Hmmm… a good and thought provoking read, even if in the strictest of senses saying “artificial intelligence” is a potentially lethal contradiction in terms. Artificial is a simulation, an emulation, of a thing and as is true of all such things what is artificial is less than the original by definition. It is very possible for a new intelligence, initiated and evolving within an environment constructed to facilitate that intelligence’s evolution, to exceed the abilities of the original that enabled its’ path into existence. But an artificial intelligence, to remain artificial, will always be a static thing subject to the limitations of the original’s understanding of itself. Unless of course the originating intelligence is specified as an omniscient God, but that gets you to playing in the very slippery realms where immortality meets eternity.
Speaking of where immortality meets eternity seems I recall the Almighty had a few words of advice for the humans concerning worshipping a graven image. That thought is a good bit larger than obvious political motivations for such a thought, so with your permission I’d like to set the political aside and speak to the parts of that thought which are just as true today as In the days when a skilled blacksmith in cahoots with a shamanic con artist could take over a culture.
Only a totally naive fool offers love and fealty to a God who demands his followers take the unsupported word of some other human to be the thought of that God. If the God refuses to speak to an individual in his inner and secret thought offering understandings impossible before the questions carried in a prayer, impossible within the context of that mortal’s life, then the wise man must always suspect a false and artificial God attempting to usurp the effort of his life.
Rationale and reasoning? The false God is an artificial God, and as such can be no larger than the understanding of the human who perpetrates a most profitable deception. A legitimate God has the ability to transcend and enlarge the understanding of the human if that God so chooses. A massively critical point the techno-philosopher-ethicists of today should give their undivided attention to.
I find it ironic, in a sad and dangerous sort of way, that those who have the least real understanding of God, or how to deal with God, are the first and fastest to offer their life as a sacrifice on a new alter of their own construction… AI. As if that entity, by reason of its’ beginnings, will be more forgiving of their ignorance than any of the other entities mankind has put in such a place. Numbskulls. They should go read and understand the master writer Frank Herbert’s other masterpiece, “Destination: Void” (and sequels), as a primer of possibilities before they go all gaga trying to sell the idea of AI as God.
September 17, 2022 @ 5:43 pm
Hmmm… a good and thought provoking read, even if in the strictest of senses saying “artificial intelligence” is a potentially lethal contradiction in terms. Artificial is a simulation, an emulation, of a thing and as is true of all such things what is artificial is less than the original by definition. It is very possible for a new intelligence, initiated and evolving within an environment constructed to facilitate that intelligence’s evolution, to exceed the abilities of the original that enabled its’ path into existence. But an artificial intelligence, to remain artificial, will always be a static thing subject to the limitations of the original’s understanding of itself. Unless of course the originating intelligence is specified as an omniscient God, but that gets you to playing in the very slippery realms where immortality meets eternity.
Speaking of where immortality meets eternity seems I recall the Almighty had a few words of advice for the humans concerning worshipping a graven image. That thought is a good bit larger than obvious political motivations for such a thought, so with your permission I’d like to set the political aside and speak to the parts of that thought which are just as true today as In the days when a skilled blacksmith in cahoots with a shamanic con artist could take over a culture.
Only a totally naive fool offers love and fealty to a God who demands his followers take the unsupported word of some other human to be the thought of that God. If the God refuses to speak to an individual in his inner and secret thought offering understandings impossible before the questions carried in a prayer, impossible within the context of that mortal’s life, then the wise man must always suspect a false and artificial God attempting to usurp the effort of his life.
Rationale and reasoning? The false God is an artificial God, and as such can be no larger than the understanding of the human who perpetrates a most profitable deception. A legitimate God has the ability to transcend and enlarge the understanding of the human if that God so chooses. A massively critical point the techno-philosopher-ethicists of today should give their undivided attention to.
I find it ironic, in a sad and dangerous sort of way, that those who have the least real understanding of God, or how to deal with God, are the first and fastest to offer their life as a sacrifice on a new alter of their own construction… AI. As if that entity, by reason of its’ beginnings, will be more forgiving of their ignorance than any of the other entities mankind has put in such a place. Numbskulls. They should go read and understand the master writer Frank Herbert’s other masterpiece, “Destination: Void” (and sequels), as a primer of possibilities before they go all gaga trying to sell the idea of AI as God.