
Are you worried about the pace of artificial intelligence development? 🤔
Many of us feel uneasy about the blurring lines between real and fake, human and machine. Fortunately, there's some really good news that we rarely talk about. I'll get to that soon 👇
But, first…
Many admit they feel like they're chasing technology rather than setting the agenda themselves. These are powerful forces we're up against.
The dream of turning humans into God-like beings
Ray Kurzweil, a respected scientist, inventor, and author, believes we're nearing a point where technology can grant us eternal life.
His theory, the "Law of Accelerating Returns," suggests that development across scientific fields tends to grow exponentially. According to Kurzweil, by 2045, computers will be infinitely more intelligent than humans, making the distinction between real and artificial irrelevant.
We could literally live forever in the cloud as digital avatars: all matter, no soul or spirit.
Transhumanism is a modern ideology that believes we should enhance humans using various technologies. The term alludes to transcending humanism.
Transhumanists like Jason Silva openly embrace this agenda: "Transhumanism is all about harnessing technology to overcome humanity's limitations." Harvard researcher David Sinclair suggests we treat aging as a disease. Vulnerability becomes a problem technology should solve.
While medical technology today is used to repair humans, transhumanists aim to make us achieve more than nature provides as a foundation. This can be seen as a means to fuse humans and machines, turning humans into god-like beings. From a secular standpoint, this is logically sound, albeit still controversial.
It's easy to see how this could affect our view of what it means to be human. Gradually, our perception of human value is changing. The idea of inherent human worth erodes because it lacks a solid foundation.
Haven't we seen this before? People with grandiose ideas, whether the Tower of Babel or a thousand-year Reich.
Haven't we seen how human pride crashes when we play God?
What if, instead of linear development, there's some truth to Ecclesiastes 1:9's claim that "What has been will be again, what has been done will be done again; there is nothing new under the sun"?
The Good News
Fortunately, there's some excellent news amidst all the dystopian scenarios that can easily frighten us: The value of authenticity and humanity will increase.
In my field of expertise, it's happening fast. Suddenly, anyone can produce endless amounts of generic, soulless content and spread it across countless channels in no time.
Goldman Sachs says the "creator economy" will double in the next three years.
New channels, automation, and AI are speeding everything up.
But this makes thoughtful, experience-based, soulful content more valuable, like small oases of life in a desert of lifeless material.
Our world is a shared experience, broken down into individual perspectives
We all want to be understood. We crave being heard, understood, and valued. But that means having the courage to display our vulnerability.
Jesus once asked, "What good will it be for someone to gain the whole world yet forfeit their soul?"
Authenticity is what sets things apart, and there will be a strong desire for the genuine, the unfiltered, the exposed, and the flawed. In this aspect, humans hold a notable edge over AI. The greatest treath to AI is humans.
So I'm not afraid. There is something within us that technology cannot take away.
Humanity will once again prove more potent than inhumanity.
We are created unique and granted a dignity that no one can take from us—not machines, not demagogues.
It might help us see more clearly what the soul, even the spirit, means. The word soul describes the non-physical part of a human—consciousness, or a "self" that is something more than the body. It is sometimes used interchangeably with the word spirit. However, spirit describes the highest intellectual functions, specifically the creative and intuitive part of the human intellect.
The Rediscovery of Our Spirit
In the Christian tradition, the human spirit is the most divine part of us, given by God, who is the "absolute" spirit. In this sense, the spirit is not just the bearer of cognitive and intellectual functions that machines could (at least theoretically) perform better. Spirit also carries higher, nobler emotions like love and compassion.
Christianity claims that the "Holy Spirit"—the Spiritus Sanctus—helps us refine and bring out the most human parts of ourselves—our potential for goodness and love.
If AI helps us rediscover this, we open up to something life-giving and exciting. We will then have a solid anchor when it becomes harder to distinguish machines from humans and real from fakes.
I am optimistic about the future, especially if the rapid development of AI helps us rediscover the value of what is genuinely human and the need to nurture our potential for goodness.
From the Greek "authentikos," authenticity means genuineness or originality, the opposite of a copy or forgery.
Authenticity is the new currency. And the value of genuine human empathy, warmth, and active listening becomes clearer. What excellent news amidst all the unease the rapid development causes in us 🙏🏻
Have a great summer day, my dear, vulnerable, and infinitely valuable fellow humans! ☀️❤️
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