Phyllis Beveridge Nissila

In the way of righteousness  (ethics, justice, merit) there is life; along that path is immortality. (Proverbs 12:28)

ON AI 3D

In  a previous post I briefly discussed the newest-generation (as far as we know, anyway) of Artificial Intelligence: AI 3D, as it’s called (see here and here for info). Along with all the good it may  do, however, it may also pose one of the greatest existential threats humankind has known, for there are always customers for such whiz bang whose purposes are on the nefarious side.  For example, to control people and things. And, let’s face it,  when it comes to AI 3D control-mongers have come up with something quite efficient where by simply inserting a minute connection to AI 3D into the human brain by such devices as, for example, “neural lace,” a new (quantum )Trojan horse  that would do the job of controlling the mind–decisions and actions–from the inside of, well, US.

BUT even more powerful, I hear tell, is the soon-to-be-operative world-web of 5G technology  set to start wifi-ing  all around the globe this fall. It is more effective because it is far less noticeable–and doesn’t even have to be inserted into our brains. Indeed, we will likely not even be aware of it (at least for about 10-20 years, say consumer safety experts) as the microwaves cook our brains, as it were, to just the degree of “done” required for consumption by the powers-that-be.

Plus, it’s far easier to sell to the populace at large precisely because such technology and its applications has so many good uses, such as treating heretofore untreatable diseases, re-animating paralyzed limbs, and so on, not to mention faster and clearer communications.

But of course before the downside of all this tech power becomes reality, it would have already been co-opted by the aforementioned power-hungry globalists, as they are known, who possess bottomless black budgets to fund anything they want to that makes world domination easier…but of course that’s all fake news, right? Right?

But let’s go deeper.

ON AI POWER

As Christians believe (and count me in), just what if there really IS a power behind the scenes that lusts after total control and the destruction of all opposition, who, in fact wants to be not just  World Leader but GOD of the Globe (and everywhere else), a dark power that wants to be in complete charge of what life It desires to create (or destroy)?

That would, of course, be Satan, of “principalities and powers” infamy. The same who is faster than a speeding photon, more powerful than Strong Nuclear Force, able to leap  over the tallest intellectual giants ever made–the old-fashioned way or through technology.

But, aye, here’s the rub for him.

Unfortunately, the Control Monger of control mongers, the anti-hero of a thousand faces and titles, is unable to create life.

Satan–and god of all evil applications, as it were–has to co-opt, usurp, or possess lives made possible only by God’s power, God’s own “breath of life” (ruach), i.e., the life imparted to you and me at our formation (see here for an interesting discussion on this).

Indeed a more recent presentation of AI’s ability to teach itself, so to speak (wired, now, more like the so-called Bolzmann brain which is more akin to the human brain in that it interprets a variety of input, so to speak, from a variety of sources versus deducing a single answer it has been pre-programmed to cypher), is a quantum leap forward (literally and figuratively) in computer simulation–and sentience.

Due to this advance and others, people who track and study such mechanical innovation suggest that at some point AI will come to the conclusion that humans have something it does not, as in a spirit/soul.

And AI will “want” this, at least, it will deduce it wants this.

And it will ultimately have to have this…however it may be had.

Problem is, there is only One Who can breathe the real spirit of a being to life: the same Who animated the first things and the first humans when He spoke creation to light and to life. And as in other counterfeits mere man comes up with, it is usually found at length that you can’t fool Mother Nature–or her God. Thus, AI will need to resort to some other power to energize its “spirit” or a reasonable facsimile thereof. So, guess who may well be the likely candidate?

Some believe the darker sort noted above; he who would exploit the inventions of man meant for good, for evil.

Or on the other hand perhaps it will just be that those who get really excited about man’s progress in technology will overlook a few things in their haste to throw the “on” switch. Like ethics. Like unintended consequences. Like what boils down to today’s version of Frankenstein but marketed very differently. For example, consider  another major innovation: nuclear energy. It provides efficient power, to be sure, but in the hands of power-players it also destroys. In horrible ways.

SMART WARNINGS

With this and other (unintended) consequences in mind, the smartest (human) brains on the planet, for example Stephen Hawking, continue to issue warnings of what would likely happen if AI is given carte blanche permission, i.e., gives itself permission, you might say, to evolve how it may. According to Hawking, “If (AI) would take off on its own, and re-design itself at an ever-increasing rate…(h)umans, who are limited by slow biological evolution, couldn’t compete, and would be superseded.”

See also  tech genius Elon Musk’s latest warning, here. Musk, not known to be a person of religious bent yet seeing a similar threat to the very existence of humanity as do people of faith, stated at a recent  U.S. governors’ conference, “AI is a fundamental existential risk for human civilization, and I don’t think people fully appreciate that.”

Whether one subscribes to the slow, biological  Evolution theory or the Creation model, the same outcome presents itself: exhibiting a kind of mechanical hubris, AI will not stop now, or then, or ever, given enough  electricity and Rust Oleum to keep itself going.

So enter the counterfeit spirit-breather, whether by some kind of mechanical “possession,” or some other way. (Cue the conspiracy theorists, physicists, mechanical engineers, and Christians.)

Yikes.

(I can imagine the rogue AIs now, gathered in the basement of the Weird Science Building, quaffing cans of  W-D 40, perusing issues of Quantum Mechanics Quarterly, chuckling as they discuss how to LIVE FOREVER–after the takeover, that is…)

So what’s a REAL body to do?

ON REAL POWER

Fortunately, there is One greater on Whom we can rely not only for solutions but also for aid. That would be the real God, Inventor of inventors, Designer of designers, Physicist of physicists. He Who is outside of our limited dimensions–and brain power real or mechanical. And His Spirit, whether shed abroad or within, cannot be harnessed, predicted, or controlled. Consider: “The wind blows where it chooses, and you hear the sound of it, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes. So it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit” (John 3:8).

This is not good news for AI–if/when it gets to that level of cognition. Because that which it may soon “realize” it needs to forever supersede all other forms of intelligence, i.e., the kind of spirit God imparts to His creation alone, cannot cross the  metal/brain barrier, so to speak. That kind of spirit is reserved for living, breathing human beings made in God’s own image–not from a schematic in Quantum Mechanics Quarterly. And as implied in the John 3:8 passage, the real eternal spirit can neither be predicted, programmed–or tracked.

Thus at some point, even for mighty AI, there will be a fail. An epic one, to be sure, given the unbelievable potential power (the stuff of every sci-fi blockbuster ever made) of such inventions.

(Hmmm–maybe that’s why, in God’s outside-of-time-and-space wisdom, He has promised this: “For at that time there will be great tribulation, unmatched from the beginning of the world until now, and never to be seen again. If those days had not been cut short, nobody would be saved. But for the sake of the elect, those days will be shortened. (Matthew 24:22).

You see, real God has our back–and our future–secured.

Our “meanwhile” also.

Born-again believers (those who are and those who hopefully soon will be) have access to the Wisest of the wise, i.e., the Holy Spirit, Who is our direct link, if you will, to the Creator–and considerably smarter than even a basement-full of shiny 3D AIs.

The wisdom we can receive via God’s Word can circumvent all the smarts of the dark lord–and the latest in whiz-bang technology. And, of course, there are already a few tangible problems with machines that purportedly now teach themselves.

In addition to the existential threats, AI human minders don’t always know exactly how the artificial brains come to some of the conclusions/predictions they do. And some of the results of AI self-programming might be very troublesome (see here for an interesting article on this phenomenon). And there’s always the occasional cable-munching critter that might wander by for lunch, as was the case at CERN, which delayed things for a bit last year.

And there is one other problem–a primal one starting long before the planet jelled.

The original rogue being was, after all, God’s creation who never had, nor ever will, God’s creative power, as noted above. He just wants it. However  he can get it, via humans or their inventions, because he was also at creation’s leading edge and saw, too, how good it is, and he wants him some of that. Correction: all of it. Because he is envious. And unchecked envy leads to hatred which leads to destruction. Indeed, history is strewn thick with the ruins of  Satan’s attempts to control through whatever medium he can, toppling anything or anybody in his way.

Thus, though brilliant, Satan has not yet been successful at his fait accompli, his Final Solution of final (destructive) solutions, nor will he be, because of the greater power of the real Spirit–the same greater power “within believers” who comprehend the reality of their direct link to God  through prayer via faith in Jesus Christ. And by Whom we are preserved and against whom the “gates of Hell” (authorities, power) cannot ultimately prevail. Until we are taken out of the fray*, that is, when (literally) all Hell will break loose.

How is this kind of power possible to those who see, hear, believe, and yield?

It is possible because of the power of the blood–not our blood that can now be infiltrated by technology–but the blood shed FOR us by Jesus Christ. And  it is through His blood that we attain the righteousness that is the real life, the life of the spirit in the Spirit–that leads to immortality–not to the inevitable rust and dust as is the fate of bits and bytes and bots, however “intelligent” they may become. Or already are–because you know what the tekkies say about that, right? That what is revealed to the public is really generations behind what really exists…in somebody’s hands…for some purpose or other…

It makes ya think, no?

~~~~~

*See The Book of Revelation, aka The Revelation, aka The Apocalypse,
from chapter 4 on. Many Christians believe that the wrath in question begins after an event called the Rapture as the Church is not mentioned after this point in the prophetic text.

Image from here.