We’ve been so thankful to enjoy some time with our immediate family in Canada. And now, we’re looking forward to seeing more family, and many friends, as we tour in Ontario!
Trilliums in Ontario
If you’re in Ontario and don’t have our schedule, please contact us. We have a regularly updated schedule online. We will be sharing at least on three Sundays, and if it works out to see you personally and/or do a Bible study with your small group (I’ve been working on a study just for you! 😉 ), we would love to make it happen.
We’ll be starting out in Southern Ontario, and later in the month, we’ll be working our way north.
Thanks for your prayers as we travel! I hope you’re having a great summer. 🙂
Continuing our Biblical Anthropology series, we’ve been talking about some of the conflicting views on the future of humanity. Should we faze out the human race (antihumanism)? Create a new species (posthumanism)? Significantly augment the human race, using technology (transhumanism)? As we’ve seen, all of these have significant problems.
Today we’re going to take much of what we have already learned from God’s Word, and continue to apply it.
In 2013, Google started a new company with 1.5 million dollars, called Calico. Calico’s purpose is to resolve or eliminate death itself.
Each year, people spend a small fortune fighting against aging and death. And part of this quest can be a good and valuable use of creation. But we as Christians know that humans will never reach the goal of conquering death. It’s not Calico, but Christ who conquers death.
As I was originally preparing for this study at our church, I listened to a conversation between Professor Rosalind Picard of MIT, who is a Christian, and Professor Nick Bostrom of the University of Oxford, who is not a Christian. As I remember, Picard asked Bostrom if he would like to live together, and why. He stumbled and mumbled and really had no good response. How sad that people like Professor Bostrom is trying to learn about eternal life from technology, but he has no idea why he would really want eternal life!
And so the world asks, will humans learn to live forever? Or, perhaps, we face a more dystopian future, when artificial intelligence conquers the world.
There are two types of artificial intelligence (AI). There’s general, or strong AI, and there’s narrow or weak AI. For now, we’ll use the terms strong and weak.
Weak AI is what you have on your phone. That’s how Facebook knows what to try to sell you. That’s how your computer can recognize your face in a photo. It’s a type of learning that is automatic, focused and specific, in a certain context.
As with any technology, we should carefully decide if we should use it and how we should use it. And remember, AI is only doing what its programmer told it to do.
For example, autonomous cars are being developed with AI. And unless the trajectory changes, that’s coming in a big way to the car dealership near you. But these cars are only as good as their programming. And that brings us to a question. If the AI in your car needs to make a decision, should it prioritize the person in the car, or the person in the other car? Or should it try to save the maximum number of lives? Should it sacrifice 10 lives to save one? Or sacrifice 1 life to save 10?
And maybe you could add your own questions. But here’s a more basic one: Is the programmer following the wisdom of God’s Word, or inventing his or her own morality?
All that is weak AI. Strong AI actually doesn’t exist, but it’s the AI that we often see in futuristic movies. Vision in Avengers. He’s an intelligent being created by creatures. Or, of course, Data of Star Trek.
Strong AI is a general intelligence that can learn and function in many completely different contexts, and learn about new contexts, as human beings can.
Although we already have machines/programs/apps that can appear like and act like humans in a limited way, we are actually very far from strong AI.
And let’s say that we’re closer than we think, and that we actually create strong AI – an intelligent “being”. What won’t it have? It won’t have the imago dei. It was not created in God’s image. Strong AI will never replace humans.
But weak AI? We already use it all the time. In fact, it affects you whether you think you use it or not. In China, there are face recognition cameras everywhere. The government can always see what you’re doing and the government can decide if you’re behaving according to their standards. Do you have any cameras up in the country where you live? Just asking.
The fact is that today’s technology has the potential to give people with money and power more money and power than they have ever had in history. How do you think they will use that money and power? We need to think about these things in biblical categories.
And many of these topics do actually relate to that device that many of us may have in our pockets right now. A smartphone.
Next time we’ll look at some principles to help us apply some of what we’ve learned to that phone in our pocket – and other devices that we may come across.
We’re continuing the Biblical Anthropology series (full index here) on the topic of technology. And it’s just so important to think about all of this together in context, instead of just thinking superficially about each topic.
Last time we started talking about transhumanism – basically, the desire to build new humans with new abilities using technology – beyond humanity. But let’s back up a little bit before we go on, and check the foundations. If the foundations are biblical, we can go on to think about how these things may apply to things like transhumanism and posthumanism (which we’ll get to shortly).
We should help others to alleviate suffering and reach their God-given potential. This fits with the Creation Mandate – “have dominion”.
We should recognize that complete salvation comes only from Christ, not from technology. And so – we share the gospel! The Great Commission.
We should not use technology to ignore or avoid God’s commandments, or to try to change humanity to become our own gods. Don’t forget about the principle of dependence. And our purpose – the praise of our Creator.
Genetics is another thing that we can play with in this modern world. And today, we can sometimes even correct genetic errors. Thank God! But – we can also begin to redesign humanity. Today, with CRISPR technology, we can edit someone’s genetic makeup, edit in a way that these changes will be passed on to future generations.
Yes, we can correct errors, but also fundamentally redesign humanity for future generations! But – should this really be our great hope, that we can “save” humanity by changing the genetic makeup of future generations? Is it CRISPR or Christ?
Lord willing we’ll go on to talk more about environmentalism in future posts. But we need to understand that many people actually believe that it is humanity itself that is the problem (clarification – not sinful humanity, but the human race itself). And so our ultimate hope is that we can redesign our own species.
Experts from the University of Oxford and New York University published an article in 2012 entitled “Human Engineering and Climate Change”. In the article, they suggest that we make certain genetic changes to the human race. For example, introducing a “meat intolderance”, so that we wouldn’t want to eat meat. Why? Because some believe that fewer cows will mean less harmful climate change.
This could be accomplished by activating the immune system against certain bovine proteins.
Now, whether you agree or disagree that humans should be eating so much beef, here’s another important reality. What this would mean is a few powerful people changing the human race genetically to adjust them to their beliefs. (By the way, this was published in the Ethics, Policy and Environment journal).
Now of course, it’s very unlikely that anything of that kind would ever happen. Why? Because you would have to find a way to convince a huge amount of the world population to take a medical injection. And you would have to have a massive system to get these injections to people all around the world. Impossible.
Sorry – did a little sarcasm creep in there? 😉 Listen carefully, I’m not saying anything for or against any particular injection at the moment! And I’m not commenting on any particular vaccine that may be in the news as you read this. So what’s the point?
We need to understand that many academic and political leaders have their own plans and their own ideologies (doesn’t everyone?). In fact, they write about them, in online articles and in professional journals. And we could cite many more similar examples! And generally speaking – and it’s no surprise – the ideologies of the world don’t tend to be biblical.
And so we need to learn to connect our biblical worldview to what is actually happening in the world. If there is so much sin mixed in even with our own actions, do we really believe that there is no sin involved in the apparently “good” things that governments, scientists and academics do?
Remember, “even Satan disguises himself as an angel of light” (2 Corinthians 11:14). “…we are not ignorant of his designs” (2 Corinthians 2:11). But we share Paul’s calling. What was it that Jesus said to him? “I have appeared to you for this purpose, to appoint you as a servant and witness … delivering you from your people and from the Gentiles—to whom I am sending you to open their eyes, so that they may turn from darkness to light and from the power of Satan to God” (Acts 26:16-18).
We need to connect the Bible to the real world. This is not a game, or something to only ponder on Sundays.
Transhumanism leads to posthumanism. Many people believe that we need to evolve into something completly new. That is, into a new species.
As Christians, I believe that we are far from our potential, yes. I believe that we should grow and improve.
But as we learned earlier, something happened in history that confirmed the incredible value of humanity. God became man in Jesus Christ.
And remember the imago dei. We are made in God’s image. I don’t believe that we should become something beyond humanity. We should instead grow in Christ, and enjoy all of the eternal potential and incredible value of every human life.
Under Satan’s control, posthumanism sometimes even leads to antihumanism. There are scholars who actually argue that we should gradually eliminate the human race completely. Yes, seriously.
And abortion is a good thing to them in part because it can help reduce the human population. And if an abortion is hard on the woman’s body, and if she has issues with fertility down the road, perfect. Because some people truly hate the human race.
But there are many more sides to this issue. Next time we’ll look at the extension of human life, and even the goal to create new life with artificial intelligence.
Well, in a certain sense, this is true. But we may be forgetting something important. Any use of technology actually has consequences or results.
Author Neil Postman wrote: “A new medium does not add something” – in other words, it does not simply add something, like 2+2:
A new medium does not add something; it changes everything. … That is why we must be cautious about technological innovation. The consequences of technological change are always vast, often unpredictable and largely irreversible.
A little more than 20 years ago, we discovered that we could carry a computer connected to the internet combined with a phone all the time. The iPhone hit the market about 15 years ago. And the world changed completely – even for people that don’t use a smartphone.
If “everyone” is using a new technological device, or it seems to solve a problem, or if it’s fun, we often adopt it without thinking anymore. We may think about how we use it, but sometimes we simply never ask the important questions about if we should be using it at all. In fact, it’s possible that we think it would be bad – a crime – a sin – not to have the same type of device that everyone else has!
Not only should we carefully evaluate how we use these devices, we should evaluate the devices themselves. How are they changing us, and the world around us? Which changes are good, and which are bad?
One of the biggest innovations from the past 100 years is digital technology in general. We can share images, movies, and other information around the world, simply using numbers transmitted through cables or even through the air.
We have machines that can collect massive amounts of information. Systems that can categorize and search for information, such as Google, Machines that can learn: artificial intelligence.
And now people are asking – where is this all going to lead? May we someday see completely artificial people? Computers that think as well as we do, or better? Of course, computers are faster than we are in certain areas, but the human brain has yet to be duplicated.
Review: The Christian Perspective vs “Scientism”
We should remember that, as Christians, we see technology from an entirely different perspective than the world, because we know that we have a God-given purpose.
We know that God is Creator, the source of all truth. We depend on Him. We know that our purpose comes from Him – to glorify Him, to enjoy Him. We know that humans are fallen creatures, sinners, but that there is salvation in Jesus Christ. We know that those who do not belong to Christ are headed for hell, and those who are in Christ have eternal life.
The world imagines a world that somehow came into existence from nothing, or from itself. Not very scientific, but that’s what many believe. They have to imagine a universe without God. Everything “just is”, there is no purpose, and so we can try to create our own. Scientism says that there is nothing real or important beyond what we can see or detect with our senses or our machines.
And so, salvation must come from within the world itself. And that’s a problem. Because we cannot use a fallen, cursed universe to save a fallen, cursed universe. It’s like trying to fight a fire with a flamethrower.
Without a transcendent God, there really is no good or evil. And so this worldly point of view leads to all kinds of selfishness and abuse.
But people create a poor copy of the true religion, because we were created to know God.
And so, they reason, perhaps technology is god. Maybe we will arrive at salvation and eternal life through technology. But what salvation is, what morality is, well, that depends on the person.
So how are we going to use all this technology?
Transhumanism
That leads us to transhumanism. “Trans” is Latin, meaning across, beyond, on the other side. As in transport – trans-portare – to carry. The idea of transhumanism is that we go beyond humanity as we know it. Augmenting humanity.
The Olymic motto is “Faster, Higher, Stronger – Together” (yes, that last part was added in 2021). That’s the idea of transhumanism – but specifically using various types of technology.
There are some amazing examples of bionic technology today. Someone who has lost a leg can have an amazing prosthetic leg, that looks almost real. In fact, that artificial leg could be stronger in some ways than the original!
And we thank God for modern technology! That is the Creation Mandate – “have dominion”.
Now, let’s imagine that two artificial legs are stronger and faster than the originals. An athlete could actually cut off his original legs and put on these bionic legs, and win the race (setting aside the rules of the competition for the moment). Transhumanism.
So stop for a moment – what would you think if an athlete did something like this? Augmented or changed his body in this way, to become “better”. What advantages and problems might be involved? What if future technology could solve some of those problems?
Maybe a student could connect her brain to a computer, and have instant access to new information.
And now we’ve gone “beyond” humanity. Transhumanism.
But let’s look at some of the problems with this, thinking of the above examples.
The human body is incredibly complex. No matter how sophistcated those prosthetics or augmented brains may be, they still may lose something that was originally there, in the body designed by God. In other words, this is not the same as moving faster because you’re in a car. The intent is to change what humans actually are.
Another problem. How did the bionic man get his legs? Did he have more money than I did? Does his cousin work in the factory? Does he come from another country, where this is legal? Is he a member of the “acceptable” political party?
From a biblical perspective, we agree that humans actually have “defects” because we live in a fallen world. It’s good, and wise, to help those who suffer (as we talked about earlier). And that’s why we give the soldier who lost a leg a prosthetic. But we always remember that technology will never provide complete salvation.
It’s not wrong to have compassion, and to try to minimize the effects of the Fall – sin and the curse. But only when we remember where perfect and complete salvation comes from. Because without Christ, anything we offer to anyone is only temporary.
But transhumanism says what the serpent said to the woman in the garden – “you will be like God”. It says the same as what they said at the Tower of Babel – “let us build ourselves a city and a tower with its top in the heavens, and let us make a name for ourselves”.
I guess that would be “L minus 17” if we were NASA, right? Anyway, 17 days to go!
This is just a reminder, because I know that I have some old email addresses for some of you, and of course our newsletter was quickly out of date when we changed to an “in-person” tour.
I’ve emailed as many of you as I could who receive our newsletter, and who will be in the area we’ll be in (I don’t think we’ll be able to make it over to the Thunder Bay/Kenora side this time 🙁 ). In that email, there’s also an up-to-date link with our schedule. The same link was in the recent snail mail we sent out, if you’re in Ontario.
So if you want to connect, contact us and we’ll see what we can do! We’re looking forward to this rare opportunity to see many of you. 🙂
In general news, our plans are slowly coming together. Lord willing we’ll be starting out in Southern Ontario, and heading north from there. Time is always far too short, but we’re looking forward to our time with you.
The Tower of Babel was an example of technology used to rebel against God. In some ways, it was the opposite of a new project – the Tabernacle. Read this carefully, with technology in mind (as we defined it last time).
You shall speak to all the skillful, whom I have filled with a spirit of skill, that they make Aaron’s garments to consecrate him for my priesthood.
Exodus 28:3
Then Moses said to the people of Israel, “See, the LORD has called by name Bezalel the son of Uri, son of Hur, of the tribe of Judah; and he has filled him with the Spirit of God, with skill, with intelligence, with knowledge, and with all craftsmanship, to devise artistic designs, to work in gold and silver and bronze, in cutting stones for setting, and in carving wood, for work in every skilled craft. And he has inspired him to teach, both him and Oholiab the son of Ahisamach of the tribe of Dan. He has filled them with skill to do every sort of work done by an engraver or by a designer or by an embroiderer in blue and purple and scarlet yarns and fine twined linen, or by a weaver—by any sort of workman or skilled designer.
Exodus 35:30
As we think about this, remember the three keywords from the first part of our Biblical Anthropology study. Truth – we know the truth through the Bible. Dependence – we depend on the creation, on other people. But most importantly, all of creation depends on God. And – Purpose. Purpose in life comes from God.
And remember, yes, there is purpose in life – in this life, in the world. God Himself became man, and so we know that all of time and space has a real and eternal purpose.
And as we see how knowledge, engineering, art, and science permitted the Israelites to build the Tabernacle, we recognize that technology has a purpose and an eternal significance.
Another example? When Jesus wanted to give us a way to remember His death on the cross, what did He use? The results of human technology. Wine and bread.
And the cross? Human technology.
Good technology is the use of our knowledge of God’s creation the fulfill the Mandate of Creation to glorify God and to bring others to Him.
We use technology for His glory. And we all use technology in some way. But we should be using it to help others and to glorify God. In our workplace. In our home. And if you’re in school, learn as much as you can about the creation so that you can maximize your use of it!
Think about the sound system in a church. A hospital. Highways. Antibiotics. A violin. A toilet. Soap. The internet. All of these things can be used for a good purpose.
Joy Ridderhof was a missionary in Honduras In the 1930s. But she became ill and had to leave, assuming that she would be back in a few weeks. But her health didn’t improve sufficiently.
She remembered a poor widow that she had left behind. The widow didn’t know how to read, and couldn’t even memorize a verse of the Bible. How could Joy help her now? And others like her?
Then she remembered how people in the village listened to music on their record players.
What if… what if she recorded her own voice, and sent it to her friend back in Honduras? And she did just that. And before too long, people all over Central America were asking for Bible recordings from Joy.
Later, a group of native Americans asked for recordings in their language. It looked like she would need some help!
Eventually, Joy started an organization. The Gospel Recordings Network, or GRN, now has recordings in over 6000 languages.
Here is a woman who used technology to glorify God all around the world.
So there is no doubt that we can cooperate with God to use technology for good things – to help others, and bring them to Him.
But this raises some questions. For example, is technology completely neutral? Or, maybe we should say, is an item made using technology neutral? Ready to be used equally for good or evil? Should we only evaluate whether a use of technology is directly sinful or not, or should we evaluate these new discoveries and applications in themselves?
It was a big question in the last century. If you can make a bomb that can destroy a city – should you? Or should you even continue to pursue knowledge that would allow you to do it (instead of pursuing other knowledge)? Because, after all, someone will figure it out if you don’t – what if it’s your enemy? Is the bomb bad in itself? What If it’s used as a deterrent?
And similar questions must be applied as we approach new technologies – and we will get to artificial intelligence, transhumanism, CRISPR and genetics…
