Recently, there has been much talk about whether artificial intelligence is coming to the point where it can think for itself. But realistically, when Sci-fi movie culture starts influencing science, you know we’re in trouble. The idea that computers can reason, think, feel or have desires is one of the greatest fallacies of modern times.
And while the contributions of artificial intelligence are vast in how it can process large amounts of data in milliseconds, among other things, the idea that we are creating elements that have personhood or being is an unrealistic fantasy.
An example of this can be seen in suggestions that computers or robots have said they want to take over the world, seek revenge, etc. A female robot was portrayed as wishing to have children.
A simple observation provides a conclusive answer to this question. Thoughts, feelings and desires require a biochemical medium that involves complex hormones. Forming some pieces of metal into the shape of a woman and placing a computer processor within it cannot produce a living being with desires to procreate.
Computers are simply doing what they were programmed to do. They can crunch numbers or spit out code that they have been programmed with. Even if that code has the likeness of human speech, it is simply automated.
The greater question here is why people are intent on fantasizing about having the power to create life? The answer to that reaches to the root of the sentiments underlying the cosmic controversy between good and evil.
In short, like the angel Lucifer, who originated evil intent in Heaven, humans wish to be like God. Not like his kind and benevolent nature, but in the sense of wanting to have his creative powers. This is why throughout the earth continually deny his existence while at the same promoting themselves in every way.
Technology is often held up as proof of human greatness. Media and music often promote the idea that humans can be as gods with magical abilities and powers of creation. These ideas are based on the falsehoods Lucifer (now called Satan) told to Eve in the Garden of Eden, that humanity can be as God and that departing from his principles would not cause death.
These mistaken ideas are often at the root of human thought and form the basis of people’s motivation. Once you recognize it, you can see Luciferian ideology manifested in everything from professionalism to pop culture.
But while humans are busy trying to prove personal greatness instead of connecting with our Creator, we are showing how little we understand about the universe. As also noted in examples this article, most technology developed by humans is inferior to the things God has created. And the principles by which our technology runs were put in place by the Creator.
There is a superintelligence in the universe, indeed, but it’s not runaway computer code. And because of God’s omniscient supervision, we don’t need to fear that computers will take over the world. How sad, though, that so many people would rather live in fear of a sci-fi apocalypse than admit there is a loving Creator.
What rationale is there for believing in the possibility of computer superintelligence while rejecting the possibility of divine superintelligence?