Friday, April 10, 2009
Stranger Than Fiction
First Things recently examined the possible rise of artificial intelligence. They conclude:
But the essential point that Patrico makes is that machines are morally neutral. Even in most science fiction stories in which AI "takes over," (I, Robot) they do so out of a stance of moral neutrality, or because they do not know how to respond to human morality (2001). In other words, artificial intelligence does not equate to humanity.
We are confronted once again with the age old question - what defines us? Evolutionary theory would say it is intelligence - but as we have just seen - there is more to humanity than mere intelligence. Is it morality that defines us as essentially human?
Or is morality just another evolutionary result? Not hardly.
But even that does not make us "human." No, what makes us human is the image of God that resides within.
What saddens me is how few Christians truly try to grasp that essential humanity. We revel in our brokenness, cheapen grace, settling for being less than fully human. The church, for the sake of apparent survival, caters to this desire to grasp less than the full gospel.
Christ was the ultimate humanist, for it is only through Him that we discover our true and full humanity. Why do we look elsewhere, and why do we accept so much less?
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So instead of worrying about the day when computers try to take over the world, we ought to worry about the day when humans, using the latest technology, attempt to do the same. As our lives become more and more integrated with and dependent on technology, and as computers gain potential for advancing both good and evil, that’s the attack of the machines that won’t have to be filmed on a backlot in Hollywood.I think that analysis correct, but I also think it fails to examine the why. Of course, the writer here, Ryan Sayre Patrico, seems to think AI a remote possibility, something I am not so sure about, at least in a limited sense. Passage of the Turing Test is indeed a long way away, but artificial "intelligence" within a well bounded space is already achievable (chess for example).
It will unfold in our own backyards.
But the essential point that Patrico makes is that machines are morally neutral. Even in most science fiction stories in which AI "takes over," (I, Robot) they do so out of a stance of moral neutrality, or because they do not know how to respond to human morality (2001). In other words, artificial intelligence does not equate to humanity.
We are confronted once again with the age old question - what defines us? Evolutionary theory would say it is intelligence - but as we have just seen - there is more to humanity than mere intelligence. Is it morality that defines us as essentially human?
Or is morality just another evolutionary result? Not hardly.
But even that does not make us "human." No, what makes us human is the image of God that resides within.
What saddens me is how few Christians truly try to grasp that essential humanity. We revel in our brokenness, cheapen grace, settling for being less than fully human. The church, for the sake of apparent survival, caters to this desire to grasp less than the full gospel.
Christ was the ultimate humanist, for it is only through Him that we discover our true and full humanity. Why do we look elsewhere, and why do we accept so much less?
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