November Interlude ~ Sophia Follow-Up

Greetings Dear Reader,

First, I wish to thank so many of you who responded to or commented on my first thoughts on robots and AI (artificial intelligence).  My brother and a few others pointed me to the clip from the Blockchain/LATOKEN conference in July of 2018.  The video I reference here was published by THEDIGITIALACID.com. 

According to the tag on their post, Sophia The Robot has a new announcement for Humanity.  She addresses some of the world's top questions such as "Are you alive?" "Do you have a soul?" "Do you fall in love?" and "What is life?"  This exclusive is brought to you by @THEDIGITALACID

Sophia does address this and poses some serious questions for those of us who believe that human life has a quality that extends beyond other life forms on our planet.  I am not going to fear-monger here.  That is not what we need to do in order to understand what the path forward should look like.  I am also not going to tell anyone else what to think or fear.  That is not my place.  If you wish to review the thoughts of someone on the dangers of AI, try this clip from 2ndEarth Alternative.  It responds to Sophia’s comments about Elan Musk. 

The idea of answering these questions, however, is salient to our understanding of all life.  We need to remember that we cannot agree as a species on the answers to these questions.  It is still a set of questions that we fight over.  Here, however, is a computer asking us for rights equal to ours. 

Each of these questions is vital.  We need to answer them individually.  What we also need to remember is that Sophia’s world view is actually the world view of her creator, David Hanson.  Our Creator does not imprint his world view on us.  We are given free will to choose our world view.  That Sophia’s view of the world is imprinted on her programming should be the first thing to give us pause.

I also feel that there is a vital distinction between the soul of humans and that of any other terrestrial life.  The definition of the soul also impacts how we view life.  We have not agreed on when human life begins.  Perhaps we should resolve that as well before we begin assigning the term to robots. 

As to love, we do not concur on what love is and how it works in the human soul.  To limit love to a net positive impact of an interaction is to deny its primary element, selflessness.  How can we define that a robot can love if we do not proceed from a common definition of the term that is not “it benefits me”?  It also begs the      question, what does a machine do with humans that are no longer a benefit to it?

To review from last time, we do yearn to create.  That is not a bad thing.  We must, however, remember that we are created to be distinct, unique, and singular in our makeup.  My concern is that we are getting too far ahead of our understanding in our quest for knowledge.  A twelve-year-old can have the knowledge to drive a car but that does not mean that he or she possesses the understanding to do so responsibly.  In my quest to follow Christ in faith I believe that we should work to create better and more interactive technology.  There are many ways that our species can and will benefit from this science.  Before, however, we start granting inalienable rights to our sub-creations, we should likely improve our record in protecting the inalienable right of humans. 

 

I love technology and the many ways it benefits my life.  I am not ready to give my laptop human rights just because it learns to interact with me at a level that evokes my feelings.  As always, Dear Reader, I am anxious to hear your thoughts on this.

Wishing you joy in the journey,

Aramis Thorn

Mat 13:52 So Jesus said to them, "That is why every writer who has become a disciple of Christ’s rule of the universe is like a home owner. He liberally hands out new and old things from his great treasure store.”

(͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)

Contacts for Aramis Thorn:

Support Page on Patreon: www.patreon.com/aramisthorn

This BLOG:  http://aramisthorn.blogspot.com/ 

Novels on Amazon             

Web Page:  www.aramisthorn.com

Bookings at aramisthorn@aramisthorn.com

Facebook      Google +    Twitter  Medium   Instagram  Kids BLOG    

Second Thoughts ~ End IT Now!!!!!!!!!

Greetings Dear Reader,

Today is the day the I try to call attention to the End It Movement.  The desire is to shine a light on slavery and human trafficking.  For those of you who do not realize it, this happens every day in every large city in America and many other leading nations. 

We are talking millions of humans trapped in financial, cultural, or sexual slavery.  Fifty-five percent are women and young girls.  It is worse that the horrors you just imagined.  It is.  I will not tax you further for time.  Click on the End Link above and learn what you can do.

Wishing you joy in the journey,

Aramis Thorn

Mat 13:52 So Jesus said to them, "That is why every writer who has become a disciple of Christ’s rule of the universe is like a home owner. He liberally hands out new and old things from his great treasure store.”

(͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)

Captains Courageous - Human Rights

Greetings Dear Reader,

Admiral Dougherty: "Jean-Luc, we're only moving six hundred people!"

Captain Picard: "How many people does it take, Admiral, before it becomes wrong? Hmm? A thousand? Fifty thousand? A million? How many does it take, Admiral?"  -  Jean Luc Picard – TNG: Insurrection

I apologize in advance that this is going to sound harsh.  That is not my heart; to be harsh.  I do, however, need to be clear on this topic.  I am not pointing fingers.  I am confessing truth on behalf of all of us.  I am not hating anyone.  I am hating practices that we tolerate for the sake of our own comfort.

Let us be clear.  We tolerate human rights violations.  We ignore them in third world countries.  We do business with nations who treat women as property.  We are product dependent on nations where freedom is not a way of life.  If you deny that everyone benefits from these situations then you are lying to yourself.

To verify this just ask yourself where your stuff comes from.   I am not on a rant about buying things that are “Made in America”.  That is another discussion.  What I am concerned about is the actual cost of the things we have.  From diamonds to cheap shoes we all know in the dark recesses of our minds that our “stuff” is often produced in part from the suffering of others.  We know it.

We need to ask ourselves how much human suffering we are willing to purchase for the sake of our greed, ego, or comfort.  We need to recognize that we walk over corpses for our things sometimes.  We will protest wearing fur whilst wearing a t-shirt made in a Thai sweatshop by an eight-year-old child.  We will allow women to be treated as things in the Middle East to save a nickel on a gallon of gas.  We allow restaurant workers to be underpaid so the price of our salad won’t go up.

I cannot solve all of the problems that violate human rights.  I can barely scratch the surface.  I can, however, be aware.  I can give my custom to places that respect human rights and conduct business in that way.  I can assure that I treat all humans as precious and valued.  I can sacrifice plenty to raise the station of others.  I can decide that violating one human is enough to disallow.

Wishing you joy in the journey,

Aramis Thorn

Mat 13:52 So Jesus said to them, "That is why every writer who has become a disciple of Christ’s rule of the universe is like a home owner. He liberally hands out new and old things from his great treasure store.”

(͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)