The Jewish and Christian scripture warning against idolatry insists that allowing yourself to be controlled and governed by anything less than an infinitely compassionate and loving Creator is a mistake.
The warning is given to protect us from voluntarily opting to live enslaved.
This particular gathering focuses on media, perhaps as in part responsible for our current shameful ugliness, as well as on ways media might contribute toward needed healing. My first premise is that our world is full of noble, courageous, journalists ready to give their lives to honor truth-telling for the sake of a better world. Although I admire honorable journalists and am grateful for the indispensable service they offer, I myself try to avoid them and have as little to do with them as possible.
The problem with addictions is that they eventually erase the adequate functioning of conscience in the host bodies they inhabit and ultimately control.
A clear marker in this descent to becoming subhuman is the juncture at which the sanctity of human life is rejected in favor of satiating the blinding demands of an addiction.
We are living through a time of extreme uncertainty, instability, and insecurity.
There are two forces driving this.
One is the blinding speed of technology.
In itself, this should be positive. It is progress. But as pointed out by those who know the matter best, it also carries great threats. According to many, tech such as AI even threatens our very existence.
There are two terms that have become commonplace, that to me are two of as dangerous as any that now infect our language. These are the terms misinformation and disinformation.They are pervasive. They flood our lives every day, and are taken for granted as meaningful, and part of our common concern. They are neither meaningful, nor should they be part of our common concern. They are thin shields for lawless totalitarianism and the smiling face above the jackboot crushing our first amendment and most important God-given rights.
On June 19th, 1865, Union soldiers arrived in Galveston, Texas (the last place of resistance to Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation) and announced the end of the Civil War and slavery in the United States. On that day about 250,000 enslaved African Americans in Texas were freed.
AI seemed to burst into our lives suddenly. One day it seemed not to exist at all, and the following day it seemed to exist everywhere, in countless inscrutable forms, brands and promises. It instantly seemed to erupt a class of people as immersed in AI as fully as the rest of us count on our eyes to see. There’s the Chatbot app itself, the people, the companies, and as suddenly a billowing industry of experts, programs, seminars, and teachers and trainers. In classic fashion, consumers dive in blindly, anything and everything for convenience, shortcuts, and entertainment.