Within our lifetimes, computers have become exponentially more sophisticated; to the extent that anyone using the chat facility on, for example, their bank’s website might not know if they are talking to a human being or a machine.
Artificial intelligence is everywhere and can even be fun – asking ChatGPT to draw you something or draft a letter can produce unexpected and amusing results. I haven’t yet worked how to describe a piano keyboard that produces an accurate depiction, but it will get there. Some apps can even generate a realistic-seeming conversation with a “bot”, and it’s not much different from a conversation with a real friend.
Science fiction has often explored, in TV, film and novels, the question, “What is it to be human?” Often accompanied by dire warnings about what happens when the machines are allowed to take over.
Of course, being human, we think we’re special. Some people of faith will speak of humans as containing a spark of the divine, or of being God’s regent on earth. The Hebrew Bible, in the book of Genesis gives a beautiful metaphor; a word-picture of human beings created by God from the earth, in the image of God, and given instructions to be stewards of the earth. We are given status, dignity and a position of responsibility. We have our flaws; but we are part of the creation that God called good, and we are loved.
Kim Tame is a member of Wokingham Methodist Church.
