaken. It is necessary to become aware of the program of development of mankind originally rooted in nature. Even for the United States there are still big surprises waiting.
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New Life 616 – The Refugee Crisis In Europe
Dr. Michael Laitman in conversation with Oren Levi and Tal Mandelbaum ben Moshe

Anyone who claims that we should help the refugees is welcome to open his home to them. Words will not help here. Not only is Greece in trouble, but strong countries like Germany and France cannot handle the refugee crisis either.

Why is this happening today? Because the world is taking on a new shape without borders; everything is involved and everything is round. Imagine meeting strangers in your kitchen; someone sleeping in your bed. It is frightening! There is nowhere to run. There is no place on the globe where you can be alone, not even 10 square meters of quiet.

Why do we feel this way? It is in order to acknowledge our obligation to change our nature and break our internal limits. Nature obliges us to develop to a level where we will feel that we are all one heart, one body, and one thought. The corrections we haven’t done in our relations are forced upon us now by the steamroller of development.

It is actually the individualistic Europeans who are given such a pressing situation with the refugees. Nature forces us to change our attitude to strangers, as if they were our kids, to “love thy friend as thyself.” What is more, there will also be financial blows and different natural disasters that will teach us that we are in the same boat and that’s it! Then the world will demand a solution from Israel because the solution is in the wisdom of Kabbalah, the wisdom of connection.

The refugee crisis in Europe is not a passing wave, but part of an intentional series of blows that will force all of us to correct ourselves. The mixing of the world populations will wash the world: South Americans will flood North America and Muslims will be everywhere in the world.

The Europeans will feel that they cannot go on like that unless we change our attitude to others. Then they will be worthy of the correction of human nature and will feel that the people of Israel have the method of correction. When we develop the ability to feel that we are all one family life in our world will become heaven.
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From KabTV’s “New Life 616 – The Refugee Crisis In Europe,” 8/27/15

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Question: There are members of different groups in the world who unite in order to help others. These organizations want to help children or to contribute in order to ease people’s suffering. In what way is your unity different from what we commonly see?

Answer: There are indeed many organizations in the world that unite for the sake of others, but I don’t see any positive outcomes from their actions. No matter how much food and water they supply or whether they make sure that people have clothes to wear, there are still so many hungry people in the world and so much suffering that only increases from day to day. We see that such actions are not a method of correcting the world.

The wisdom of Kabbalah offers a method of organizing the situation in the world through its system of leadership. Instead of performing some minor actions that may benefit people, we need to perform radical changes through the upper leadership, thus bringing humanity abundance, power, food, and health—everything. This is possible. We only need to learn how it is done and implement it together.

People who give away everything today, who seemingly love others and are ready to reach the end of the world in order to help mankind, need to start engaging in establishing the right mutual connection with others. Then, the good force will appear in the world and help us all.
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From the Kabbalah Lesson in Russian 12/27/15

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