Artificial Intelliegence

The human race will be finished, probably in the next century.  

So says Nick Bostrom of Oxford University as reported by Kathleen Miles in the Huffington Post.  If I understand Bostrom’s thesis correctly, the culprit is not going to be microscopic bacteria or viruses, but rather microscopic semi-conductors engineered by humans to produce AI, Artificial Intelligence.  

Artificial Intelligence fully developed produces Superintelligence, or the ability to do all the things the human brain can do, only far better and faster.  Then the next step is the obvious elimination of humans entirely since they would be unneeded and a burden.  

Bostrom states that the only solution to this problem is control of the development of AI.  In order to do this, everyone on the planet needs to be in accord and this won’t happen as long as human egos keep producing warfare and destructive governments and economic systems -- including predatory capitalism.  In other words, the human race needs to get its act together in order to face this and other threats to its existence.  Is this going to happen before AI is prematurely loosed on the planet for money and profit, or we fail to develop the technology to move an asteroid out of our orbit because we’re bombing each other?  

This is about the gospel, which works against “conventional wisdom” on so many levels.  Instead of focusing on survival, the gospel points us to the common good.  Instead of focusing on dominance, the gospel points us to service.  Instead of stirring the negativity of fear and anger and judgment, the gospel leads us to grace and trust in a loving God.  The gospel is not just relevant, it’s everything.  

I think we all need to get back into the fight: the fight to love others as much as we love ourselves, maybe more, and re-learn to love ourselves if that has been taken away.