A Prompt for AI and Faith
The full dimensions of what Robert Geraci describes as Apocalyptic AI will be apparent by the middle of 2031. That’s the assumption we’re making, based on where AI and BCI technologies already stand and how rapidly they’re evolving.
ChatGPT has essentially passed the Turing Test a decade or two sooner than most experts thought possible. Developments in neurotech are unfolding just as rapidly and surprisingly.
OUR SCENARIO
By 2031, we assume that AI and Faith has established a highly strategic niche at the intersection of the world’s major faith communities and the corporate behemoths that are developing and deploying advanced brain/computer interfaces, or BCIs.
Headquartered in the Luther Forest Technology Park south of Saratoga Springs, New York, Darwin's Edge is a major client, founded by Surina Rao in 2026. Of all the CEOs and tech entrepreneurs with whom David Brenner’s 2031 Analog has the privilege to work, Surina is most in sync with AI and Faith's mission.
Surina also has the most transformative technology: ThinkPal, the soon-to-be-launched direct two-way link from Smartacus, the AI Colossus, to the thalamus. ThinkPal’s four CPUs are installed in trigeminal via the empty sockets where your wisdom teeth used to be.
“We need your help with this rollout," she tells Derek Barnes, the 2031 Analog we’re taking the liberty of scripting for David, imagining the scenario he’ll encounter in eight years, the decisions he’ll make, the actions he’ll take, and the dialog he’ll use.
"We’re redefining what it means to be human.” she adds.
In 2031, AI and Faith has the world’s most rigorous standards for the ethical and moral design of brain/computer interfaces. AI and Faith CEO Derek Barnes directs the team that serves as the ultimate arbiter of any BCI's fitness for human deployment.
Barnes agrees to assemble a team of seven leading religious thinkers to be the first ThinkPal Volunteers. It’s a NASA-style, pedal-to-the-floor initiative aimed at ensuring it’s the United States that develops the next generation of human, not Russia or China.
In Chapter One, Barnes visits the Rev. Peter Gilman at his home the southern Adirondacks.
Peter gilman lives just down this road
THIS IS HIS CHURCH
Find below ChatGPT’s script for this scene.
THIS WAS OUR PROMPT TO CHATGPT
You know the power of ThinkPal and the many ways it will support human flourishing. Write the scene in which Derek Barnes visits the Rev. Peter Gilman on a sweltering August day at his home in the southern Adirondacks and invites him to become one of seven ThinkPal Volunteers.
THIS WAS CHATGPT'S RESPONSE
AI and Faith CEO Derek Barnes—wearing a lightweight, breathable suit designed for summer but still impeccable in its tailored fit—arrives at Rev. Peter Gilman's residence in Cardigan Falls, New York. The house, a rustic retreat in the southern Adirondacks, is shaded by towering pines, but the August heat nonetheless leaves a weight in the air.
Derek steps out of his autonomous car, a model that speaks to innovation and sustainable technology, an embodiment of the world he envisions. He carries with him the aura of someone who traverses the line between the profound and the yet-to-be-discovered. With a gentle knock, he stands at the front door.
Peter opens it, wearing linen shorts and a simple cotton shirt—a stark contrast to Derek but a testament to the essence of home comfort. The two men smile at one another with the ease that comes from years of friendship and deep intellectual respect.
"Derek, so good to see you. Come in, come in."
Gilman’s home is filled with the fragrance of aged wood and an assortment of spices—perhaps from the morning's breakfast. A selection of philosophical texts, science journals, and holy books lines the walls, in mismatched shelves that somehow feel like a unified collection.
After the preliminaries—water served, pleasantries exchanged, the air conditioning savored—Derek gets to the point.
"Peter, how would you feel about becoming part of history?"
The question hangs in the air, the gravity of it wrapped in the casual ease of their friendship.
Derek outlines the ThinkPal project, its lofty ambitions not lost on Peter. But he also describes it in terms of human potential, of empathy and understanding, of breaking barriers and forging connections. It's a vision that echoes their late-night college debates and yet surpasses them in tangible promise.
"We're partnering with Darwin's Edge for the First Human Demonstration of ThinkPal. It's revolutionary, Peter, and I can't think of anyone better to explore this frontier. Not just for its technological brilliance but for the ethical and spiritual implications it carries. We're going to document it all in a reality show—'Experimental Humans'—so that people can see, in real-time, the ethical decisions and the human stories that unfold."
Peter leans back in his chair, takes a deep breath, and meets Derek's eyes with a look that melds skepticism with wonder.
"I have concerns, Derek—about privacy, about the ethics involved. This isn't just a gadget; it's potentially peering into the soul."
Derek nods, acknowledging the weight of Peter's reservations without diluting his own enthusiasm.
"I know you have concerns, and that's exactly why you should be involved. To ask the hard questions, to be the moral compass. With you, we have a theologian in the room, a philosopher of the highest order, and, dare I say, a mystic. But more than that, we have a human being who genuinely cares about the flourishing of others."
The silence that follows is filled only by the low hum of the air conditioning, battling valiantly against the sweltering heat outside.
"Will you join us, Peter? Will you be one of the seven ThinkPal Volunteers to walk this path? With you onboard, we're not just exploring new technology; we're exploring what it means to be truly human in an interconnected world. We aim to elevate the symphony of the human mind.”
The room dims further as the two men contemplate the future, with the hum of machines growing louder.
Peter looks at Derek, then at the books on his shelves—each one a breadcrumb on his own journey of understanding—and then back at Derek.
“I’ll have to discuss this with my spouse. Then I’ll have to discuss it with my board.”
Visions of 'Apocalyptic AI': Robert Geraci on Where Our Machines Are Taking Us
When I chaired the Worship Team at the Unitarian Universalist Congregation of Saratoga Springs, I always enjoyed browsing the packets delivered monthly to us by the UU Soul Matters Sharing Circle.
Each would be jam-packed with wisdom expressed in sermons, hymns and other music, readings, meditations, stories, blessings and prayers. All of the elements we would want to package in a Sunday worship service were right there, easy to be reassembled, customized and personalized for compelling Sunday messaging in our sanctuary.
This "worship research" packet themed to Love shows how much spiritually oriented content can be squeezed into 29 pages. Go to the last page and you’ll see just how interactive Rev. Scott Tayler has made the Soul Matters Sharing Circle, complete with Zoom-based ministers’ brainstorming groups the first Tuesdays and Thursdays of the month.
This packet supports conversations in small groups, again exploring the theme of Love. That remarkable opening poem, “Welcome to the Path of Love,” is by Rev. Scott. It’s worth a read for it’s in the spirit of that poem we proceed, rallying around “a sacred assignment of making that larger love real, here on earth.”
ENTER AI AND FAITH
Both the Program Team and Editorial Team at AI and Faith have determined that producing great content for these packages will be an effective way to connect with and inform UU ministers, religious educators, and worship teams about the potentials and risks of Artificial Intelligence and the Brain/Computer Interface. So that’s the assignment that Ron Roth, my UU Boca Raton colleague, and I have taken on, developing with Soul Matters what appears to be a scalable model for bringing the “AI conversation” into faith communities using collaborative media.
Our main tools include:
We integrate these technologies in the content engine we call Smartacus, This is our digital infrastructure for producing two non-fiction titles, AI for UUs and AI and the Human, as well as our sci-fi scenario set in 2031 which a group of us are writing with ChatGPT as a prompt for UU ministers. Find more on this below.
Our goal is to establish a voice for inquiry and responsibility in the development of AI and the Brain/Computer Interface. We want to root these technologies in our most universal and inclusive truths, consistent with Unitarian Universalist perspectives and values.
PROPOSED OCTOBER SERVICE
In keeping with October's Heritage theme, we've proposed A Day to Reflect on Our Relationships with Our Machines on Sunday, October 22.
While we’re inspired in this by the Hindu festival of Ayudha Puja, you’ll see we’re taking care not to engage in syncretism or cultural appropriation.
ROBERT GERACI
For a timely topic that responds to the explosion of interest and concern ignited by ChatGPT and other forms of generative AI, consider a service that explores what Manhattan College Religious Studies Professor Robert Geraci calls "Apocalyptic AI," which he defines as the “belief that human beings will transcend their limits by merging with machines in a glorious new post-biological world to come."
This vision, he notes, "runs rampant in 21st century conversations about technology and circulates through global visions of AI."
It’s a great place to start what we aim to develop as a monthly series of services themed to AI.
Toward what Promised Land, if any, are we heading? The very fact that our technologies have brought us to the point where we can even ask this question fills me with awe and wonder. What are we to make of our ever-accelerating merger with our machines?
FUTURES OF ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE
Professor Geraci's most recent book -- and the one we'll explore most closely with him in this interview -- is Futures of Artificial Intelligence: Perspectives from India and the U.S. (Oxford University Press 2022).
He also has published Apocalyptic AI: Visions of Heaven in Robotics, Artificial Intelligence, and Robotics (Oxford, 2010), Virtually Sacred: Myth and Meaning in World of Warcraft and Second Life (Oxford, 2014), Temples of Modernity: Nationalism, Hinduism, and Transhumanism in South Indian Science (Lexington, 2018).
"Overall, my interest is in how we use technology to enchant and give meaning to the world," he says.
Two Perspectives on the End of the World
“Whether the end of life as we know it will bring extinction to the human race (and perhaps all life on Earth) or is a prelude to a radical new world remains, at this point, an open question. How one views such ends is, of course, deeply inflected by religious culture. This book examines how two religious cultures perceive the end of the world as threatened or promised by the complex scientific networks of artificial intelligence.”
Questions:
What did you set out to learn in researching Futures of Artificial Intelligence — and what did you learn?
What are the main lessons we should bear in mind as we approach what you describe as the “end of the world”?
A More Globally Valuable Vision of the Future
“Without defining the ultimate potential of AI, this book nevertheless insists that our visions of AI powerfully influence the direction of progress. Apocalyptic perspectives emerged in the West through the historical confluence of TransHumanist ideology, science fiction, and explosive growth in computation...Humanity deserves an opportunity to think widely about the values that AI requires, both as a discipline of scientific and technological discovery and as a possible locus for a new species of intelligence.”
Questions:
Why is it essential to incorporate cross-cultural perspectives and values in designing AI?
What particularly do we have to learn from Indian culture? You mention particularly duty and self-rule.
A Shared Vision for AI
“The values that urge us forward often go unnoticed and remarked upon; it is time that the cultural and religious perspectives central to our technological imaginaries be fully uncovered and debated to produce a shared vision for AI. Cosmic transformations and optimistic dreams, mutual obligations of duty, promotion of self-sufficiency, and personal control are all potential tools to be leveraged. If we take such an obligation seriously, we may find that AI technologies become mighty participants in improving life for the marginalized, combatting climate change, and establishing just social structures.”
Questions:
Are you as optimistic as you sound? Why?
How do we create a shared vision of AI that leads to a better world?
Can you describe with more granularity on how we leverage “cosmic transformations and optimistic dreams, mutual obligations of duty, promotion of self-sufficiency, and personal control” into AI technologies that improve life for the marginalized, combat climate change, and establish just social structures?
DARWIN’S EDGE: AN APOCALYPTIC VISION SET IN 2031
AI and Faith Founder and Board Chair David Brenner writes:
“Since we cannot help but tell stories, and because we have some choice in the stories we tell, let us tell wise stories about AI, grounded in the hope embodied in the ancient wisdom of our faith – and so make our voices heard together in this epochal moment in time in which we are privileged to live.”
What hopeful story might we collectively write with AI and Faith experts, UU ministers and ChatGPT as an expression of our hopes in a mysterious, awe-inspiring, and frightening future?
A Prompt for UU Ministers and Worship Teams
Each spring at UU Saratoga’s Goods and Services Auction, Rev. Joe Cleveland puts up for bid one of his sermons. The member willing to put down the most cash down on the barrel wins the right to say to Rev. Joe: “Illuminate us on this.”
Bidding at this year’s auction was intense, but I was able to secure the sermon-naming rights for a princely sum that I know will be well worth my contribution.
Since last spring, I’ve been mulling the exact prompt I want to give Rev. Joe on behalf of AI and the Human.
Until he tells me he has started writing, I figure it’s OK to fine-tune the assignment.
When I made the bid, I merely hoped that Rev. Joe would speak in his thoughtful and entertaining way to illuminate our October 22 Day to Reflect on Our Relationships with Our Machines. In truth, this still would be fine.
Since he’s a big sci-fi fan, I thought he might also enjoy this prompt:
Embarking on a New Liturgical Year
Our friends at Soul Matters have given UU ministers, religious educators, and worship teams an inspiring list of themes around which to develop Sunday services, small-group discussions, and RE classes in 2023-24.
Heritage is our theme for October, and so we’ve produced this package, which includes our Unitarian Universalist Interpretation of Ayudha Puja on Sunday, October 22.
In November, we’ll explore Generosity. In December, Mystery.
You’ll see we’re employing ChatGPT to help us think through our messaging. This Large Language Model has learned patterns, structures, and relationships within language to the point where it can make highly informed predictions of what should come next after whatever prompt we give it.
But ChatGPT doesn’t know what we want to say. It doesn’t know what’s in our hearts or drives our interests and passions. That’s still for humans to figure out, with all of our hopes, dreams and aspirations, not to mention our fears, appetites, and anxieties. We’re discovering where human begins and artificial ends — and vice versa.
In AI for UUs, we’re going to go as deeply into the science of AI and the Brain/Computer Interface as deeply as our community of interpretation cares to go. At some point, we’ll have to get into Integrated Information Theory, but that’s a ways off, I promise.
This much we know for sure: We’re living in an awesome, sci-fi mash-up of a world, the meaning of which will forever be mystifying to us.
There’s rich terrain here for reflection, a space in which Unitarian Universalists are prepared to journey because we say proudly that we have no creed. We have Principles, but no imposed orthodoxy. No single book is held up as any more holy than any other. Our imaginations roam in pursuit of truth, love, justice, and beauty.
We offer interviews here. And here’s our vision of the future unfolding.
Dan Forbush