By Fr. Glenn Jones:
Oh, how we love our toys. The new car, the new computer, the new house, or whatever fits our greatest fancy. On the social media sites we see people loving on their Lambo’ or kissing their Corvette. Oh … then there’s the squealing joy acquiring a new cellphone! (“Oh, my preciousss…”)
The trappings of wealth and prosperity can be so intoxicating. After all, do not my “things” indicate my intrinsic worth? Yet, no matter how often that thesis is disproven, we still hold it; even scripture laments: “The poor is disliked even by his neighbor, but the rich has many friends.” (Proverbs 14:20) Yet we also read: “Wakefulness over wealth wastes away one’s flesh, and anxiety about it removes sleep.” (Sirach 31:1)) We saw some of that this week with the lines outside the Silicon Valley Bank collapse, and the less-publicized collapse of smaller banks in its wake. I dare say that persons everywhere are having anxiety about their life savings about now.
But, back on point, there was an interesting, albeit disturbing, story recently: “Gods In Machine? Rise Of Artificial Intelligence May Lead To New Religions,” the subheading bubbling: “AI-based religions will look different from traditional ones. First of all, people will be able to communicate directly with the deity, on a daily basis. This means these religions will be less hierarchical, since no one can claim special access to divine wisdom.”
Well, sprang to mind scripture: “Their land is filled with idols; they bow down to the work of their hands, to what their own fingers have made.” (Isaiah 2:7-8) Not even to mention the old saying: “Be careful what you ask for.”
Now, with AI’s perfecting ability to mimic human authors, artists, etc., will the philosophical fantasy of existing in an artificial world eventually become an actuality? Is Fr. Glenn actually writing this, or is it an AI-version of Fr. Glenn? But … there’s a paper cut, and I’m bleeding, so it must really be me. But … what if I just think that I feel it … think that I see it bleeding? Those sensations are, after all, simply electrical inputs to the brain … a Dune-ian “Put your hand in the box.” Hmmm…
Even Plato addressed this in his imagery of The Cave in his “The Republic”, in which the cave’s occupants, viewing shadows cast by backlit puppets, believed they were seeing the world in its true form; they knew nothing else. And the philosopher René Descartes in the 1600s considered a similar conundrum, musing how he could determine whether he actually existed and was not an imagined character, finally resolving with his famous phrase: “I think, therefore I AM.” I think, therefore I must really exist.
Buuuut … there we find another conundrum—one emerging in our time. The name of God He revealed to Moses is “I AM WHO AM”, or simply “I AM”. Descartes was actually a rather devout Christian, but in our day there are many who implicitly coopt his phrase “I think, therefore I am” more towards “I think, therefore I am divine!” … pushing God to the side and worshipping self.
But, will AI come to a similar conclusion? Will it, as is speculated in many a science fiction tale, rule over humanity? As easily as we are deceived by humans, how much easier could an AI do so. We need only remember the panic that Orson Welles’ radio broadcast “The War of the Worlds” created even back in 1938; imagine plastered all over media: “The Russians have launched their nukes toward the U.S.!”
We already see Chinese society becoming ever more centrally controlled via computer with its “social credit” system: “misbehave”, and your privileges, job, bank accounts, etc., can be taken automatically. How much more easily could an AI exert control over society via false media and social media outlets, freezing accounts, immobilizing vehicles, etc.? We already wonder if our computer, phone, Alexa, TV, etc., is listening. One wonders what an AI’s ultimate goal could possibly be; a machine has no pride/passions to assuage … except to fulfill its programming. So … what will an AI discern as “good”?
Humans, however, define “the good” as that which is beneficial. But beneficial to whom? Obviously that depends on the width of one’s circle of those for whom one cares. A parent’s idea of good may be primarily focused on what benefits his immediate family. And so, following that, is not the greatest overall good that which is beneficial to all? And, if one wants the best for another, is this not “love”. As St. Thomas Aquinas wrote, love is to want good for another. And so he who seeks good for all is the one who loves most greatly.
And so we come to Jesus, who taught “Love your neighbor as yourself” (Matthew 22:39), “Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you …” (Matthew 5:44) and “By this the world will know that you are my disciples, that you love one another.” (John 13:35). St. Paul would echo Christ: “Love is patient and kind; love is not jealous or boastful; it is not arrogant or rude. Love does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice at wrong, but rejoices in the right. Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never ends …” (1 Corinthians 13:4-8)
It’s doubtful that we can stop the inexorable wave of technological development—an incoming tide. But what is important is to not become machines ourselves – unfeeling … coldly calculating. For, as St. Paul also wrote: “If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing …” (1 Corinthians 13:1-3).
A machine has no faith, no empathy, no love. A machine is a tool; one just as well worship a wrench as an AI (though I am very fond of snow blowers and log splitters!). And it may come to pass that we eventually DO lose control of our creations through our arrogance. But let us never lose our humanity … never surrender our ability to love.
Editor’s note: Rev. Glenn Jones is the Vicar General of the Archdiocese of Santa Fe and former pastor of Immaculate Heart of Mary Catholic Church in Los Alamos.
