Anything that humans design by their intellect and talents cannot possibly rise above that level. It will never be more than what is theoretically possible for humans. Artificial intelligence (AI) will be quicker and more precise, certainly more consistent, but it will never be wiser. It will only seem smarter because it will not be human, vested with a fallen nature and all the vagaries of internal conflict. Even if we teach AI to emulate that, it can’t be that.
It’s the same thing over and over again: Humans are fallen and refuse to come to terms with that. The human mind cannot buy into that, so it insists that human problems all have a human solution and if we just keep trying hard enough, long enough, we’ll come up with it. Yet, whatever humans individually and collectively dream up as the ideal remains nothing more than a better version of what they already are. Only an outside influence can break that circular reasoning. Indeed, only the Creator who made us can save us from that trap.
Once you are in communion with the Spirit of God, and thus in communion with Creation itself, you will be far beyond what an AI can analyze. AI, as the product of mere fallen imagination, cannot hope to quantify the drive of genuine faith in God. It can surely grasp most organized religion. Indeed, the full gamut of theology today is well within the reach of AI. Theology is merely another effort to control and regulate on a human level; theology is a human product. Theology typically reflects human concerns and mistakes them for God’s. Faith is not a human product; faith is submission and communion with God, a Person far beyond the reach of AI, because He’s beyond the reach of fallen human capabilities.
But the fallen human mind insists that it made God in its own image, so what would you expect?
To the degree our stuff here at Kiln of the Soul has come to anyone’s attention, it has been analyzed from that same human frame of reference. As the AI industry grows, we will come under its apparently unlimited range of analysis. It will attempt to figure out how to handle us as a niche market, because the sole purpose is profit-seeking. It’s a form of control that reduces their obligations while capturing from us the one thing they want: Serve the customer and make that money. The results may impress a few, but it will never quite grasp a human motivated by something so totally outside this universe. God does not yield Himself to that sort of thing.
For example, it will ever remain utterly incomprehensible how obeying the moral Law of God is its own reward. While it answers every human need, faith eclipses those considerations. We measure the progress of faith in terms of no longer paying that much attention to our human needs, except to confirm how wonderfully faith answers them. In the process, we shed a lot of false human desire that masquerades as need. Again: The Law of God is its own reward, and the Law of God cannot be quantified.
They are going to call us “crazy.” It’s socially trendy to claim a playful level of nutiness, but AI will surely label us as intractably wacko. Be ready for that. If you don’t find your own intellect complaining about your faith decisions, then you aren’t trying hard enough. The definition of “sane” excludes a heart-led life. But because it’s trendy these days, we may well suffer little from that aspect as whatever passes for government will shift with social trends.
We are in a sort of revolutionary stage in the cycle of civilizations. What we most had to fear coming from previous tyranny is already fading away. The remnants will be bad enough, but they will fade. The concept of “normal” itself is still in flux because of the chaos that comes from the failure of the old ways. We have some time before anyone will seize the authority to declare us a threat here in the West. There is still the work of crushing some of the old; the authorities will be busy for awhile.
Meanwhile, the rising use of AI is the leading edge of the new civilization. And once again, civilization will coalesce into some new way of excluding the power of faith in Christ. The old ways were an odd mix of including just enough reality to function, but still excluding critical elements of God’s moral character. The new reality will be a different mixture of truth and falsehood. Let us consciously watch and be ready to put our message into forms that speak to the new failures.
And honestly, there’s nothing wrong with having a sense of amusement at how we befuddle AI.
