Can Androids Pray for Digital Salvation?
Can robots make good Christians? As computer science races ahead, at least one forward-looking Florida pastor sees a future for the faith in whatever passes for a soul in robots, androids, cyborgs and other forms of artificial intelligence.
No, I'm not making this up.
When the Rev. Christopher Benek, an associate pastor of the First Presbyterian Church of Fort Lauderdale, talks about artificial intelligence or "AI," he writes in a recent online essay, "I am not talking about iPhone's Siri, a Roomba vacuum, or one of those toasters that can make perfectly timed toast with a likeness of Jesus on it. ... I am talking about an autonomous creature that has self-awareness."
When something not only can think, reason, plan, learn, communicate and perceive things but also "feel love, sadness, compassion, joy, affection and a multitude of emotions," he writes, then it is not a great leap to think that "an AI that is very much like us but exponentially more intelligent (could) participate in Christ's redemptive purposes in the world" and "help to make the world a better place."
I see his point, although they also could make the world a worse place, too. Imagine, for example, robots of different denominations getting into a dispute over who has the best lock on eternal life after their lease on this life burns out -- if it ever does.
Yet, at a time when much of the religious and political world seems to be at war with science, Benek has gained international attention with his visionary ideas about how ethics and morality can survive in our rapidly changing techno-future.
Ever since IBM's Watson computer beat two former winners on "Jeopardy!" in 2011, interest in artificial intelligence seems to have accelerated, along with anxieties about what it means for the future of us mere humans.
Best-selling author Ray Kurzweil, a director of engineering at Google, has become the most widely known prophet of "singularity," the widely theorized time, perhaps as soon as 20 or 30 years from now, when computers will be as smart as humans -- and proceed immediately to becoming much smarter than humans.
The chilling possibility that like Bender, the roguish robot on "Futurama," future AIs might want to do without us "meatbag" humans has caused widespread android anxiety. In January the famous physicist Stephen Hawking and adventurous SpaceX CEO Elon Musk pledged to do all they can to make sure that artificial intelligence will benefit humankind and not destroy our species. Good luck, guys.
Meanwhile, trepidation about our robot future seems to be popping up with new vigor in popular culture, where science fiction has long been an outlet for our industrial-age anxieties.
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