July Meeting

Hello everyone,

Here is my long overdue blog entry on our July meeting. My apologies ahead of time--I am horrible at taking notes, so my summary here will not be as detailed as Scott's usually are! If you have any corrections or additions to my summary, please be sure to post them in the comments!

First, as an aside...there were several inquires at the meeting about ASA membership and joining ASA. The main ASA page is here: www.asa3.org. Their membership information page is here: http://www.asa3.org/ASA/joinASA.html. They have several different categories of membership which are designed to accommodate people of many different faith/science backgrounds, so I encourage everyone to check it and to join! Also, the ASA listserv is open to both members and non-members; you can sign up for it here: http://www.asa3.org/ASA/EmailASA/index.html. There is a link to the listserv archives from that page if you want to get a sense of the discussions before signing up for it.

Okay, back to the meeting! We had a good turnout--myself (Christine), Kendall, Hannah, Christina, Andy, Kevin, Ivan, Leslie, and Ed were all there at some point during our ~2.5 hour discussion. Incidentally, so was Albert Einstein--Star Pizza happens to have had a very large picture of him on the wall above the table where we were seated! :)

We decided to discuss one of the articles in the latest issue of PSCF, entitled "Artificial Intelligence and the Soul", by Russell Bjork (text not yet posted on the ASA website). Central questions which were addressed included the following (in no particular order):

What is artificial intelligence? Bjork makes a distinction between "strong" and "weak" AI, the latter of which refers to domain-constrained computers that can perform tasks in a way the is equal to or better than humans could perform them (i.e. Deep Blue beating humans at chess). Strong AI was defined as a form of sentient, self-aware intelligence, as in the sci-fi characters such as Commander Data and C3P-O, which could be considered a "person". Bjork, in his article, is concerned with strong AI.

What is the nature of the soul? The soul could be thought of as being dualistic or monistic. Dualism refers to humans possessing a "supernatural" component which is wholly independent of the natural world and which is directly created and given by God through some type of "ensoulment" process. Monism could be thought of in 2 ways: the more materialistic/atheist viewpoint whereby all that which is makes "us", "us" derives from the structures and biochemistry of our brain, and humans are completely reducible to these components. Or, monism could be seen as a phenomenon which, while it derives from our brain structures and biochemical make-up, is yet more than this--it is not reducible to these components. It could be summed up in the phrase: "you don't have a soul, you are a soul". Bjork favored this last approach as the best approach and one which is most consistent with the Hebrew/Biblical understanding of "soul". Still another viewpoint would distinguish a difference between "soul" and "spirit", such that a soul is monistic, but that humans do have a supernatural component which is the "spirit".

What is the "image of God" and what defines our relationship and uniqueness as humans? Relatedly, what possible range of reactions/positions could Christians have when it comes to trying to create artificial intelligence? Bjork argues that there is no inherent conflict with the development/creation of strong AI, and that our unique "status" as humans has nothing to do with our constituency (that is, what makes "us", "us"; or in other words, our rational, emotional, etc. characteristics), but has to do with the grace of God bestowed on us--that He has chosen to be in a personal relationship with us and has given us the responsibility for stewardship/dominion of the earth.

Key discussion points included:

Kevin, Hannah, and Christina expressed skepticism that strong AI could ever be achieved? Indeed, do our attempts constitute a form of the Tower of Babel story, in which case God would not allow us to develop strong AI? Others suggested that it was the spirit behind the construction of the tower, rather than the tower itself, that was sinful. So, if the spirit behind the development of strong AI is not sinful, then God would allow us to develop it. Indeed, is the creation of strong AI part of our task as "partners in creation" with God, part of our stewardship?

Andy argued that an emergent (non-reducible monism) understanding of the soul was consistent with the Biblical passages in Genesis...but then, isn't there yet something supernatural in us? Christine asked what that component was? Emotions? Rationality? If our emotions, for example, are affected by psychiatric drugs (say, for the treatment of depression), then doesn't this suggest these characteristics are rooted in our physical being? Andy was unsure...will have to think about it some more...Ivan noted that from his experience, he has seen deep, spiritual transformations of friends and relatives--but these are not due to physical causes.

If strong AI were created, could they be Christians? Ed noted that our understanding of such a question is not that different from whether or not sentient aliens (if discovered) could be Christians? He made the point that to a large extent, only they themselves could tell us if they had come to experience a personal relationship with God. But, Biblical evidence would point to a welcoming of other creatures and life forms who have been called by God into a relationship--for example, Christianity was explicitly expanded beyond Jews to include Gentiles. Christine and others also pointed out that this raises another question about what is "artificial intelligence"--what about intelligent creatures artificially created through cloning, or perhaps those that might evolve from any synthetic lifeforms we create. Are these also to be considered "artificial intelligence"?

If we do create AI, what will they're relationship to humans be? Christina and Hannah wondered if they would see us an enemy, like in sci-fi films such as The Terminator. Christine wondered if conversely, they might see us as god, since we would have brought them into being? Others wondered about this--if we become god, so to speak, through secondary causes (for God is our primary cause), then would there also be tertiary causes, and so on, if those lifeforms brought into being new forms of artificial intelligence?



Okay all, that's the highlights of what I remember from the meeting. Again, comments/discussion are invited and encouraged!!