AI OK?

Artificial Intelligence (AI) has been making huge headlines lately. This is a topic that I never liked thinking about or debating. For a person like myself whose whole blog is dedicated to life experiences and faith intersections that attitude may seem improbable. But, I have indeed went to extraordinary lengths to avert my eyes when the topic of advances in artificial intelligence come up on a news site. I have even been known to immediately shut the television off or switch channels when the ethical issues surrounding artificial intelligence are about to be discussed.

As much as I hate that dude Sigmund Freud, it is pretty clear that in this case, he got my number when he discussed the mechanism of avoidant behavior. Avoidant behavior occurs when in response to a difficult problem or situation one just does everything they can to avoid dealing with it. Why would the topic of artificial intelligence be that overwhelming for me? Why don’t I applaud the progress that AI promises? 

I got a bad feeling about AI the first time that I ever heard of it. Artificial Intelligence origins go back to the early 1950’s when scientists at MIT (Massachusetts Institute of Technology) and Stanford University began to conceive of the future advances that would be made possible by computers. Two names that were pivotal in moving forward the science of AI were John McCarthy and Marvin Minsky. 

They were both professors at MIT at the Artificial Intelligence Laboratory. They are credited with being some of the earliest researchers interested in creating a machine based intelligence. MIT engineers had simultaneously created an early version of a “robotic arm” that could play ping-pong. As far as Stanford University goes, it had S.A.I.L. That stands for Stanford Artificial Intelligence Laboratory. Both of these laboratories had an enormous amount of military and government funding with which to work. Red flag maybe? 

The visions and dreams espoused by AI researchers always seemed less humanity enhancing and more humanity enslaving whenever I thought about them. Also, some of the scientists in this field seemed more like cult followers than scientists. The proximity of machine intelligence and robotic capabilities goes back to the very early days of research, and therein lies the rub. Then came a time after the initial excitement on the topic that it was no longer garnering the attention nor the funding it needed to continue. In the early 1970’s the AI community overpromised and underdelivered. In fact, a number of companies with AI in their names went out of business. This  time is often referred to as “AI winter.” During that time, disciples akin to some sort of demonic Star Wars Jedi knights went underground and kept the dream alive of machine learning and continued to contribute to its’ research. 

Now, this body of research has advanced so much that AI is poised to control every aspect of our life. It will be involved in health care doing surgery, it will run our airplanes and other modes of transportation. It can write better books than we can and beat us in Jeopardy and Chess. Robotic dogs with artificial intelligence just went into a collapsed parking garage in New York CIty to search for survivors. AI fire fighters fight chemical blazes that would kill us, isn’t that great? Yes, if we used this as a proper tool but, the scuttlebutt is that ain’t gonna happen!

Let’s think about what a good tool is. A tool is something that we invent that makes a job easier and supplements our intellectual or physical abilities. So, something might be too heavy for us to lift but, the invention of the wheel means that we can use a wedge, another great simple machine and foist it onto that cart with wheels and the burden is light enough for us to move. Brilliant. You know what I love about the invention of the first car, the Model T? That when you were done with it, you could shut it off and it wasn’t tracking you all the time!

Our tools have always had the capability of backfiring, but never like with AI. The best of the science fiction writers saw this coming as did the biblical prophecy scholars. Sin is like dust, it gets into everything even our precious inventions. In our God rejecting world, the dangers of technology going awry are at the highest threat level. The movement that says science will answer all the questions and they don’t need God, are moving us towards societal disaster. God leads us to holiness and mitigates our sin nature whether we are scientists, sanitation workers, teachers or preachers.  

The atheist scientists that brought you COVID, are working on artificial intelligence for our lives. Oh boy. God in the equation of science equals order and sanity but without God, the temptations are too great. The promise of what AI can do for the non-believer remind me of the Gollum character in “Lord of the Rings,” and Eve in the Garden of Eden. All this you can have, just follow Satan. 

Do I believe the devil is in the details? Yes, he always is. Those who don’t know that and don’t recognize how he operates are victims of the evil he is perpetuating. Do you really want to have nuclear launches controlled with AI? ChatGBT has already been shown to have a liberal bias in matters of politics, gender issues, and a morally relativistic bent. In that fact, AI is already leading people away from the one true God and the truth of salvation through Jesus Christ. Don’t be fooled AI is not as smart as you think or it is smarter than you think. 

Every nation with a modicum of power is going after precious AI. Vladimir Putin once said, that the country that led in technologies using artificial intelligence will dominate the world. Follow the rolling ball, rule the world who wants to do that? The common thinking that I have heard is whoever leads in AI in 2030, will rule the world until 2100. This all perfectly fits in with end times biblical prophecy. It fits like a glove actually.

In the fight for world dominance we know that Satan will appear at some point soon. But right now it is like an AI prize fight. It’s China in the first round hitting hard but the USA floats like a butterfly and stings like a bee. The E.U. is waiting to fight the winner. Just like any prize fight each competitor has their strengths and weaknesses and each country has attributes which could bring it into the ascendency. 

Is it China with its’ army from the East (Rev 16:12-The sixth angel poured out his bowl on the great river Euphrates, and its’ water was dried up, to prepare the way for the kings from the east.) or is the anti-Christ emerging from the E.U.? (Rev 13 :2-And the beast which I saw was like unto a leopard, and his feet were as the feet of a bear, and his mouth as the mouth of a lion: and the dragon gave him his power, and his seat, and great authority.) Will New York being a contender for the whore of Babylon affect the United States standing? (Rev 17:1b-2-the great prostitute who sits by many waters. With the kings of the earth committed adultery, and the inhabitants of the earth were intoxicated with the wine of her adulteries)

However it plays out, we know that AI is not OK. While good achievements will emanate from this technology, it appears to me to be the technology that has the greatest capability of being a tool for controlling the entire world. Yet, I believe that we have reached the point of no return, this genie ain’t going back in its’ bottle. At the beginning of the nuclear age, people had a sense of the power of this invention and an understanding that this was bigger than anything that had come before. As he watched the first successful nuclear weapon detonation physicist Robert Oppenheimer famously remarked, that “Now I am become Death, the destroyer of worlds.” 

Artificial Intelligence is the next big step that mankind will embark upon and many people have varying reactions to that. That is how it was at Los Alamos when the first nuclear weapon exploded. There were varying reactions. Some were reconciled to its’ inevitability on the world stage, some cried, and some even laughed. As a Christian, I am ready for what is written in the Bible to occur. That which is written will come about and it is incumbent upon each and every one of us to keep close to God, tell others about Jesus. Don’t be bowled over by all the promises of AI, there may be some blessings in it but be wary of its’ dark side. 

Banking, Trump and Easter

What do I know about banking? After all, I am an average Christian housewife who is more concerned with what snacks I will make to bring to church for the next bible study than the status of Silicon Valley Bank (SVB). When the news came in about the failure of SVB, I was doing my daily rotation of the meat I was curing for my Ode to Ireland church snack menu. I was making Irish Soda bread, and Irish Spiced Beef (a dish that is usually served at Christmas time on the old sod). That would be accompanied by Dubliner Cheese and some chocolate shamrocks. 

Irish Spice Beef has been made for nearly 300 years. I went Irish spiced beef crazy several weeks before St. Patrick’s Day watching every video and reading every article that I could get my hands on outlining variations on that classic recipe. As I was blissfully ensconced in food history, reality had a stark way of butting in. This time in a big way. The markets roiled along with my investments with the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank (SVB). Next, Credit Suisse, who has been doing a swan dance for a long time, finally breathed its’ last breath and it too collapsed. Could Deutsch Bank be next? What after that?

Whenever there is a bank or financial institution in its’ death knells, it is a rare opportunity to observe what goes on behind the scences. Always, there are those insiders who advised you to buy shares of that stock while they themselves were dumping it. Nothing to see there! People getting their bonuses in the middle of March, just before the institution goes belly up, nothing to see there either.

Since COVID hit, nothing has been normal. Don’t get me wrong, I believe the agenda that we see front and center now, was brewing like a wicked tea in the background for years. When people were at their very weakest it was then time to bring out all the wicked dinners and force-feed them to the world. The world has eaten of it.

The banking system is something that the average person depends on everyday to build their life both now and in the future. Have you noticed that all the things that we depend upon can not be trusted anymore?The banking system is one of those things. The fiscal policies of bank executives and nations don’t seem to make sense yet we are powerless to do anything about it. Silicon Valley Bank had only one investment banker on the bank board. That does not seem correct to me. The rest of the board were people who were given their cushy, lucrative positions because they were Obama and/or Democratic Party donors. Is that any way to run a bank? 

And while the bank may have funded some good tech start-ups and the California wine industry, it could not do so without leaving the distinct impression of doing business based on political nepotism. SVB bank had a way of supporting the wineries of their friends such as the governor of California or of the green agenda even if those projects were a poor investment. The bank gave over seven million dollars to Black Lives Matters and other anarchist causes. 

Why can’t banks just focus on the business of banking and stop being social activists? Why couldn’t they carefully scrutinize the loans they gave out? Why have banks abandoned age old wisdom about how to keep customers money safe? The answer is that banks have either been forced by governments to loan money out in unsafe ways or the bankers were trained by anti-capitalist universities. These once higher places of learning have turned into communist party finishing schools teaching radical philosophy whilst deconstructing traditional thought and reason. 

Then, the circus came to New York City. I don’t mean Cirque du Soleil or the new and re-imagined Ringling Brothers and Barnum & Bailey’s Circus. That might be fun. I am talking about the crazy circus. The type of circus that gives you nightmares. Where crazy soul-stealing clowns come out of a little car. When Donald Trump was indicted I was horrified but not surprised. 

The powers that are running things have been after him since he was first elected the 45th President of the United States. By doing what the voters wanted him to do and not following along with the evil clown culture of political usurpation that has swept over the United States he put himself in the crosshairs of evil.

If Donald Trump had just continued his life as a business man, he would be on easy street right now. As soon as he got it into his mind to listen to people and try to fulfill the mandate that he was elected to fulfill, his fate was sealed. It would be just a matter of time before he got arrested, investigated, fined or worse. Even though I knew it was coming, seeing the obvious abuse of power to stop Donald Trump from running in the next presidential election was more than I could take. I was just starting to come down with something on top of all that. 

I was embarrassed for New York State, which is the place that I was born and raised. The corruption was over the top and it saddened me greatly to see how far a once great city could fall. It was like going to the circus and watching all the crazy goings on when reality is temporarily suspended during the performance. Only now it was not a day of fantasy, it was a reality and Donald Trump was getting arrested. If they can weaponize the FBI, and the New York CIty’s Attorney General against a former President of the United States there is nothing they can not do. 

Meanwhile, Hunter Biden and the current President have skated past every allegation or authentically proven corruption scandal with narry a mention of it in the mainstream media. The current president does not seem fit to conduct the duties of his Office yet there is no journalistic interest in exploring that topic. I know that the free press is dead.  A press that used to be known for its’ scrutiny. When tyranny descends the free press is one of the first things to go and it has. 

As the Trump case was beginning to unfold, I came down with a cold, flu or perhaps COVID. It was a weird illness. Why couldn’t I even get a normal cold or flu? We are definitely living in an age where novel illnesses abound. It is written in the Bible that in the end times that there would be pestilence. Marburg is out breaking in Africa, a crazy rare fungus that has only been present in hospital settings is now poised to break that barrier on the eastern coast of the United States. The list goes on and on. None of this is normal. Thinking of all of this culminated in what had to be defined as a spiritual battle of sorts for me.

The answer to all my questions and the end of my spiritual battle came as Easter approached. The message of the Bible directs and guides us towards all things holy and righteous. It gives us clarity on everything that we see that doesn’t make sense. The truth of our changing world hurts sometimes. The banking system is in trouble, the political system is in trouble but Jesus has overcome. He will bring us through the persecution, the injustice and ultimately will judge the wrong-doers.

I am grateful for the direction my relationship with Jesus Christ has given me. Although God will allow people to sin if they want, he will not allow it to go on forever. As I stated earlier, all the things that we depend upon can no longer be trusted, that is all except God, who is the same yesterday, today and always. I know that, like the old song said, because he lives, I can face tomorrow.