The Robots Are Coming
Genesis 1:26-27
“And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth. So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them.”
Everybody’s scariest monsters would be robots. I remember as a little boy, in November 1968, hiding behind the couch while watching Doctor Who – The Invasion. I was enthralled as the Cybermen (cybernetic robots) emerged from London’s sewers to take over the world!
Many science fiction stories feature robots, which are essentially an artificial framework, containing some sort of a computer for a brain. This computer-brain has been manufactured, but the idea is that its programs eventually become self aware, and the robot is then capable of intelligent thought.
Of course, robots now exist among us. Yet they are not the metal men of our childhood nightmares. Computer-controlled arms paint cars, wrap packages, and even drive trains. Where these modern robots differ from those of sci-fi is in the nature of their computer programs. These programs are not self-aware. They sometimes give the impression of intelligence or even self- awareness, as the listener would recognize, if you have ever tried to talk to Siri or Echo. Some experts in the field of artificial intelligence believe that these programs could eventually become genuinely self-aware and could then start to create their own successors. Would such machines have souls?
The answer to that conundrum is to go back to Genesis. In the first chapter, we are told that the special nature of humanity exists because we are made in the image of God.
AI machines, however sophisticated, are not. It is an evolutionary idea that robotic programs could one day reproduce, but such an idea is not supported by the facts, as revealed in Scripture.
Prayer: I praise You, Lord God, that I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Thank You for the wonder of Your creation of humanity, all descended from the first man, Adam. Amen.
Author: Paul F. Taylor
Ref: Will Artificial Intelligence Destroy Humanity?, < https://answersingenesis.org/blogs/ken-ham/2014/12/09/will-artificial-intelligence- destroy-humanity/ >, accessed 7/26/2017.
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