AI Questions That Need Answers

"The pursuit of truth and beauty is a sphere of activity in which we are permitted to remain children all our lives.” - Albert Einstein

I believe the responsible and maximal stewarding of AI is the most important opportunity and challenge that society currently faces.

I also believe that navigating the super-technology era well requires us to both identify and live out the virtues that make up the best of humanity. If we simply use technology to spin the capitalist hamster wheel faster, we’ll end up harming ourselves and hurting our democracy¹. We have to figure out how to pass the gains from technology on to ourselves in the form of better quality of life.

This requires us to understand and enumerate what we actually want AI to help us accomplish. What is our objective? What’s the future that we want the models to help us produce? If we get the ideology to train the models right, the rest will follow.

I am animated by the below set of questions, and the writing I’ll share here explores these themes:

What is our ‘goal’ for humanity, the objective function we’re working to achieve, the blessed state we’re trying to build?

• If the existence of humans were a simulation or a game, how would we win?

• What do we imagine society could be like in 2050? How are humans organizing ourselves? How many of us are there? How are we keeping score? How are we stewarding the planet?

What are the promises and perils of emerging technologies for individuals and society?

• How have people living in 21st-century, Christianity-informed western capitalist societies lost touch with the pursuit of maximal vitality and wellbeing?

• How will our notion of what it means to be human evolve as technology enables us to manipulate our bodies and minds to access super-human abilities?

• How will our relationships change as a greater share of our human-to-human interactions shift to interactions with machines?

• How can we access the benefits of technological progress while navigating potential pitfalls, especially the impacts on widening inequality?

How will AI evolve our understanding of spirituality and purpose?

• What role should God, Christianity, and the church² at-large play in informing design choices we make about technology?

• What value sets will help inform the ethics and morality embedded in technology? How will those values be determined, and how will they be reflected in governance structures?

• As the influence of the church wanes and its membership dies out, what potential is there for a revival that could serve as a unifying force for good and help guide our technological future?

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We’re at an inflection point of history: the exponential rate of technological progress means that you literally cannot imagine a future scenario that is too far-fetched to register on the realm of possibility.

• Will we ‘off-world’ all mineral harvesting, preserving earth for human and animal enjoyment?

• Will we implant devices that allow us to manipulate our brains, simulating religious experiences or orgasms on-demand in perpetuity? Will we live forever?

The above list could go on and on, with scenarios falling along a spectrum of possibilities:

• Technology could help shepherd the lives of easeful leisure that early economists dreamed of, with machines handling all toiling required to provide physical security and food. That would leave humans to enjoy our natural gifts.

• Technology could also accelerate the severance of our fraying social fabric. We have widening inequality with lack of economic mobility, rampant disinformation and siloed information networks, frustration at a burgeoning surveillance state, an eroding of shared meaning and cultural institutions, and easy access to guns. That’s ripe kindling for bloody upheaval.

• The actual events likely will be somewhere in the middle of the wide, wide range of possibilities. Still, the majority of our cultural, political, and economic institutions were not designed for a society that is rapidly evolving. Our systems are already groaning, and it’s naive to think that the ways we got here will serve us well in the future. Can we imagine something better?

Exploring the future of humanity in the super-technology era touches on our deepest needs, our highest aspirations, and our greatest fears. The stakes are high.

• This is a cultural topic. Our relationships with our bodily and mental well-being, our fellow humans, and the planet will all evolve.

• It’s an economic and governance topic. We may need to change our goals for what we individually and collectively aspire towards, and how we keep score on the path to reaching those goals.

• It’s certainly a spiritual topic. We’re called to examine our orientation towards our existence as individuals and a people, our purpose, and our ultimate desires to know and become like God.

I believe our goal should be nothing less than partnering with technology to unleash the next phase of humanity in this super-technology era, creating a more blessed version of the future.

• In his essay ‘Why AI Will Save The World’ (which I’ll come back to in more detail in a future post), Marc Andreessen takes a purely bullish stance while lamenting the ‘Baptists and the Bootleggers’ who want to prohibit technological progress for reasons based on legitimate moral apprehension or their ability to profit by stoking fear and restrictive regulation.

  • I find myself simultaneously in the the optimist’s camp, though I share plenty of the Baptists’ hesitations.

• I’m deeply excited about a future where my personal C3PO handles most every task I don’t want to and I’ve optimized my physical health and mental capacity, enjoying great peace and plenty of play alongside my family and friends. But technological innovation strikes me as a slippery slope that may rapidly change what it means to be human.

• Because anything is possible, we should swing for the fences. We should try to build our vision of heaven on earth. A revolution towards radical abundance, wellness, and thriving.

• Technology can help guide this shift, if we let it. The tools we’ve built enhance our capabilities to remarkable levels that, frankly, we take for granted.

  • If we give these tools the right input, structure, and guidance, they can help us get to a better place where we actually might achieve our goals as individuals and as a species. That’s the promise of capitalism delivered.

• It won’t be easy, and it’s far from assured. But we can use technology to get us to a blessed place - truly, we can do it. Everything can be better than it is today. Holy smokes, what an intoxicating possibility - everything can be better. Let’s build this.

For Reflection & Discussion:

• Which of the ‘AI Questions That Need Answers’ stands out to you, and why?

• In what ways do you think our understanding of spirituality and purpose will be transformed by advancements in AI?

• So much of the current discourse around AI is fear-based. What are you most excited or optimistic about related to the development of new technology?

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1. I’m writing from an American perspective, but the concepts hold for any liberal society.

2. Similarly, I’m writing from a Christian context, which I think is especially relevant given the Christian majority and aspiration to be a universal religion. Still, the spiritual queries and implications for our humanity transcend any specific religion.