What a cool surprise to read an article because it addresses a fascinating subject, and find oneself quoted therein… First time that’s ever happened to me. Thanks, Tom! Made my weekend.
On topic, In addition to the divine attributes of Omniscience, Omnipresence, and Omnipotence, St. Augustine identified a fourth — Omnibenevolence. God is “All Good.” This, I think, throws a monkey-wrench into the advancing AI takeover. Since most, maybe all, AI is being developed by corporations in search of profitable products to sell, I suspect the good of all humankind is not at the forefront of their agenda. It probably isn’t in the agenda anywhere. That seems to me an important thing for society to consider before unleashing a conscienceless new god on the world. We should consider also that the multinational corporations developing all this will almost certainly not subject themselves to the new deity. They won’t serve the new god, it will serve them. Advocates of AI control of society are picturing it controlling all the details of life for the good of everyone. That’s the dream. The nightmare, though, is likely to be the present global corporate hegemony controlling the god who controls everybody else. Holy crap! People really need to think this through…
