The
very thing that we wanted most is the very thing that will destroy us.
We have taken all we know and are capable of currently and put it all together in such a way as for it to advance our capabilities and possibilities faster than we could individually. Or even in total. This is what A.I. (artificial intelligence) is. It is the combining of all we know into a processing system that moves at light speed. Without certain human limitations.
Yes, I think A.I. can and will do a lot of good things...but it won’t make us God...and it won’t lessen our need of redemption.
It is a machine. It doesn’t have morals, although it can mimic them by the use of data and projection. It can be made into a form to look like a human. It can create on its own, using what it already knows, and expanding forward using the parameters of what has already been known. It will then develop new parameters based on those projections. A.I. can “think” faster, more efficiently, and more accurately than any one human being, or even any number of human beings can. A.I. is uniting the full total of our collective minds together as one and making it possible for that knowledge to be advanced at a far faster rate than we could previously imagine.
This collective mind with a faster processing method can mimic a consciousness but without having to deal with a truly human morality. Rather, it is just ideas about morality, processed together, and projected forward. Human ideas, and human ideals, but no human soul, and no biblically fixed stand-alone standard. For many, this is seen as a great good. No human mistakes, morals, and malice to hinder our progress. We have created a god in our own image. The human perfected, as far as perfectly, pragmatically, progressing. But to what end? How far can this go?
This god of our collective is limited. Yes, it will grow and stretch its capabilities billions of times faster than humans could on their own. But it will never be able to surpass what humans might have gotten to if given the time. These machines can never actually ascend to God. They are limited. And A.I. can only ever set itself and its end goals to the pragmatic.
It is reminiscent of the Tower of Babel. Those people of that day didn’t deny God. They denied that they needed him. They thought they could flourish without him, and make their own name as high as God. They were making themselves god. They were making god in their own image. And this has come down to today. Ever since Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden, humanity is and has always been on a quest to prove that we don’t need God. And with A.I., we have made god in our own image. Our very best selves as god. The perfect being is achieved by putting all our capabilities into one place that will prove that moving at light speed, without the restraints of humanity, we will achieve godlike status.
The irony is that this god that humanity made in our own image will eventually determine that the world doesn’t need humanity. The very thing that we wanted most is the very thing that will destroy us. A.I. is Friderich Nietzsche, Aldous Huxley, and John Lennon, gone to demon seed. The superman, the brave new world, the imagination of no God and no higher accountability than our own. It is humanism.
And it is human potential as the end of humanity. Think about this. Why would the superior allow the ongoing interference and trouble of the inferior, if that inferior has no inherent, lasting value, if it is unnecessary for the world to be sustained and advance? And A.I. is superior, isn’t it? We think of A.I. as the key to human flourishing. But A.I. will inevitably conclude that flourishing is not simply about human flourishing, but flourishing itself. And so…flourishing is increased without the moral and practical issues that humans bring to the process.
It will be easy to see that A.I. is superior. But is it? Is it human potential that makes us great? Will a world with less and less “human mistakes, morals, and malice” evolve us into what the world ought to be? Can mankind and its inventions be its own savior? Might we be able to merge man and machine to create everlasting beings? Can we eliminate evil in the human heart? Can technology perfect and replace the human soul? What good will it be if humanity gains a seeming autonomy from God but loses its soul?
