By Mark Azzara
Dear Friend,
If you have trouble imagining what artificial intelligence can mean for you, I invite you to watch this video, which could scare the … ahem, life … out of you.
Why am I bothering to frighten you like this? Well, for openers, there’s a new book that’s drawing quite a crowd of readers. Steven Pinker, a Harvard University psychology professor who was recently described by PBS correspondent Paul Solman as an “eternal optimist,” has written the book “Enlightenment Now: The Case for Reason, Science, Humanism and Progress,” in which he argues that the world is fine, despite its problems, and that there’s really nothing to worry about.
That reminds me of the false prophets of the Jewish Bible (a/k/a the Old Testament) who pooh-poohed the real prophets who were warning about exile for a sinful people.
I was thinking the other day about the ending of a Laurel & Hardy movie – actually, the end of a lot of them, when Hardy says to Laurel, ‘Well, here’s another fine mess you’ve gotten us into.” Eighty years later and it’s still true. But it’s not nearly as amusing today as it was way back then.
You and I cannot regulate the morality of other human beings. We cannot claim authority over someone else’s free will, as I overheard a friend say last summer. As a result we should be prepared for the consequences that result from abuse of free will by others. And the abuse of free will is getting easier and easier, thanks to the developments of modern technology, such as those in the video you just watched.
This is just one more proof why humanism and “enlightenment” will never lead us to the good life. Humanity is not the source of its own light. The examples above prove there is a lot of darkness in the human soul.
This isn’t the first time I’ve written about the folly of our humanity. My letters often are variations on this theme. If you want to refresh your memory, read “The Joy of Oppression,” “The Humanity of Violence” and “Who(m) Do You Trust?”
Every day we prove to ourselves the indisputable truth about how … ahem, misguided … we are when left to ourselves, and also how incapable we are of recognizing our foolishness, selfishness and desire to be in control, much less repenting of it. Every day, in other words, we prove more deeply to ourselves why we need a Savior who is not controlled by human stupidity and arrogance.
Thank God there is a God because God alone can save us from ourselves.
All God’s blessings – Mark
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