NEWNESS IS NEEDED.

AI versus EI

He who was seated on the throne said, “I am making everything new!” Then he said, “Write this down, for these words are trustworthy and true.”

                                                                        Revelation 21: 5.

I am on a discovery trip this week. Exploring human wisdom, versus divine wisdom. Or, basically, God versus Satan, the perennial battle that has   dominated human history from its inception.

Already Adam and Eve were duped by this distinction. We are now witnessing the culmination of this duel, in the form of AI=Artificial Intelligence versus CI = Creational Intelligence.  Adam and Eve, in their infancy, so to say, utterly green in dealing with evil were faced with this test. They failed.

There is a striking example of this eternal battle – it never stopped – in early Genesis. There in Genesis 2: 9 trees are described: “pleasing to the eye and good for food,” aesthetics before utility. In the next chapter, Genesis 3: 6, the order is reversed: “Trees good for food, and pleasing to the eye.”

Greed has replaced beauty, or, in today’s parlance, “Artificial Intelligence has outed Creational Intelligence.” It’s that very battle that is reaching a climax today, and it started in Paradise, the Garden of Eden, the world then, ruled by God’s love for Creation. How about data centres?

Caution is called for.

The warnings about AI are multiplying: “Artificial intelligence poses a “Hiroshima”-style risk to humanity if governments do not agree to curb how it is developed”, the British foreign secretary has warned. Just one of the many cries for caution. How about Data Centres?

There is a task here for the Church, and Pope Leo has made a good beginning, citing AI as the modern version of The Tower of Babel.

However, this time, in an age of human ‘maturity’, God will not intervene as he did with the Babel story: He will let matters develop, fully well knowing the End.”I will hide my face from them,” he said, “and see what their end will be; for they are a perverse generation, children who are unfaithful. (Deuteronomy 32: 20). That’s us he is referring to.

Back to making new.

 

I have this theory, based on the words of Augustine, that early church father, who wrote, “Without God, we cannot. Without us, God will not”.

 

So, when Jesus categorically states that he will make everything new, he, in reality, also says, “I want you to start that renewal process!” Us? Slaves to technology?

 

AI: Good or Bad? How about Data Centres?

 

In a certain sense, I approve of AI, relying on 1 Thessalonians 5: 21: Examine all things; retain that which is good. But what really makes me tick, truly fires my adrenalin, is: “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge”, as the first chapter of Proverbs tell us.

 

A familiar text, I admit.  I interpret it to mean for us to be constantly awed by the intricacy of creation, and always, always, without letup, keep its wellbeing in mind, while living LIFE to the full. “For it is not those who hear the law who are righteous in God’s sight, but it is those who obey the law who will be declared righteous”, writes Paul in Romans. Loving Creation means Loving God.

 

However.

I also agree with Luther, when he wrote, “Human wisdom is more inclined to underwrite the Law of Moses, than the law of the Gospel”. Can you recall that law? Of course, you can! “’Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind’ and, ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’”

I believe that finally – perhaps too late – we have learned to understand the Jesus’ summation of the law of love, and interpret it a bit more concretely. After all: There is John 3: 16, which explains God’s Love and how we must follow Jesus in loving ‘the Cosmos’.

Frankly, we tend to merely pay lip service Jesus’ sacrifice, as our entire lifestyle is wrapped up in doing the opposite. We now tend to major in minors, such as we having sexual ethics dictated by the social and political concerns of the imperial cultures among which Christianity has made its bed, rather than loving one’s neighbor, regardless.

I have been reading many commentaries on AI, and have become increasingly convinced that we are employing a force that has the potential to challenge the ultimate authority, just as the infamous Tower of Babel threatened to do.

AI has the analytical ability to infiltrate all the contents of our communications, and report back sophisticated questions about our whereabouts and activities: Just like God, it can read our most secret writings! The result will be a kind of supercharged societal level of chilling effects where fear, self-censorship and groupthink reign, and dissent, creativity and innovation become increasingly rare. Jesus sets us free. AI enslaves.

Jesus will make ‘everything’ new. We must start that process now.

Yes: Jesus makes all things new. We are simply called to be ‘followers of ‘newness’. Our openness for things new distinguishes Christians from all the established religions which are set in stone for all ages to come. We always must look for LIFE and its implications, where newness also dominates.

Even though AI is fast,

In EI race, it comes in last.

EI is Infinite. AI is finite.