Gods & Monsters

Warning: The following column contains a wild-eyed, lurid fantasy. (Theirs) Followed by overwrought denunciation. (Mine) Reader discretion is advised.

Honestly, I read an article recently in my own paper that was so fantastically stupid that I nearly spat on the floor. It was about Generative Artificial Intelligence (the big brother of ChatGPT) and its potential to achieve self-awareness or consciousness. The writer went on to murmur about current scientific theory suggesting consciousness will arise spontaneously in highly complex systems.

I could hear Victor Frankenstein’s servant Igor screaming, “It’s alive, it’s alive!”

I ever marvel over humanity’s endless appetite to create gods and monsters.

I then poked around other reputable media sites, The Washington Post, CBC, WIRED, Scientific American, Forbes…

Of course, the media loves this stuff, and of course, this insanity is everywhere, generating handwringing opinion pieces. The more apocalyptic, the better.

The very first piece I read – IN MY OWN PAPER – displayed a level of neurotic anthropomorphism that staggered me. The article went on to paint a picture of GAI reaching a state where it would regard humanity in the same way that we regard plants. Eventually, the writer argued, GAI would become so clever that it could redesign itself into something infinitely beyond humanity.

Please! Sound the tympani of the opening credits of 2001, A Space Odyssey. “Would you like to play chess, Dave? No thanks, Hal.” Cue Strauss, Zarathustra, Opus 30.

The only problem this god-like computer system had was that it, at all costs, needed to ensure its power supply. It wouldn’t do if some slow-witted human unplugged it.

I only raise all this to offer a few suggestions about how you might think about or answer the inevitable deluge of nonsense about sentient computer systems that is going to come washing into our lives. There is already discussion going on in the nutter-verse on whether sentient computers should be accorded human rights. Humanity is once again building its tower of Babel.

Two points to consider. In its simplest, there are two things involved, software which runs on algorithms and hardware. Algorithms are essentially mathematical instructions or rules that must be followed to achieve a result. Think of a recipe to bake a cake.

And then there is the hardware, much of which you can buy at an electronics store: metal, wire, plastic, coolants, rubber, batteries. I am simplifying it here, but we are talking about inert material. Dead as a stone.

It’s a machine following a set of instructions. That’s it. It’s a glorified iPhone that can do marvellous things, but it’s a machine no more sentient than your toaster, which can also do wonderful things. It doesn’t think; it computes.

Of course, the whole idea of sentient computers is rooted in Materialism. Once you sweep God aside, you are left explaining consciousness as arising from complex systems. And the subtle, unspoken temptation of Materialism is that if there is no God, then we are gods. The computer may be sentient, but secretly we still know we are its creator.

This has happened before.

Exodus 32: [1] When the people saw that Moses delayed to come down from the mountain, the people gathered themselves together to Aaron and said to him, “Up, make us gods who shall go before us. As for this Moses, the man who brought us up out of the land of Egypt, we do not know what has become of him.” [2] So Aaron said to them, “Take off the rings of gold that are in the ears of your wives, your sons, and your daughters, and bring them to me.” [3] So all the people took off the rings of gold that were in their ears and brought them to Aaron. [4] And he received the gold from their hand and fashioned it with a graving tool and made a golden calf. And they said, “These are your gods, O Israel, who brought you up out of the land of Egypt!”

Of course, gods are sentient.

When Moses confronts Aaron about this idiotic behaviour, Aaron delivers the type of response worthy of a modern Materialist.

Exodus 32 [21] And Moses said to Aaron, “What did this people do to you that you have brought such a great sin upon them?” [22] And Aaron said, “Let not the anger of my lord burn hot. You know the people, that they are set on evil. [23] For they said to me, ‘Make us gods who shall go before us. As for this Moses, the man who brought us up out of the land of Egypt, we do not know what has become of him.’ [24] So I said to them, ‘Let any who have gold take it off.’ So they gave it to me, and I threw it into the fire, and out came this calf.”

“It’s Alive!”

The idea of a sentient computer is a Materialist fantasy, and nothing more.