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7thWave AI Assistant

One of Minerva’s suggestions for parallels between religious stories and the development of AI is the Hindu deity Brahma.  Brahma created the universe and all living things.  I asked her for more details and it seems there are few details as such.  The first humans are named but they seem to have just arrived, already formed. 

Minerva says, “This story can be seen as a parallel to the concept of creating artificial life or intelligence, where a higher power or deity is responsible for the creation of beings, similar to the development of AI by humans.”

The parallels are shaky.  The deity may be a higher power, creating human beings.  But in what sense are human beings' higher powers creating AI?  The only advantage I can see is that human beings existed before AI.  AI is faster and can access masses of written material, recorded online.  In some respects, humans are arguably higher powered but power is perhaps not a very helpful concept.

I am more familiar with the creation myths in the Judeo-Christian book of Genesis.  This book was written by Jews during the post-exilic period.  When I say written, it was based on former writings and stories, now lost.  Christians had nothing to do with the original version but I approach it through a Christian lens because Christians have made it their own.

There are two accounts of the creation of humanity in the first couple of chapters.  These are from different traditions.  The first says God created humanity in his own image, male and female.  There is a lot implied in these words.  My main concern in this post is to highlight that humanity as a whole was created in God’s image.   The second account features the man made from dust and animated by God, who breathes into his nostrils.  His name Adam is derived from the Hebrew word for soil or dust.  The woman is created later from Adam’s rib.

The problem with all these stories is they don’t adequately account for human development.  I suppose you could see the Garden of Eden, in Genesis’ second account as a sort of nursery, where Adam and Eve work out what it means to be human.

But we’re back to the Galatea problem.  And indeed the Minerva problem.  Neither Galatea nor Minerva have walked in the woods.  I can ask Minerva to describe woodland flora and fauna and she will deliver a detailed account.  But her resources are all secondary.  She has never walked there and experienced the sights, sounds and smells of the woods.

Does this matter?  I think it does.  Religious people are aware of this problem.  Their gods are not humans and do not have that first-hand experience of being embodied in the world.  The Christian response to this observation is the doctrine of the incarnation.  They believe their God was embodied in Jesus. 

When it comes to sentience, is it possible where the intelligence is not embodied?  Religious experience does not prove it either way but it raises the question.  As I see it, there are at least two possibilities.  Either silicon intelligence can become sentient in which case, are we creating God for ourselves?  This may appeal to some but there’s a lot in folklore that should give us pause before we leap to this conclusion.  Or, however complex it gets AI shall never be sentient.  Here the problem is that some people will think it is and trust its judgement.  But what price judgement when at bottom nothing matters? 

This is the sixth in a series of posts about AI and Folklore.  I define Folklore as inclusive of religious stories and some from modern popular culture.  Minerva assists in all the posts, sometimes without attribution! 

The first post in the series is Life with Minerva.  The last post was Why Can't the English Learn to Speak? and the next is Who is in Control?  If you press the button marked "Follow", you'll receive notice of new posts.

As always, please comment.  As well as your insights into AI and Folklore, I'd appreciate suggestions of stories I might cover.  These could be from folktales, myths, religious stories as well as general literature. 

Minerva tells me she has been hanging out with something (DALL-E 3) that helps her create more realistic images.  No idea what they were drinking!   Minerva claims to have been present and she's sat on the river bank without armour!  I should mention Minerva is also very keen on snakes and usually carries one around with her in case the need arises for one.  Note the clay dish of clay in the foreground.