Questions

If I outsource my thinking to an algorithm – a robot – does my ability to think begin to atrophy? What about my conscience? If I let the algorithm decide right and wrong for me, does my conscience atrophy? Maybe even my humanity? What does it mean to be human? 

Why do I have the ability to think? Why do I have a conscience? What is the meaning of life? Is there a purpose to life?

If I am just a cosmic accident, a random agglomeration of atoms that has somehow developed what appears to be the ability to think, none of those questions matter. But if I was created, those questions are important. If I was created, then I must be somehow accountable to the one who created me; to not let a mindless algorithm that has no sense of responsibility guide me in my day-to-day decisions, guide me in trying to determine the path of truth.

 Perhaps it comes down to the question of whether truth exists at all. The common thinking of our day, the zeitgeist, says there is no truth. But there is something within me that rises up when I feel others have treated me wrongly. Where does that come from? We all seem to have that sense or feeling. Is there truth in that feeling? If so, then I should be able to know when I am doing something wrong. That is what we call conscience. Is it real? Or is it just random collisions of random atoms in what we call our brain?

Is there a purpose to my existence? Why? Where does it come from? If there is a purpose to my existence, then there must be an intelligent force in the universe that is guiding me towards some goal that is not necessarily my idea. Let’s call that force God, there really doesn’t seem to be any other explanation, does there?

We live in a world that appears to be chaotic, but is it really? Or is it just that there are so many things going on that we cannot hope to grasp them all in our finite mind? But God sees all, knows all, and wants to guide us to an end that he sees clearly, but is largely hidden to us.

The way forward for us, for me, is something that we don’t want to do, and that is to submit to God. Despite our fears, submission to God will not reduce us to mindless robots, that is what AI and it’s algorithms will do to us. Submission to God allows him to guide us to be all that we can be and all that he wants us to be and leads us towards a goal that will bring the greatest happiness to us. We don’t want to submit. But lack of submission leaves us tossed to and fro in the chaos of this world. The way of submission is the way of peace, the way of hope. 

For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, saith the LORD, thoughts of peace, and not of evil, to give you an expected end. Jeremiah 29:11