When Superintelligent AI Arrives, Will Religions Try to Convert It?
Posted: February 5, 2015 at 4:51 am
Like it or not, we are nearing the age of humans creating autonomous, self-aware super intelligences. Those intelligences will be part of our culture, and we will inevitably try to control AI and teach it our ways, for better or worse.
AI with intelligence equal to or beyond human beings is often referred to as "strong AI" or Artificial General Intelligence (AGI). Experts disagree as to when such an intelligence will arrive into the world, but many are betting it will happen sometime in the next two decades. The idea of a thinking machine being able to rival our own intellectin fact, one that could quickly become far smarter than usis both a reason for serious concern and a reason to cheer about what scientific advances it might teach us. Those worries and benefits have not escaped religious.
Some faith-bound Americans want to make sure any superintelligence we create knows about God. And if you think the idea of preaching God to autonomous machines sounds crazy, you may be overlooking key statistics of U.S. demographics: roughly 75 percent of adult Americans identify themselves as some denomination of Christianity. In the U.S. Congress, 92 percent of our highest politicians belong to a Christian faith.
As artificial intelligence advances, religious questions and concerns globally are bound to come up, and they're starting too: Some theologians and futurists are already considering whether AI can also know God.
"I don't see Christ's redemption limited to human beings," Reverend Dr. Christopher J. Benek told me in a recent interview. Benek is an Associate Pastor of Providence Presbyterian Church in Florida and holds masters degrees in divinity and theology from Princeton University.
"It's redemption to all of creation, even AI," he said. "If AI is autonomous, then we have should encourage it to participate in Christ's redemptive purposes in the world."
One of the key mandates of Christianity is to spread the Gospel and get nonbelievers to accept that Jesus Christ died for the world's sins. Whether AI has any sins, or whether it can and should be saved at all may end up being a bizarre but important question believers face in the 21st century. Even Pope Francis recently sounded off on the possibility of aliens being converted when he affirmed that the Holy Spirit blows where it will.
The metaphysical questions surrounding faith and AI are like tumbling down Alice's rabbit hole. Does AI have a soul? Can it be saved? There is one school of thought that figures, if humans can be forgiven for our sins, why not superintelligences with human qualities? "The real question is whether humans are able to be savedif so, then there is no reason why thinking and feeling AIs shouldn't be able to be saved. Once human-like AI exist, they will be persons just like us," futurist Giulio Prisco, founder of the transhumanist Turing Church, told me in an email.
But there is an opposing school of thought that insists that AI is a machine and therefore doesn't have a soul. In Think Christian, scientist and Christian scribe Dr. Jason E. Summers writes, "Christians often reject Strong AI on the theological ground of the special anthropological status of human beings as the bearers of Imago Dei." Imago Dei is Latin for the Christian concept that humans were created in the image of God.
Original post:
When Superintelligent AI Arrives, Will Religions Try to Convert It?
Provocative Enlightenment Presents: The Afterlife of Billie Fingers with Annie Kagan – Video
Posted: February 4, 2015 at 10:56 pm
Provocative Enlightenment Presents: The Afterlife of Billie Fingers with Annie Kagan
When William Cohen (aka Billy Fingers) woke his sister Annie at dawn, a few weeks after his death, she thought she was dreaming. In one of the longest and mo...
By:
Eldon TaylorLink:
Provocative Enlightenment Presents: The Afterlife of Billie Fingers with Annie Kagan - Video
Shangri-La – Ringing the 2nd bell of enlightenment – Part 1 – No commentary – Video
Posted: at 10:56 pm
Shangri-La - Ringing the 2nd bell of enlightenment - Part 1 - No commentary
This is the second quest in Shangri-la to ring a bell,
By:
Mad Daddy GamerMore here:
Shangri-La - Ringing the 2nd bell of enlightenment - Part 1 - No commentary - Video
Alan Watts – Teaches Yoga (probably the most relaxing half hour I’ve ever listened to) – Video
Posted: at 10:55 pm
Alan Watts - Teaches Yoga (probably the most relaxing half hour I #39;ve ever listened to)
Alan Wilson Watts (6 January 1915 16 November 1973) was a British-born philosopher, writer, and speaker, best known as an interpreter and populariser of Ea...
By:
Glenn FrostyRead more:
Alan Watts - Teaches Yoga (probably the most relaxing half hour I've ever listened to) - Video
Alan Watts – Why We Don’t Notice Space and Vibration the building blocks of the universe – Video
Posted: at 10:55 pm
Alan Watts - Why We Don #39;t Notice Space and Vibration the building blocks of the universe
Alan Wilson Watts (6 January 1915 16 November 1973) was a British-born philosopher, writer, and speaker, best known as an interpreter and populariser of Ea...
By:
Glenn FrostySee the original post here:
Alan Watts - Why We Don't Notice Space and Vibration the building blocks of the universe - Video
Sabine Osho und Raphael Konferenz Aufgestiegene Meister innen – Video
Posted: at 10:54 pm
Sabine Osho und Raphael Konferenz Aufgestiegene Meister innen
Ruth Panrok, Ingrid Inaara Rosenmaier, Andrea Klimasch, Ronald Hoth, Marie Jophiel, Manuela Pallas Athene, Sabine Osho und Raphael, Alles weitere Infos hier: Intuition Konferenz Aufgestieg...
By:
Jeet.tvExcerpt from:
Sabine Osho und Raphael Konferenz Aufgestiegene Meister innen - Video
Alla Ela Movie | Osho | Song – Video
Posted: at 10:54 pm
Alla Ela Movie | Osho | Song
By:
zeetvteluguSee the original post:
Alla Ela Movie | Osho | Song - Video
The Differences Between Recovery Life Coaching, Therapy, and Sponsorship – Part 3 – Recovery Life Co – Video
Posted: at 10:54 pm
The Differences Between Recovery Life Coaching, Therapy, and Sponsorship - Part 3 - Recovery Life Co
Created with Plotagon. http://youtube.com/plotagon.
By:
Frederick HaasLife Coaching (spiritual) India by Sw. Pritam +919619462769 www.asklife.org – Video
Posted: at 10:53 pm
Life Coaching (spiritual) India by Sw. Pritam +919619462769 http://www.asklife.org
Spitritual Life Coaching first time in india.
By:
swami PritamSee the article here:
Life Coaching (spiritual) India by Sw. Pritam +919619462769 http://www.asklife.org - Video
Health and Sport Committee Scottish Parliament 7th October 2014 – Video
Posted: at 10:53 pm
Health and Sport Committee Scottish Parliament 7th October 2014
healthy food healthy recipes - healthy breakfast ideas healthy healthy snack ideas healthy lunch ideas healthy snacks healthy eating healthy lifestyle healthy breakfast health ? health...
By:
My healthRead the original:
Health and Sport Committee Scottish Parliament 7th October 2014 - Video