World Views

Artificial Intelligence and Man

The title of an Opinion/Commentary on  2 November in The Wall Street Journal caught my attention, "The Challenge of Being Human in the age of AI," authored by Henry Kissinger, Eric Schmidt and Daniel Huttenlocher. Kissinger was U.S. Secretary of State,1973-1977, Schmidt was CEO of Google, 2001-2011, Huttenlocher is dean of the Schwartzman College of Computing at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. They are authors of, "The Age of AI: And Our Human Future."

Besides the obvious privacy concerns and the "garbage in, garbage out" worries, the authors are making a case for AI challenging the primacy of human reason. Historically, man has sought to understand reality and our place in it. The authors site the last 300 years following the Enlightenment as the Age of Reason, or to put it another way science rules. Now through human  ingenuity we have ushered in the Age of AI. They claim AI is obviating human reason by being able to investigate and perceive aspects of the world faster than we are able to and in some cases in ways we don't fully understand. 

The authors site three examples in their article, Google DeepMind created a program called AlphaZero that looked at the game of chess anew and developed a not quite human strategy. Grandmaster Garry Kasparov described it as shaking the game  "to its roots." In 2020 MIT researchers instructed their computer to go through millions of iterations of compounds the goal being to discover new ways of killing bacteria. They came up with a compound they named Halicin. This compound would have been prohibitively expensive to develop through traditional means and took only days verses years to discover. Lastly GPT-3, a language model that consumes internet text, and spits out original text that meets Alan Turing's standard of displaying "intelligent" behavior indistinguishable from that of a human being.

While each of these achievements are remarkable in their own way, let's take a step back and look at the big picture here and what the authors are getting at. Do these advances in AI and computing point to the human being having to redefine our role in the world? The article strongly hints that such a "reboot" of what it means to be human is on its way. Chillingly they remind us that for the last 300 years we have been guided by Descartes philosophical maxim, "I think therefore I am" to the future of, "if AI 'thinks,' what am I?"

How should we as Christians think about this? First off, man has been "made in the image and likeness of God." Computers are tools conceived and built by man with our God given minds and abilities. They are lifeless, they do not have a soul nor can they know or worship the living God, only man can and does. The last 300 years the authors call the Age of Reason glosses over the  fact that Enlightenment  philosophy was a man centered philosophy that leaves out the metaphysical all together and is therefore a Godless and atheistic  worldview, not worthy of our admiration. Likewise, the "New Age of AI" will be more of the same: input sinful man creates sinful man output. We as Christians are not anti-science we are all about discovering truths and and using our God given minds to do so. Where we differ is how we use these discoveries. Do we glorify man or God with them? The article raises the possibility of programming morality into  the AI but fails to mention whose moral compass would be used. I can imagine that all the world's religions and philosophies would be mixed in to make a sausage like "RoboReligion," and some would come to worship the omniscient RoboGod. I get it that it is quite clever to program a computer to beat me at chess, I fall for the "Queen's Gambit" every time. The antibiotic MIT's computer discovered was named after the murderous Hal, a computer from the futuristic movie, 2001 a Space Odyssey and by the way the antibiotic has very little clinical usefulness. The fact that a computer can digest the internet and compose human like essays is interesting but, could it compose poetry like Shakespeare, Shelley, Keats or Dickinson? No I think not, because computers have no emotions or a soul to draw from. Computers are great analytical tools and when used as such are awesome in their performance, but to think that we can program humanity into a lifeless box of electronic components is a fool's errand.

Christian's need to be very wary and stay informed about scientific developments and be involved in the ethical and philosophical questions new scientific discoveries and technology present to our daily lives. Without strong leadership and influence in these matters by Christians, we will suffer from the consequences of the secular mind and worldview.

Link to WSJ Article

Listening in On Silence

We live in a world where silence is a precious commodity. How many of us have noise canceling headphones? We are constantly inundated with background noise. Muzak in elevators, stores and restaurants, phone ringtones, electronic beeps and pings,  ubiquitous tv monitors blare news or sports, not to mention music from car stereos, so loud that you can't hear yourself think, often accompanied along with the thump, thump, thump of bass so intense it makes your teeth rattle, throw in sirens and motorcycles, each one adds to the incessant assault on us.

 Music and silence–how I detest them both!….[Hell] has been occupied by Noise–Noise, the grand dynamism, the audible expression of all that is exultant, ruthless, and virile–Noise which alone defends us from silly qualms, despairing scruples and impossible desires. We will make the whole universe a noise in the end….The melodies and silences of Heaven will be shouted down in the end. (The Screwtape Letters, emphasis added) . C.S. Lewis aptly points to the spiritual  dimension and source  of  "Noise-Noise." It is interesting to note that Lewis published "Screwtape Letters" in 1942, if he were alive today he would have to publish an updated and revised edition.

Silence can be a punishment for the prisoner in solitary confinement, or for some, silence is a refuge from the din of daily life. Jack Bogut a KDKA radio personality, coined the term "audio aspirin." For me taking an "audio aspirin" as a kid was walking into the Carnegie Library on a Saturday morning or St. Joseph's Church on Sunday, both places were like entering into a "cone of silence," a sense of peace washed over me. I still have fond memories of doing so. Heaven is ‘the regions where there is only life and therefore all that is not music is silence.’ (C.S. Lewis, Screwtape Letters)                                                  

Do you practice silence? Silence is a spiritual discipline where we create an environment for God to speak to us , by reading and meditating on the Word, prayer and worship. "For God alone, my soul waits in silence" (Psalm 62:1), "Let all the world keep silence before him." (Habakkuk 2:20), "Be still and know that I am God." (Psalm 46:10), "He leads me beside still waters . He restores my soul." (Psalm 23:2b-3a). These are just some of many Bible verses that talk about being silent before the Lord. 

I have been practicing silence since I was a kid. I have always enjoyed getting up at 0: dark 30 before everyone else to read a book and think. I enjoyed the quiet time before my family trickled down the steps for breakfast and the start of the day's commotion. Now, decades later it is a time where I read my Bible,  pray and meditate. I find it to be an anchor for the day ahead. I have a habit of being 30-45 minutes early for work and I use it to catch up on email or to pray for my work shift, co-workers, patients ,doctors and the nurses we serve. I walk through the door with a sense of peace, often into a high stress environment, the difference it makes in the shift and my attitude towards it is palpable. 

Socrates considered by many to be the wisest man in Greece once stated, "The unexamined life is not worth living." What did he mean? He meant that an unexamined human life is deprived of the meaning and the purpose of existence. Like all Greek philosophers there is wisdom and truth to what he said but it falls short of the Christian worldview. Christian's examine our lives in the light of Scripture, we are sinners in need of a savior. The Spirit convicts us and leads us into all truth. We need silence before the Lord to listen for that "still small voice," that spoke to Elijah many years ago, and still speaks to us today.  Zechariah 4:6 tells us that God's work is "not by might nor by power, but by my Spirit." Do you hear him, are you listening? Take time and be quiet before the Lord. "You will hear a voice behind you, saying, 'This is the way. Follow it, whether it turns to the right or to the left.'" (Isaiah 30:21)  AMEN!

The Autonomy Argument

An opinion piece  authored by Alexis Drutchas, M.D., entitled, "In America, Is Bodily Autonomy a Human Right?," she explores this issue from the framework of today's modern medical practice. This appeared in the online CNN Opinion on June 3rd.  In her article she links bodily autonomy "rights"  together with abortion, assisted suicide and gender change. Her argument is that we must do away with the "Paternalistic Medicine" of the past and subscribe to not  having moral judgements  interfere with certain decisions about bodily freedoms- like aid in dying, transgender health and reproductive rights. Laws that limit these rights are deemed oppressive and are influenced by politicians driven by "religious fundamentalist leaders." (in other words any one with those outdated orthodox Christian morality views) 

First of all what exactly does human autonomy mean? Autonomy is a compound Greek word consisting of two parts, auto which means self and nomy meaning law or rule. So human autonomy means being a law unto oneself. How does this work out in society today? " I feel the need for speed," as Tom Cruise put it in "Top Gun." How does that argument work out for you when a State Trooper pulls you over for going 120 mph on the turnpike? You will get a ticket, a fine and points on your driver's license. Go ahead, appeal that in traffic court and I'm sure the judge won't buy your argument either. It's quite obvious that society places restraints on autonomy, as well it should. We cannot all be a law unto ourselves or we would be living in chaos. As we become a more secularized society the moral restraints of the Christian World View  have been marginalized , kicked to the wayside and it is considered ignorance. That's why we are able to murder children in the womb at any time, will ourselves to be the opposite sex, redefine marriage to be whatever we want it to be, and take our own lives or others in the name of quality of life decisions. However, one thing we cannot change is another Greek word Ontology (reality). We cannot will our xx and xy chromosomes to change. We cannot change reality. Ontology trumps Autonomy, that is truth, period. The Christian Word View stems from the very first four words of Scripture, "In the beginning God.." It does not say, in the beginning man, I, we, they... this is reality that we cannot deny, God is  Sovereign, to do so is moral chaos. If we do, to quote another movie line by Tom Hanks, "Houston, we have a problem."

Dr. Drutchas is an attending Physician at The Massachusetts General Hospital in the palliative care division and a Public Voices Fellow of the OpEd Project. She has previously worked at Fenway Health, a nationally recognized LGBTQ+ health center in Boston and co-founded the Rhode Island Trans Health Conference. Her work has appeared in the Boston Globe, Boston Globe Magazine and Media. Click Here for Article