The Bible is quite clear that God created Adam and Eve (the first humans). Modern science credits evolution. Without getting too deep into a "religious" / "scientific" debate, I think it's fair to say that human beings, today, often think that they can take over where God left off (or can utilize their own powers as a substitute for any future evolution). The way many see it, human beings will be, and should be, in charge of the process of creation, going forward.
Think about "robots," for instance!
Lots of people think that Artificial Intelligence (so-called) and our mastery of technology will lead, pretty soon, to the creation of humanlike "robots," and that these human-created robots will then be able to do anything that a human being can do - and will be able to work 24/7 besides. An article in the Sunday, December 14, 2025, edition of The New York Times explores that possibility - and it discounts the idea that human beings will be able to create robots which can then replace humans for lots of things that human beings think are important.
The Times' article was titled as follows in the hardcopy version of the paper: "Robotics Pioneer Says The Field Has Lost Its Way." That "pioneer" is Rodney Brooks, who makes the following point:
Humans don’t have a language for gathering, storing and communicating data about touch, the way we do for language and imagery. Our fingers’ remarkable sensing ability collects all kinds of information that we can’t easily translate for machines. In [Brooks'] view, the visual data preferred by the new guard of robot start-ups simply won’t be able to recreate what we can do with our fingers.
So, there is one example - "touch" - where someone who ought to know says that we are not going to be able to duplicate, by our own inventions, one of the most important aspects of what it means to be human.
Whether you want to credit "God," or prefer "evolution" as the creator of human beings, I definitely want to back up what Mr. Brooks says. We don't (and can't) create ourselves, or any suitable replacement for ourselves. The "World of Nature," which I sometimes call "The World God Made," exists before and independently of everything that human beings do. Our task is not to sub-in for God (or Nature). Our job is to create our own human-developed world - what I call the "Political World" - which can't replace that World of Nature that God created, and that needs to be respectful of it. "Global Warming," and its threat to life on Earth, is the latest example of what happens when human beings think that they don't have to pay attention to the laws that govern the universe, and think that they can make their own laws to tell "Nature" what to do.
We need to know our limits, in other words! We need to "stay in our own lane." Actually, I think that's what that whole Adam and Eve story is all about!
No comments:
Post a Comment
Thanks for your comment!