Life Matters, February 2, 2022
“With artificial intelligence (AI) we are summoning the demon.” Elon Musk made this candid, forthright observation in the context of being concerned about where or what this digital technology is leading to. He is in a position to foresee what might be coming and to be concerned. Digital technology has made him a very wealthy man indeed. His projected tax bill for the year 2021 is reported to be to the tune of eleven billion dollars, give or take a few million. To put that into perspective from a different angle, if Mr. Musk were to pay one million dollars per year, plus interest, it would take eleven thousand years to pay his taxes. Just for 1 year. For 2021. Paying the principal wouldn’t be his biggest problem though. Besides running out of time, it would be the interest. Even at a low rate of 3.5 percent, interest for the first year would be a staggering 385 million dollars, $384,965,000 the following year, and so on…
Elon Musk, however, can and does pay his taxes; the greater concern is, where does this ever-increasing information technology lead to? Will this “smart” technology continue its growth while the “dumbing down” of humanity also continues? At what point do machines begin to outsmart and outmaneuver people? How did we even get here? Elon Musk may wisely drop out of AI development, but others may unwisely keep going.
I am old enough to remember the first man on the moon, in 1969, when Neil Armstrong uttered those famous words “one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind,” upon stepping out of Apollo II onto the surface of the moon. Many moons have passed since then and many landings upon it as leading nations became caught up in what we refer to as “the Space Race.” Buzz Aldrin, Michael Collins, and even Neil Armstrong, like the rest of us, could not have foreseen all the technological advances since then. Or, perhaps someone actually did, some person that is, and “Star Wars” was the result of that extended vision into the future. Whatever the case may be, Someone did see far into the future and gave us a “heads up” of what is to come. In the latter part of the book of Daniel, God through the prophet gave a vision of what is to come in the end times. In timeless, if only for the studious, language we are given prophetic word pictures of things that seem past and of things yet to come. Prophecies hard to understand, but to those who seek wisdom, God will give understanding as needed. “Many shall be purified, and made white, and tried; but the wicked shall do wickedly: and none of the wicked shall understand: but the wise shall understand.” (Daniel 12:10) Of the end times we are also told, in verse 4, “…many shall run to and fro, and knowledge shall be increased.” It is worthy of note that He says “knowledge,” not “wisdom.” For we may know something and yet not apply wisdom to what we have learned.
We were starkly and tragically reminded of the inherent dangers of digital technology this past week as we attended the funeral of a beautiful twenty year-old girl who had met this twenty-six year-old man online. When she tried breaking off the relationship, he brutally murdered her in a motel room where she seems to have been taken against her will. She leaves a grieving family, relatives, church, and many friends. Young people, you are not wiser, nor “smarter” than your parents nor your grandparents, you only have more knowledge at your fingertips. Knowledge that can make you more and more vulnerable to the enemy of our souls who is also the enemy of our bodies. Knowledge that is not only useless to our spiritual souls, but is also dangerous to spirit, soul, and body. We are created by God, to Whom, if we voluntarily give ourselves, He the Master Potter, will make us a “vessel unto honor.” (Romans 9:21) “…Christ Jesus…is made unto us wisdom and righteousness and sanctification and redemption.” (I Corinthians 1:30) Life Matters!