In an empire of lies only a crazy man would speak the truth. And crazy people do crazy things. They do stupid and wrong things. They don’t destroy someone for saying the false ideas are false. They destroy them for doing something crazy. But you have to be crazy to tell them their ideas are false. Because of that they will try to destroy you.” [1]
This is the stupidity of Artificial Intelligence.
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The term "AI" could be attributed to John McCarthy of MIT (Massachusetts Institute of Technology), which Marvin Minsky (Carnegie-Mellon University) defines as "the construction of computer programs that engage in tasks that are currently more satisfactorily performed by human beings because they require high-level mental processes such as: perceptual learning, memory organization and critical reasoning. The summer 1956 conference at Dartmouth College (funded by the Rockefeller Institute) is considered the founder of the discipline. Anecdotally, it is worth noting the great success of what was not a conference but rather a workshop. Only six people, including McCarthy and Minsky, had remained consistently present throughout this work (which relied essentially on developments based on formal logic).
I know it worries Elon Musk, but then he is dedicated to populating space with a billion people dumb enough to pay to travel nine months to Mars. A.I. doesn’t know what it doesn’t know and that is stupid. My days begin and there are many events ahead—some I planned for, many I didn’t know—that are part of my day. Many knocks on the door, decisions to make, and the internet—ah yes, it is like a hundred people pulling their chairs up next to mine and telling me why I should follow their instructions. What happens in my house, among my family, and particularly, in my mind and body—A.I. is watching me.
Over the holidays I watched a string of Gunsmoke reruns, a John Wayne film festival, and regardless of the channel, all the commercials were about very personal issues, all tailored for me, and what could happen to me if I didn’t take immediate action. It nearly drove me insane. How do they know me and the conditions of my bowels? Ever notice that in a Gunsmokererun how the commercials are longer than the actual time you can watch Gunsmoke? I know more about Doc, Miss Kitty, Chester, Festus, and the Long Branch Saloon than at any time in my life. I am now a Gunsmoke historian. And John Wayne, Rio Lobo, should I go on? Oh, my only relief is a football game now and then, and because even the NCAA and NFL seem to know a lot about me, I like to nap then, or just turn it all off.
Taking walks with God seems to be the best use of my time. He seems to know me better than anyone. After all, he wrote it all down before it began. Psalm 139 tells me “you saw me before I was born. Every moment was laid out before a single day had passed. How precious are your thoughts about me O God. They cannot be numbered! I can’t count them; they outnumber the grains of sand! And when I wake up, you are still with me…Search me, O God, and know my heart; test me and know my anxious thoughts. Point out anything in me that offends you, and lead me along the path of everlasting life.” [2]
The Tower of Babel Redux [3]
The more I read about humanity’s best minds attempting to populate outer space, the more it reminds me of one of human kind’s most spectacular egomaniacal boo-boos. The Tower of Babel. The smart guys felt the wind at their backs, so they would build a tower to heaven, heaven being whatever they decided it was. God didn’t look too kindly at their effort and confused their language. Even today, some I suppose, argue about which language. But philosophers favor the language of mathematics. Even our greatest minds have proven to be misguided (Bertrand Russell), [4] et al. Like a missile that locks in on the ship that fired it, it is self-destructive. Math became their “Let’s make bricks and harden them with fire.”
Not surprisingly, neither Elon Musk nor Jeff Bezoshave made reservations on the Mars shuttle. No way they could sit still for the required nine months. Their efforts will collapse along with their tower, impotenia erecti.[5]
The Sound Mind Principia Biblical
“For God has not given us a spirit of fear or timidity, but of power, love and self-discipline. [sound mind]” [6]
Every day we must choose to be someone’s fool. A fool and servant of skepticism, or a fool for Christ’s sake. It is a daily challenge for all Christians. I choose most days to be a fool for Christ’s sake. For I believe the foolishness of God is wiser than the wisdom of man. When you sit with your medical advisors, who and what do you trust? My answer is a daily decision to choose life.
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Satan has come to destroy us—Christ has come to give us the abundant life. I choose to trust that God is working through the medical advice I receive, but in the end, I must decide! But I do so with the knowledge that Satan gets nothing from me. God has written down every day, every decision before I was born. I am His servant, He came to give abundant life, I have come to be His witness. Whether I find myself on a walk, in a coffee shop, or just sitting with family, I can wonder, “Lord, who will I get to talk with today?” But my best talks are always with you.[7]
Bill Hull
January 2024
[1] Andrew Klavan Empire of lies 2008.
[2] Psalm 139:16-18,23,24.
[3] Genesis 11:1-10
[4] Bertrand Russell was University of Cambridge philosopher. He and his colleagues such as Ludwig Wittgenstein, distilled all-knowing to mathematics in such works as Principia Mathematica.
[5] Look it up
[6] 2 Timothy 1:7 NLT.
[7] Selected scripture, I Corinthians 1:18ff, John 10:10, Psalm 139, Acts 1:8, and In the Garden,1912 written by Charles Austin Miles 1846-1912. https://hymnary.org/text/i_
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