A Christian response to the new reality shaping the thoughts of millions
By Stephen Turnham.
For those of us who are old enough to have studied the Bible over many years, the letters ‘AI’ were simply the second city that Joshua and the Israelites destroyed when conquering Canaan! It was only really in the late 90s of the 20th century that the phrase ‘Artificial Intelligence’ (AI) started to be mainstream and make waves in our national thoughts.
Many science fiction followers probably had a better grasp of its concept, but even for them the idea of a genuine computer that was superior to us in all aspects, apart from empathy, was considered way off in the distance, more than a century away. A famous 1968 film, ‘2001: A Space Odyssey’, gave a big hint as to what was coming in the next century. Next came the 1970 film, ‘Colossus’, where the super computers take control of nuclear weapons and blackmail humanity into submission.
Now 25 years into this new century, techies are counting down the days to what’s called ‘the singularity’, when combined computer systems reach ASI or Artificial Super Intelligence. This has arrived faster than thought because computers are creating computers and coding themselves.
(https://www.nytimes.com/2021/09/09/technology/codex-artificial-intelligence-coding.html)
‘The singularity’ is something the old films predicted – no longer fiction but a creepy reality!
At this point computer ability becomes almost self-conscious, supposedly knowing all human knowledge there is to know, with the ability to make choices and cause actions to achieve goals or missions that ASI and AI deem wise!