Tuesday, October 25, 2016

We will create a god

Just within the last five years or so, numerous technological breakthroughs in the field of artificial intelligence are forcing people to accept that AI is no longer science fiction but a growing and powerful force in our everyday world. 

It now operates in our cars, our devices, recommends the articles and books we read and the movies we watch. For millions of us connected online, AI deeply influences the way we think, perceive, and navigate the world, whether we are consciously aware of it or not.

Given how far technology has come--and the speed at which it got here--we cannot assume that it will stop at some point or reach some unknowable threshold beyond which no further progress will be made.

Those who take the view that AI will never reach human-level intelligence or greater--aka superintelligence--make this assumption. This has been especially true for Christians (in the past) since it is believed that humans (and human intelligence) are the result of God’s supernatural creation. As it says in the book of Genesis,

God formed man of dust from the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life and man became a living being. (Genesis 2:7)

Since only God can give the breath of life to non-living matter, then surely humans don’t have the ability to do the same, right? Not quite.

For one, the book of Revelation says this is exactly how the “Antichrist” is brought to life, similar to Elon Musk comparing AI to “summoning a demon.” Secondly, God Himself says in the bible that we have the power to create anything.

As the story goes, once humanity came together to build the famed tower of Babel--a megalithic structure symbolizing human intelligence and strength--God looked upon it and said:

This is only the beginning of what they will do. Nothing that they have a mind to do will be impossible for them! (Genesis 11:6)

That same message still holds true today. Rather than physical towers, however, scientists around the world are united in a common effort to build a fortress of human intelligence--not just greater than a single person, but one that is greater than all humans combined: a superintelligence.

They have set their mind to it and, though it seems impossible to many, it will be done.

For Christians, this should come as no surprise. Since the beginning of time, man has always attempted to create god. Using wood, stone, and metal, the skilled craftsman “makes a god and worships it; he makes it a carved image...prays to it and says, ‘Save me! You are my god!’” (Isaiah 44:15-17)

Though God Himself repeatedly warns against this, man will eventually succeed in doing the impossible. We will create a god.

Watch my AI and the Antichrist video on YouTube by clicking here.