Artificial Intelligence and Spirituality

[Bathsheba]

I'm a bit of a science geek and recently have been doing a bit of reading about Artificial Intelligence (AI). Apparently sophisticated AI is predicted to arrive within our life time... as early as in 10 years according to some scientists. So... this poses an interesting question. In plain-speak: If an AI computer tells humanity that life as we know it was not a result of chance...but a result of the work of a superior being how would this affect us as a civilisation? Perhaps the AI might not be able to explain HOW humanity came to be...only that it didn't happen by chance and evolution alone. Simply put... the AI tells us that "there is a God". Then what? Is this outcome far-fetched? Would it become "classified information"? I wonder....

[AnyDream]

BAth, I'm not sure that AI would ever be able to reach that conclusion - since it is inherent life-force or the spirit of a thing that allows "consciousness" (and AI will never really have 'life-force' and therefore no "consciousness") and this consciousness is somehow connected with our wisdom. The knowing of God or divinity or mystical force is IMO, best done using our faculty of wisdom and not raw intelligence, per se.

[Bathsheba]

I agree that the understanding of the nature of God is best done using our intuitive consciousness Marydean ... however purely scientifically speaking: if scientists input the hard facts pertaining to the beginning of creation... say our knowledge of the creation of the universe, and then the beginnings of life on Earth... what if AI explained that the scientific equations and theories regarding the beginnings of life on Earth didn't add up... and that it had to factor in the input of a higher power (intelligence)... this could be done using the sciences of physics and/or chemistry for example.

I expect that AI will be able to add (or correct existing ones) a few new formula to our laws of physics... what if AI was able to elaborate (once again, for example) Newton's Law: "Energy can not be created nor destroyed... only made to change form"... what if AI was therefore able to scientifically prove that our consciousness didn't just spontaneously spring from nowhere? See what I mean? Our spiritual consciousness is an energy... how could it have simply appeared from nothing? My words are clumsy... but what I'm wondering is whether AI could prove the imput of a higher intelligence prior to the arrival of human consciousness. What would we do then?

[Bathsheba]

Been Googling and came across a book titled: The Spiritual Brain: A Neuroscientist's Case for the Existence of the Soul
Looks interesting... must check it out.

[Ca Plane Pour Moi]

Bath, I would say that a truly sophisticated AI (eg the kid in the film A.I. or Data from Star Trek as opposed to HAL from 2001 or the robots in Star Wars) would HAVE to believe in a creator. Why? Because the AI has a creator. It is intelligent and designed for a purpose... as are Humans. Therefore, Humans must have a Creator. We parallel what we know.

[Bathsheba]

Yep, good point Ryn.

Intuition vs logic is such a fascinating argument. Whilst I can't prove the existence of a creator I can intuit one. Sometimes I feel that both systems are not that separate... that the overlap of intuition and logic is greater that we curently believe possible. AI shouldn't technically have the ability to use intuition... or should it?

ETA: Something that has brought this to the forefront of my mind is watching the movie The Day The Earth Stood Still... and the scene in which the alien tries to tell the human character that life isn't really destroyed... the universe just transforms it into something else...