Item Details

An Introduction to Artificial Intelligence and Religion For the Religious Studies Scholar

Issue: Vol 20 No. 3 (2017) Special Issue: Artificial Intelligence and Religion. Guest Editor: Beth Singler

Journal: Implicit Religion

Subject Areas: Religious Studies

DOI: 10.1558/imre.35901

Abstract:

This introduction to the special issue of the Journal of Implicit Religion on Artificial Intelligence (AI) and religion will explore the some initial but important reasons why the interplay between these two fields should be of interest to the religious studies scholar. After introducing AI as well as elements of its cultural history and narratives, this article will lay out three arguments for researching AI and religion. First, that the potential disruption wrought by AI will effect society, and as religion and society are intrinsically intertwined these changes will have implications for religion. Second, that AI is potentially reinvigorating for contemporary religion, and may also incite the creation of new religious movements. And third, that AI’s uncertain status as a potential new intelligent being raises questions about personhood that religions have traditionally attempted to resolve based upon their theological understandings of the person, and that the continuing debate in this area will be of interest to scholars of religion.

Author: Beth Singler

View Original Web Page

References :

Amato, Ivan. 1991. “Speculating in Precious Computronium,” available at https://web.archive.org/web/20040622210059/http://leitl.org/amato.pdf

Aruz, Joan and Ronald Wallenfels, eds. 2003. Art of the First Cities: The Third Millennium B.C. from the Mediterranean to the Indus, New Haven, CT: Yale University Press

Buber, Martin. 1937 [1923]. Ich und Du. Translated by Ronald Gregor Smith. Edinburgh: T. & T. Clark

Chang, Hasok. 2010. “The hidden history of Phlogiston: How philosophical failure can generate historiographical refinement.” HYLE—International Journal for Philosophy of Chemistry 16(2): 47–79.

Daily Mail. 2012. “Let’s Make Sure He WON’T Be Back! Cambridge To Open “Terminator Centre’ To Study Threat To Humans From Artificial
Intelligence,” 25th November 2012, http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2238152/Cambridge-University-open-Terminator-centre-study-threat-humans-artificial-intelligence.html

Dartmouth (1955) “Dartmouth AI Project Proposal; J. McCarthy et al.”; Aug. 31, 1955, available at https://aaai.org/ojs/index.php/aimagazine/article/view/1904

Deloitte. 2015. “No Immunity from Exponentials Effect,” available at http://deloitte.wsj.com/cio/2015/09/30/no-immunity-from-the-exponentials-effect/

Good, Irving John. 1965. “Speculations concerning the first ultraintelligent machine.” In Advances in Computers 6: 31–88. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0065-2458(08)60418-0

Guardian. 2017. “Robot priest unveiled in Germany to mark 500 years since Reformation.” 30th May 2017. https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2017/may/30/robot-priest-blessu-2-germany-reformation-exhibition

Fischoff, Ephraim. 1944. “The Protestant ethic and the spirit of capitalism: The history of a controversy.” Social Research 11(1): 53–77.

Harari, Yuval. 2015. Homo Deus: A Brief History of Tomorrow. London: Harvill Secker.

Helbing, Dirk, Bruno S. Frey, Gerd Gigerenzer, Ernst Hafen, Michael Hagner, Yvonne Hofstetter, Jeroen van den Hoven, Roberto V. Zicari and Andrej Zwitter. 2017. “Will Democracy Survive Big Data and Artificial Intelligence?” Scientific American February 25, 2017. https://www.bsfrey.ch/articles/D_283_2017.pdf

Herzfeld, Noreen. 2002. “Creating in our own Image: Artificial intelligence and the image of God.” Zygon 37(2): 303–316. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0065-2458(08)60418-0

Kurzweil, Ray. 2004. “Kurzweil’s Law (aka “the law of accelerating returns”),” 12 January 2004. http://www.kurzweilai.net/kurzweils-law-aka-the-law-of-accelerating-returns

Mashable. 2017. “People are outraged that Sophia the robot has more rights than most women in Saudi Arabia.” https://mashable.com/2017/10/27/saudi-arabia-womens-rights-sophia/#oQQZ2FFlKsqi

Messerly, John. 2015. “The end of religion: Technology and the future.” 21 December 2015. https://ieet.org/index.php/IEET2/more/messerly20151221

Moore, Gordon. 1965. “Cramming more components onto integrated circuits.” Electronics 38(8), 19 April, 1965. http://www.monolithic3d.com/uploads/6/0/5/5/6055488/gordon_moore_1965_article.pdf

Motherboard. 2011. “The singular vision of Ray Kurzweil, prophet of both techno-doom and techno-salvation.” 13 October 2011. https://motherboard.vice.com/en_us/article/qkkkjd/mbtv-the-singular-vision-of-ray-kurzweil-prophet-of-both-techno-doom-and-techno-salvation

Newborn, Monty. 1989. Deep Blue: An Artificial Intelligence Milestone. New York: Springer.

Norberg, Arthur. L. 1991. “An interview with Allen Newell,” 10–12 June 1991. Oral History Collection, Charles Babbage Institute, University of Minnesota. https://conservancy.umn.edu/bitstream/handle/11299/107544/oh227an.pdf?sequence=1

OCE. 2012. “Prospectus of the Order of Cosmic Engineers.” 2 January 2012. http://turingchurch.com/2012/01/02/order-of-cosmic-engineers/

Partee, Charles. 2008. The Theology of John Calvin. Louisville, KY: John Knox Press.

Polonski, Vyacheslav W. 2017. “How artificial intelligence conquered democracy.” The Independent, 15 August 2017. http://www.independent.co.uk/news/long_reads/artificial-intelligence-democracy-elections-trump-brexit-clinton-a7883911.html

Prisco, Julio. 2014. “Religion for the cosmic frontier.” Paper given at the 2014 Mormon Transhumanist Conference. https://www.slideshare.net/giulioprisco/mta-2014-giulio-prisco

Schaffer, Simon. 2015. “Imitation games: Conspiratorial sciences and intelligent machines.” Public lecture 25 November 2015. CRASSH Conspiracy and Democracy Project, University of Cambridge. http://www.crassh.cam.ac.uk/gallery/video/simon-schaffer-imitation-games-conspiratorial-sciences-and-intelligent-mach

Singler, Beth. 2017. The Indigo Children: New Age Experimentation with Self and Science. London: Routledge.

Stemler, Abbey. 2017. “The myth of the sharing economy and its implications for regulating innovation.” Emory Law Journal 67(2): 197–241. http://law.emory.edu/elj/_documents/volumes/67/2/stemler.pdf

Vinge, Vernor. 1993. “The coming technological singularity: How to survive in the post-human era.” https://www.frc.ri.cmu.edu/~hpm/book98/com.ch1/vinge.singularity.html

Weber, Max. 1956. The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism. New York: Scribner.

Wired. 2017a. “God is a bot, and Anthony Levandowski is his messenger.” 27 September 2017. https://www.wired.com/story/god-is-a-bot-and-anthony-levandowski-is-his-messenger/

———. 2017b. “Inside the First Church of Artificial Intelligence.” 15 November 2017. https://www.wired.com/story/anthony-levandowski-artificial-intelligence-religion/

Zastrow, Mark. 2016. “Machine outsmarts man in battle of the decade.” New Scientist 229(3065). 19 March 2016. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0262-4079(16)30458-4