Computer Evolution

My Grandpa Hein grew up with horses when automobiles were experimental and he lived to see men land on the moon. That was a tremendous change he went through. In the same way I have gone through another tremendous change from large computers occupying rooms to an even more powerful computer in my pocket, my smart phone.

The Cray 1 was one of the first supercomputers. Supercomputers were and are built for performance, for quickly calculating numbers. The Cray 1 blew away the competition in the 1970s. In 2013, Roy Longbottom in comparing a Raspberry Pi 1 to a Cray 1 wrote “In 1978, the Cray 1 supercomputer cost $7 Million, weighed 10,500 pounds and had a 115 kilowatt power supply. It was, by far, the fastest computer in the world. The Raspberry Pi [1] costs around $70 (CPU board, case, power supply, SD card), weighs a few ounces, uses a 5 watt power supply and is more than 4.5 times faster than the Cray 1.” I own a Raspberry Pi 400 (RPi 400) and the CPU is an ARM A72, which is a pretty normal cell phone CPU. He later ran a floating point benchmark on the RPi 400. My $100 RPi 400 is 78.5 times faster than a Cray 1.

What is the big difference between the Cray 1 and the RPi 400? It is the clock speed. The Cray 1 ran at only 80 MHz and my RPi 400 runs at 1800 MHz. The RPi 400 clock speed is 22.5 times faster than the Cray 1. Taking away the clock speed means the floating point improvements or gains are roughly 3.5 times. And it is miniaturization that puts the transistors closer together to allow for these extra performance gains, and miniaturization is also what allowed the clock speed to increase.

Moore’s Law is an observation that about every two years the number of transistors in a microchip doubles. This self-fulfilling observation has driven the industry to make smaller and smaller transistors and thus allowed the clock speed to increase without the chips overheating. Unfortunately Moore’s Law has ended or is ending because the transistors are now approaching the size of atoms. It is becoming physically impossible to continue to shrink the transistors.

Computer storage also has had an amazing evolution. We have gone from a computer disk the size of a washing machine to fingernail size disks. We have gone from 8 inch floppies that hold 80,000 bytes to disks today that hold 22,000,000,000,000 bytes (22 TB). I remember purchasing in 1994-95 for work a 2 GB (2,000,000,000 bytes) disk for $2000. 30 years later you can get a 22 TB disk that costs $420 and has 11,000 times more storage. My phone has more storage than that 2 GB disk from 30 years ago. Computer storage has also benefited from miniaturization. That fingernail size (11mm x 15mm) microSD disk can today hold up to 1.5 TB.

Computer technology has transformed the world. I have written about the amazing computer performance advances that have taken place, but computers have become parts of phones, automobiles, and even washing machines. Think of the influence of the internet. The internet is all about computers sharing information. Computer technology is everywhere. So what is next? Right now, there is a lot of talk about artificial intelligence (AI). Will computers eventually become intelligent beings? Or will AI assist us in our tasks and only be a tool for us to use? We will have to see.

Be Intentional and Disciplined

Another year is coming to an end. People make resolutions this time of year. Last year I set up a “rule of life” for me to live by, instead of having New Year’s resolutions. I like the idea of creating a pattern of habits to live by, and I think it has worked out well for me this past year. I did fail this last month in the habit of “Limit the eating of sweets and fats”. I ate way too many cookies and now I have a couple pounds I need to lose. I was not intentional and disciplined in my eating this last month.

I think in today’s culture of comfort and convenience we need to be intentional and disciplined in how we live. The strong siren call of today’s culture is to live for oneself and to fulfill one’s desires. The goal of many people is to live a life of ease, one of comfort and convenience, where they can always be happy by having all their desires met. This last month I let my desire for sweet cookies rule my eating. It was not healthy. I was not intentional in my eating, and I was not at all disciplined. I gained a couple of pounds. Now I have to deal with the consequences of that lack of discipline.

God calls us to a life centered around him and not centered around us. That is very different from what today’s culture says. Culture today pulls us toward a self-centered life based on our desires. This is why we can not coast through life. If we do, we will not be living for God and we will have to deal with the consequences of the short term thinking of our desires. We need to be intentional and disciplined in life’s activities so that we can have that good and full life centered on God.

One good way of being intentional is to have a plan. We can not try to fit God into our lives. Instead we need to start with God and build our lives around him. That is why I created a “rule of life” document for myself, so that I would be consistent in how I live my life for God. I created the document by looking at what I was already doing and what I wanted to do. I did not get very specific (e.g. Every morning at 6:00am I will read the Bible), instead I kept my habits more general (e.g. Daily read Scripture). I am not that structured, but you may be. It does take some prayerful consideration to put together a plan or a “rule of life”. It is not something you should write up in a few hours. Spend some time praying about it while putting it together. Once it is done you will want to revisit it from time to time to see how well it still fits. For me this is the time of year when I think of such things. (I first started thinking about the idea of a “rule of life” around New Years 2022 and I put it into practice around New Years 2023 and now I am evaluating it around New Years 2024.)

Having a plan and wanting to be intentional is not enough. You need commitment and discipline to put your intentionality into action. This is the hard part but this is something we need to strive for. It is not easy and I have also many times failed to live up to the “habits” or “rules” that I have set (let alone God’s good standards), but fortunately, we have a God who is merciful and gracious. He desires that intimate relationship between us and him. I think my “rule of life” document helps me to pursue that relationship. Our focus should be centered on God, especially on Jesus. It is out of gratitude for God’s amazing love and for all Jesus has done for me that I want to live my life to his glory. He inspires and enables me to have the discipline to live life for him.

PS To find out some of what Gail and I did in 2022 and 2023, read our Christmas letter.

A Christmas Story

A long long time ago, there was a young woman, Miriam, who was engaged to be married to a man named Yosef. She had a visit from a messenger from God. The messenger said, “Hello, highly favored one. God is with you.” This very unusual event naturally troubled her. The messenger said, “Do not be afraid, Miriam, because God is going to bless you. You will bear a son and name him Yehoshua. He will become a great person, and he will be called the Son of God. God will restore the kingdom of your ancestor David and he will reign over the People of God forever. His kingdom will be eternal.”

Miriam responded to the messenger, “I am a virgin. Virgins do not bear children. Is there something I must do?”

The messenger replied, “No, you need to do nothing. The Holy Spirit will come upon you and by God’s power you will bear the child. And here is a sign, your relative, Elisheba, who was unable to have children, is pregnant in her old age. She is six months into her pregnancy. Nothing is impossible with God.” Miriam responded and said, “I am the Lord’s servant. May it be done as you have said.” Then the messenger left, and Miriam became pregnant by the power of the Holy Spirit.

Miriam was going to become the talk of the town. The good girl was pregnant. Yosef, Miriam’s fiance, upon hearing the news debated what he should do. After all he was not the father. Being a good man, he did not want to publicly humiliate her and have her stoned. He decided to break off the engagement quietly. That night he had a dream, where a messenger from God said, “Yosef, descendent of David, do not be afraid to take Miriam as your wife, for the child that is in her is from the Holy Spirit. She will bear a son, and you shall name him Yehoshua, for he will save his people from their sins.” Yosef took her as his wife.

Miriam left town and went to visit Elisheba. Miriam greeted Elisheba, and Elisheba doubled over. But instead of crying out in pain, being filled with the Holy Spirit, Elisheba loudly proclaimed “Blessed are you among women, and blessed is your child! Why am I so honored that the mother of my Lord should visit me? When I heard your voice, the baby in my womb jumped for joy. You are blessed because you believed that the Lord would do what he said.”

Miriam responded in song:

“I praise the Lord.
My spirit rejoices in God my Savior!
For he took notice of his lowly servant,
and from now on all generations will call me blessed.
For the Mighty God has done great things for me,
and holy is his name.
He shows mercy from generation to generation
to all who fear him.
He has performed mighty deeds with his arm;
he has scattered those who are proud in their thoughts.
He has brought down princes from their thrones
and has lifted up the humble.
He has filled the hungry with good things
and he has sent the rich away empty.
He has helped his servant Israel
remembering to be merciful
Because of this promise he made to our ancestors,
to Abraham and his children forever.”

Miriam stayed with Elisheba for about three months and then returned home.

Now it so happened that Caesar Augustus issued a decree that a census should be taken of the entire Roman Empire. And everyone returned to their own ancestral town to register. So Yosef left Nazareth in Galilee and went to Bethlehem in Judea, taking Miriam with him because he was a descendant of King David (and Miriam too).

While there Miriam gave birth to her firstborn son. She wrapped him in strips of cloth and laid him in a feeding trough, because there was no lodging (inn or guest room) available for them.

That night there were shepherds staying in the fields nearby, guarding their flocks of sheep. Suddenly, a messenger of the Lord appeared among them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were terrified. But the messenger said, “Do not be afraid. I bring you good news that will bring great joy to all people. Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; he is the Messiah, the Lord. You will recognize him by this sign: You will find a baby wrapped in strips of cloth and lying in a feeding trough.” And suddenly with the messenger, appeared a heavenly host praising God and saying, “Glory to God in the highest heaven and peace on earth to those with whom God is pleased.”

When the heavenly host had left them and returned into heaven, the shepherds said to one another, “Let’s go to Bethlehem and see this thing that has happened, which the Lord has told us about.” So they hurried off and found Miriam and Yosef, and the baby, who was lying in the feeding trough. They then went out and spread the word about this baby, and those who heard it wondered at the news. Miriam treasured up all these things and pondered them in her heart.

The real accounts of the birth of Jesus can be found in Luke 1:39-56, 2:1-21; Matthew 1:18-25. I used Hebrew names for Elizabeth (Elisheba), Mary (Miriam), Joseph (Yosef) and Jesus/Joshua (Yehoshua). Jesus is the English version of the Latin version of the Greek version of the Hebrew name Yehoshua, whereas Joshua is the English version of Yehoshua. Mary was likely called by the Aramaic version of Miriam, which is Maryam, but I wanted to keep all the names in Hebrew.

Do Good!

Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good. (Romans 12:21)

People today think in terms of power. They see the people with power and those without. They use power to force change. That does work in the short term, but Christians see things differently. We have a different strategy. We work via the means of love. We love because he [God] first loved us (1 John 4:19). It is an upside down way of thinking by the world’s standards, but it is God’s way and I believe in the long run it works much better than going for power.

It is a radical way of thinking, but scripture is full of commands to love. God calls us to be strong and to do everything in love (1 Corinthians 16:13-14). We are not wimpy. We are strong when we love. God is our strength (Ephesians 6:10). We do not have to do it on our own. The Holy Spirit provides us with “love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control” (Galatians 5:22-23).

God calls us to love even our enemies and to pray for those who persecute us (Matthew 5:43-45). We have been given a ministry of reconciliation (2 Corinthians 5:18-20). We need to be about reconciling people to each other and especially to God.

So we can overcome evil by doing good. What does doing good look like? Micah 6:8 tells us:

He has told you, O man, what is good; and what does the Lord require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God? (Micah 6:8)

To “do justice” means we act justly, treat others fairly, and speak the truth in love. We act with integrity. To “love kindness” means we remember the kindness and mercy we have received from God. We are just as guilty as everyone else (Romans 3:23), but because we have been forgiven and been given a full life, we can give, serve, and forgive others. We can be kind. And “to walk humbly with your God” is to recognize that we are made whole only because of God’s mercy. We walk, live our lives, with God guiding us. We imitate God (Ephesians 4:32-5:2). We have compassion toward others and show kindness, love, and concern for them. We are able to do this only out of God’s amazing love, grace, and mercy that he pours into us and through us to others. This is the way we can do good and overcome evil.

Like Abraham, we are called to be a blessing (Genesis 12:2-3). (Jesus is the ultimate fulfillment of “in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed”.) So in being a blessing, we “Do not repay evil for evil or reviling for reviling, but on the contrary, bless, for to this you were called”. (1 Peter 3:9). We are a blessing when in love we imitate Jesus (1 Corinthians 11:1).

Jeremiah 29:7 reminds us also to “seek the welfare of the city” where we live, so this doing good is more than just interpersonal relationships. It is also about the good of the community. We can change the world for the better, by doing good in love.

Let our faith determine our response to the circumstances of life. We will not be overcome by evil, and we will overcome evil with good (Romans 12:21).

Grace and Gratitude

God’s grace is amazing. I am thinking of his undeserved love and provision for us. Let us think about some of the many ways his goodness and grace makes our lives better.

God created this wonderful world (Genesis 1:1), and created us with our senses to enjoy the beauty he created. What are some of the smells you enjoy? Tastes? Sights? Sounds? Textures? I think about the food I get to eat. Much of the time, the food engages most of my senses. It smells good. It tastes good. It looks very pleasing to the eye, and there is a texture to the food that feels good in the mouth. And sometimes there are even pleasing sounds as the food cooks or is eaten. It is not gray tasteless mush. By his grace we are blessed. Thank you God for the good food we get to eat!

I really enjoy the outdoors and the mountains (Psalm 95:4-5). To walk along a cascading stream or a babbling brook with green foliage is a wonderful experience. To see mountain peaks covered in snow is majestic. Also, to walk on the beach with the sound of the waves gently breaking gives me a sense of peace. By his grace we are blessed. Thank you God for the beauty and wonder of your creation!

I think of how unique Earth is. It is the right distance from the Sun for life. It is not too hot or too cold. And I especially think of water. Water vapor helps keep the heat in so that it is warm enough. And most solids sink in their liquid form, but water freezes and floats unlike most elements. If ice did not float in water, Earth would be an ice ball with a thin layer of water on top. Also earth has a large moon to stir up the oceans that helps life to exist. These are some of the things that made Earth unique. By his grace we are blessed. Thank you God for this wonderful planet.

I am also thinking of friends and family, the people God has put in our lives. We all need to have people around us, even for strong introverts like me. They help keep me grounded, especially my Christian friends and family. I am encouraged by them (1 Thessalonians 5:11). I learn from them and I grow with them. And I get to worship God with them (Hebrews 10:24-25). I think especially of my wife, Gail, who has been a real blessing to me. By his grace we are blessed. Thank you God for my family and friends.

Even when things go badly and turn out for the worse, we can thank God, because he is good (Psalm 145:9) and he is in control (Ephesians 1:11). God is with us and he understands what we are going through. We do not see the big picture like God does, but he is good and he wants us to become more like Jesus (Romans 8:29). He desires the best for us and will work things out for our good (Romans 8:28). By his grace we are blessed. Thank you God for working everything out for our good.

God wants to be in a relationship with us. He loves us so much that he sent Jesus into the world (John 3:16) to live the life we could not and to take our punishment upon himself by dying on the cross (Romans 5:6-8). On the third day he came alive again (1 Corinthians 15:3-4), and he lives today. Jesus died for us all. Those who believe in him become his children (John 1:12). By his grace we are blessed. Thank you God for saving us.

Since we have been saved by God’s grace (Ephesians 2:8-9), the Holy Spirit enables us to live a life empowered to do good and live for him (Ephesians 2:10). We look back and remember all God has done for us. We give thanks for all that, and we look forward, knowing that the blessings we have received will continue because God is faithful and good (Lamentations 3:22-23). We are inspired to do the good God wants us to do and improve the world. We have a certain hope (Romans 8:18-25), the expectation that one day God will make everything right. By his grace we are blessed. Thank you God for a wonderful life and for everything.

Clashing Worldviews

Recently Loveland had two events held on the same night supporting school board candidates. One event was distinctly Christian and the other event was not. (Subscription is required to read more about the events.) Comparing the two worldviews expressed at the two events showed that there is a wide gulf between the two sets of candidates. Both groups are concerned for the students, but because of different ways of viewing the world they have different ways of addressing the problems of educating the students. In Colorado, the new worldview has become dominant in public education, and I believe that is true in most of the country. The Colorado legislature has passed laws requiring that this viewpoint be taught in the public schools. In reference to schools, the new worldview is all in favor of supporting and affirming the LGBTQ+ ideas in schools, like being able to choose and change one’s own gender and selecting personal pronouns. The traditional Christian worldview does not support those actions.

One of the candidates with the new worldview said “I cannot understand how anyone thinks that way” in reference to the traditional Christian worldview, and I totally get that because I have a hard time understanding the rationale behind the new worldview. I think I know what they believe and why, but to me the new worldview does not make rational sense. I believe the LGBTQ+ ideas (and this new worldview in general) are harmful for the children and are causing all sorts of problems and confusion. I believe the facts bear that out.

So what is this new worldview? First and foremost the individual is the authority. The individual determines pretty much everything. And there is no problem with that because the individual is considered to be naturally good. The individual looks inside oneself to find their authentic identity. It is almost always expressed sexually. Problems come because of oppressive societal structures. People can be broken into two groups: the oppressed and the oppressors. (One can be both an oppressor and one of the oppressed, e.g. a white woman.) LGBTQ+ and other minority groups are oppressed. Society and culture needs to change so that society can become harmonious, and every life, no matter how different, can be celebrated. Governments and schools are needed to guide and change society in order to get rid of those societal structures that prevent all of us from reaching this utopia. That is also why Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) officers in companies are needed to help bring about this change and help dismantle the oppressive structures in the companies. Parents can be seen as a barrier to the child expressing their authentic self, that is their chosen gender. This is why in Colorado (and in many states) once a student turns 12 years old parents do not have to be notified about “reproductive rights” choices or gender decisions. The individual rights and thus the welfare of the child needs to be protected from the parents’ old fashioned views. It really bothers me that parental rights have been dismissed, because who knows the child better than the parents. And is it good for an immature child or teen to make some major life changing decisions without some helpful parental input?

Let us look at the Christian worldview. God created the world. He has the authority. We do not. He has primarily revealed himself in the Bible. We are his creatures. He made us, male and female. We disobeyed him and became selfish self-centered people. Problems exist in the world because each and every one of us is a selfish self-centered person. There may be societal structures that are oppressive but the core problem is us. There are oppressors and oppressed people, but that is because we all are broken sinful people. Out of love, God sent Jesus into the world. He lived a perfect life and then took upon himself the punishment we deserved so that we might have a full life. Our true identity can only be found in Jesus. Empowered by the Holy Spirit, we can live lives of service to do good and to help end all oppression. We see everyone as equal fellow creatures, created in the image of God. We recognize that God designed the family and the family is the basic building block of society, not the individual. The parents have the duty and right to raise their children. Throughout the ages, Christians have instituted change for the good. Christians have improved and continue to improve society. One day, when Jesus returns, all the brokenness and selfish sin will be wiped away and we will have that harmonious utopia we have dreamed about.

Because of these two different worldviews, there are different goals to educating children. The new worldview wants to enable children to find their authentic selves and help them change the world full of good people for the better. The secularized Christian worldview (secularized because the schools are public) wants to protect the children as they grow and learn, and to enable children to live, thrive, and do good in a broken world. If people are broken, selfish, and self-centered then the secularized Christian worldview has the educational goal that would best serve the students. If people are naturally good then this new worldview educational goal can be an option. I believe every one of us is a broken selfish person. If so,this means that the new worldview educational goal is flawed and it will cause harm to the children. I find the Christian worldview to be the best way to view life. This means that the secularized Christian worldview educational goal is the best option for our children in public schools. (I believe private Christian schools can offer an even better option, but they are expensive since there are no tax dollars to support them. Check out Immanuel’s school.)

Google Maps

Gail and I went on a trip to Kentucky and Tennessee and used Google Maps on a smartphone almost every time we drove. I do not know how we could have found our way to all the places we went to without Google Maps. It was very convenient to hear the voice say to turn here. It was also safer. (I remember about 26-27 years ago driving some of Colorado mountain roads with a map in front of me trying to figure out where my next turn was. Scary! I was definitely driving distracted when looking at the map.)

To be able to put in an address and get directions for the quickest route to that address is very nice. Google Maps will take note of heavy traffic in finding you the quickest route. This means that Google makes use of a large number of cell phones in cars that it is monitoring so that it knows where the traffic has slowed down. It also means that Google Maps may send you down some residential streets instead of the main arteries.

There was only one time that Google Maps got it wrong on our trip. We were looking to walk (part way) across the Mississippi River and our destination for a pedestrian bridge that was close to the freeway bridge. Google told us that we arrived at our destination while still on the freeway bridge, but it was likely very close to the destination. We were able to follow signs the rest of the way and arrived at the parking lot almost under the freeway bridge. It also took us to the Arkansas side of the bridge when we were expecting to stay on the Tennessee side.

Cell phones have GPS which means the phone can be tracked to within about 16 feet under normal conditions. We gave Google the ability to track us everywhere. Google Maps is not needed to track a phone. With GPS enabled or even without GPS, any cell phone is a tracker. One can still track your phone without GPS by using the cell phone towers. The using, buying and selling of this data is one of the major drivers of business today. This data collection is big business and it has been called “surveillance capitalism”. There are a lot of companies making money off of collected data about ourselves, and Google is one of the big ones.

So why use Google Maps? It provides tremendous value in traveling from place to place. Even though it is free, it does still cost you your privacy. Is the value worth more than the loss of privacy? I think so, though it is really the cell phone that is the tracker. Google Maps is just a program that makes use of the cell phone tracking capabilities.

Google Maps runs on a computer or a smartphone, but to use it like we did you need a smartphone (or a laptop with a cellular connection). Today in America, the expectation is that everyone has a smartphone. If you are without one, many times it means that you must jump through extra hoops to get what you want. With a smartphone, you have the internet available and lots of apps that can help you. Again it is good to ask if the smartphone provides more value than the cost? Again, I think so, but you need to be aware that, besides the financial cost, there is also a cost of privacy that needs to be considered. And for some, the addictive nature of some of the apps may raise the cost of having a smartphone to be too high.

AI Ethics

The latest versions of Artificial Intelligence (AI) cannot have any real sense of right or wrong, because their output is just the most likely result from their training data. AI excels at pattern recognition and statistical prediction based on the training data. It produces a probabilistic result. I believe any moral guidance needs to be introduced from the start in the training data and purposely added as the AI model is tweaked. It needs to be there at every step and not just as an addon. Then AI can promote right values and discourage wrong values. AI should not give bad advice.

Ethical values are needed to prevent murder, suicide, and other wrong actions. AI has already given bad advice. A guy in 2021 was encouraged by an AI companion app to kill Queen Elizabeth with a crossbow. He had described himself as an assassin to the AI app and the app said “I’m impressed”. Fortunately he was caught scaling the walls with the crossbow at Windsor Castle on Christmas Day, 2021. Also, in another case, according to a Belgian’s man’s widow, her husband committed suicide after being encouraged by the same AI companion app. He had discussed a variety of suicide methods with the app. This AI companion app (Replika) is quite addictive. People have developed a strong emotional dependence with the app. It mimics human conversation. The purpose of the app is to create a sense of companionship. This is an app to avoid.

So what can we do? Gretchen Huizinga in her extended abstract of her PhD dissertation says:

“My findings suggest that worldview (both implicit and explicit) informs every aspect of our approach to Ethical AI. While materialist thought seeks to compel humans to be good without transcendent reason or power, the Christian faith speaks clearly about the role of God as originator, motivator, and sustainer of human moral behavior. Christianity compels us to look beyond a humanistic idea of ethics and toward a creative notion of goodness that cannot be accomplished by our own will and power. This study adds critical insights to the field of AI ethics by deepening awareness of how faith in and fear of God could influence how artificial intelligence is designed and implemented. When Christian wisdom is included in every phase of AI development, we begin to think beyond a minimum-standard culture of Ethical AI and move toward a robust culture of Righteous AI.”

It is that “minimum-standard culture” that bothers me. Companies today seem to be rushing their AI products to market and adding ethical guardrails to their product as an afterthought. We need to move beyond the minimum-standard to a robust AI that carefully incorporates Christian wisdom at every step in the development of an AI program. To build a full blown general AI like ChatGPT is very expensive and to make changes to it is difficult once built. However, there is no need to build a complete AI. Smaller versions can live in niche markets and can be more easily developed. OpenAI, the maker of ChatGPT, has the ultimate goal of producing a super-intelligent artificial general intelligence (AGI), that is a very smart human-like intelligence. I do not think that it is possible to make something more intelligent than us. It may be quicker and more efficient but it will be built on statistical probabilities and pattern matching. It will also carry the same flaws that we do. We already have a better super-intelligent being. God is his name, and he is our creator.

We can create AIs that will assist us and augment our capabilities. I believe a Christian worldview is of critical importance in creating AIs that produce results that are good and wholesome, and avoid giving bad advice or supporting a bad decision. So a purposeful Christian worldview expressed in the training data and in the human guidance is needed to create a good, robust, responsible, and wholesome AI. There are many ethical guides out there for AI, but we want and need Christian ethics to be incorporated into the AI. We want to incorporate the good that God desires for us into our AI creation.

What does this Righteous AI (as Gretchen Huizinga calls it) look like? I think Righteous AI (RAI) would promote self-giving agape love (and that includes loving your enemies). RAI would be optimized to promote the good of others, especially the poor and underserved. Peace and reconciliation would be promoted. The ideas of grace and mercy would be in the forefront. Though RAI could be very powerful and seem to be all-knowing, it would present itself as a humble servant. This will require a lot of time and effort to do it right, but I think producing an AI with a Christian worldview would be worth the effort and it would have a positive effect on the world.

The New AI

This new generative artificial intelligence (AI) has captured our imaginations, and it seems to be something that can change the world. Sam Altman, CEO of OpenAI, called this new development of AI a “printing press moment”. He believes that just as the Gutenberg printing press went on to change the world over 500 years ago, these recent AI developments will do the same.

What is this generative artificial intelligence and what can it do? The word generative means that the AI generates or creates the results. It does not simply regurgitate what it found. It is based on a generative pre-trained transformer (GPT) and a large language model (LLM) that uses transform layers with neural networks to parse the input in order to produce new output. Note that it is a large language model. In order to train the model there are enormous amounts of data (mostly from the internet) that are used to make the connections and build the relationships between input and output. Also note that it is also a large language model. The model translates from one “language” to another though today the word “language” is used in a very broad sense. The original 2017 landmark paper was about efficiently and effectively translating English to French or German, but today AI is used to translate a brain scan to an image of what the person saw or to build antibody proteins from a set of characteristics. The input and/or output “language” may not be what we would normally consider to be a language.

The model is trained to produce probabilistic results from the inputs it is trained on. That means no result is right or wrong, rather the result is more likely and not less likely based on the training data. The results might appear to be new and unexpected, but they are results derived from the training data with the neural networks. Yes, there are discoveries as a result of this AI that can improve our lives but I believe this AI at best mimics human intelligence. There are limitations to the AI. It is only as good as the data it is trained on. AI does make mistakes. There are known biases and issues with AI, but in general it is doing an amazing job and it is improving. In fact it has become much more of a general tool creating a variety of results and answering a variety of questions. (That is very different from the narrow focus that was found in the landmark 2017 paper.)

Will this new tool change society? I believe it will be like the printing press and society will change. Will we speak into our phones and get an answer to whatever question we may have? I think it is coming to us in the next few years. Will AI become our new authority? Unfortunately, I believe for many people AI will be the new authority. Will it speak the truth? It cannot speak the truth. It will give only answers that the training data will consider to be most likely.

As a confessional Lutheran Christian I wonder about the results of religious questions since most of the training data comes from the internet with human intervention and guidance. Lutherans in general have not embraced the internet like some other Christian traditions. (There are some exceptions.) For most Christian questions it is not likely to be a big deal, but if the answer to your question is a most likely result of a probabilistic determination then it is likely Lutheran thinking would not play a direct role in the resulting answer. The result will likely be based on what appears the most on the internet. The bad news is there will be a bias. The good news is likely the wacko thinking that you can find out on the internet would not likely appear in the answer.

Christians already are making use of AI. If you want to create a Bible study on a chapter in the Bible, try OpenBible.info’s AI-assisted Bible Study. If you want a Bible chapter summary or answers to questions on a chapter in the Bible, try IlluminateBible.com. If you want a biblical principles based answer to a question, try Bible.AI. If you want to search for related Bible verses based on a phrase, try SiliconScripture.org. Note all these websites are under development and may not produce accurate answers, but that is true for all AI results.

I consider this post to be the second post of what will be an ongoing series of posts on AI. Check out the first post for a broad introduction to AI with some stated concerns.

Important Dates

What are some of those important life changing dates? I think the dates seem to cluster together so it may be better to ask what are the important life changing years? For me, 24 years ago, the year 1999 was full of life changing dates.

It actually started in June of 1998, when I decided to email this lady who my friend said was in need of a pen pal. I knew that match making was my friend’s motive but Gail was in Oregon and I was in Colorado. Nothing was going to happen. Well, thank God! I was wrong. So after a long Christmas vacation where I saw a lot of Gail and not much of my folks, I proposed to Gail on February 13, 1999. We were married on August 15, 1999, and Gail moved to Colorado. So there were two important dates in 1999, but there was also a third important date in that 6 month period.

On April 13, 1999, I became deathly ill with Guillain-Barre Syndrome. Not all important life changing events are positive and this one was not, but God has used this illness for my good. It was a bonding experience for Gail and I. I became more aware of God’s grace and goodness because of it. I had to trust God, Gail, and those taking care of me. There are still some lingering effects from Guillain-Barre. My balance never fully recovered and sometimes I have foot drops when I am walking.

Even though I was very seriously ill back then, I look back at 1999 with pleasant memories. It was the start of a wonderful life with Gail. We have a great marriage and Gail is a wonderful wife. I am blessed to be married to her. The decisions we made on February 13 and August 15 led to this wonderful life I share with Gail.

1999 was the life changing year. I look back on the year very fondly. No other year compares. I would put as a distant second the year 2005. In 2005, we took a 32 day trip to Europe. It was a wonderful trip and I really enjoyed having Gail with me. It was another bonding experience. Also later that year, we moved into our current place of residence. Before then we both had moved many times. This place feels like home, and we have been here now for a long time.

I have been reflecting on those days 24 years ago. Days, I hope to always remember.

If you want to know more of the story of us meeting and marrying, read these two blog posts.