Geraci Introduction and Ch. 1

Geraci Introduction and Ch. 1

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Science Has Culture: we often think that science is done in a cultural vacuum in its quest for objective truth. But Geraci argues they are closely connected and culture provides a major way that science and technology are influenced by religion, notably apocalyptic religion. His major thesis.
Golem Truth: in the Bible and Talmud golem refers to incomplete substance. In the Middle Ages, many legends arose of wise men who could bring effigies to life by means of a charm or of a combination of letters forming a sacred word such as "truth" or one of the names of God.
Apocalyptic Golem: illustrates apocalpytic's reach into the modern video game genre. Golem is a redemption story, a game of exploration, punctuated by brutal combat. The game Golem delivers a unique apocalyptic experience using exceptional game technology.
Trans-Human: technologies would increase human sensory reception, emotive ability, and cognitive capacity as well as improve our health and life spans. Biological or computational technologies would be progressively replace fallible biology, illustrating one part of the singularity.
Super Smart: Philosopher Nick Bostrom of Oxford argues that if AI surpasses human brains in general intelligence, it will become a superintelligence soon after its creation and will quickly dominate other life forms (including us), exploting the universe and us to achieve its goals.
Orthodox Second Life: at times Geraci comparies technological robots to religious saviors since AAI imports religious culture into robots and exports it into the the wider culture including science and technology. If medicine cannot save us in this life, AI can transport us to a virtual world.

Conflict

Slide Show: Apocalpytic Fire and AI

Mouseover the thumbnail images for slide show.

Do the slide show and video before reading the Introduction.

Quick Question

Golem Apocalpytic? (6 min.)

Why would religious tradition be attracted to idea that seems more monster than angel?

A golem is a creature formed out of dust or earth that is brought to life by ritual and sequences of Hebrew letters. Brought into being by a human creator, it becomes a helper or a rescuer of a threatend Jewish community. That it looks like a monster is explained by the depth of the threat that was perceived.

Perhaps we need a golem, technologically speaking.

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Larry's Intro Ch. 2: Apocalyptic AI Technology

Foreshadowing the Singularity 5 min.)

Metaphor borrowed from physics--where everything changes and there is no returning to early era.

Apocalyptic Singularity

The singularity is time when technological growth, especially AI, becomes uncontrollable and irreversible, with the result that unforeseeable changes overwhelms humanity, ushering in a radically new era.

On one possibility, an AI agent will enter a runaway reaction of self-improvement cycles, each new and generation appearing more rapidly, resulting inan "explosion" in intelligence and possibliy a superintelligence.

Return of the Golem

Just as Contrast proponents suggest science and religion have little to do with other, others suggest that pop culture and scientific research have little to do with each other. But Geraci argues (44) culture and science are intimately related:

(1) science is done by people who are immersed in culture;

(2) scientific grants are bound up with politics and what is deemed desirable;

(3) growing recognition the current political and biological realities are not good enough.

Quick Question

Whopper Challenge: So science is influenced by culture--not a particularly surprising claim. But science is influenced by apocalyptic? So the Book of Daniel has something to do with particular physics? Surely you jest.

How is the singularlity a kind of apocalyptic idea?

Your answer:

Technology It seems a stretch but consider the following.

The three Abrahamic religions were the cultural background of both European and Arab science and mathematics.

All three Abrahamic religions were deeply influenced by apocalypic, as we have discussed before. The apocalpytic Book of Daniel asserts the current world is far from good enough. Natural science is a human attempt to make this world better, more hospitable. So we have a deep connection between apocalpytic and the cuture.

Do the connection: science is influenced by culture which is influenced by the Abrahamic religions which were influenced by apocalpytic.

We will meet the golem. The most famous golem narrative involves a late 16th-century rabbi but does all the way back to the Psalms. Many tales relay how the golem was brought to life and employed to vanquish enemies. A golem can be a victim or villain, Jew or "Goyim," man or woman—or sometimes both. Its image represents an apocalpytic response to war, community, oppression, hope, and despair.

AAI in Pop Music and AI Research

Apocalpytica "One" (6 minutes)

Quick Question

How does this piece exemplify apocalpytic--how is it like a singularity?

Your answer:

It builds in a disconcerting way until a climactic sequence at about 3 minutes changes the theme.

The drums in particular signal dramatic change that cannot be ignored.

Geraci on AAI (4 minutes in)

Quick Question

What is his claim at about 6 minutes in terms of culture and AI growing influence?

Your answer:

Science is shaped by culture and it should be no surprise it shapes the development of artificial intelligence which might otherwise seem like just a technical field.

He is doing good philosophical work: pointing out that our assumptions are often mistaken about what it is we are doing and what the implications might be.

Geraci Questions

MindChildren 1. What is the singularity (39)? How is it related to cyberspace?

Your answer:

2. Spell out the implications of Geraci's comment:

Scientists do not have a mystical connection to deep, inner truths ... consensus emerges that a scientist has done good work by conducting carefully constructed and repeatable experiments, through publication in high-quality journals (41).

Your answer:

3. Geraci writes "Pop science is, therefore, critical to technoscientific power" (44). What's his argument about the science and religion dialogue in terms of whether it has fully recognized technology as a way to build a bridge between them?

Your answer:

4. Challenge: What are the theological implications of the YouTube video at right (remember Genesis 3:1, "Now the serpent was more crafty than any of the wild animals the LORD God had made")?

Your answer:

6. Geraci distinguishes (remember how important distinctions are in your writing) pop science and science fiction (48). Why?

Your answer:

7. One of Geraci's striking claims is that "Science fiction carries a camouflaged sacred into technological research" (55). What is his argument (55, bottom)?

Your answer:

8. What is a golem (image at left is a link) and how is it related to Judaism (Psalm 139:16)?

9. Geraci chronicles the atheist Stephen Weinberg's failure to get funding for the supercollider, contrasting that failure with apocalyptic AI funding requests. Why have the latter been more successful (61, bottom and 62)?

10. Important: A striking claim made by Geraci is:

Apocalyptic AI draws on the strengths of both religion and science; its religious promises grant us solace and hope while its scientific claims ground that hope in the successes of modern technology. (63)

What is the "role hybridization" and how is it that "the most powerful authorities in our culture always depend upon the power of the sacred" (63, bottom)?

Your answer:

12. What is the relation of the singularity to transhumanism and apocalypticism? Are we headed to a superintelligence?

Your answer:

13. How much time does Apocalpytic AI spend on traditional religion (69)? Is this curious to you?

Your answer:

14. On the bottom of p. 69, why does he compare robots to saviors of humanity? Is this laughable?

Your answer:

15. Given Geraci's claim that "Science fiction acts as a conduit for some of Apocalyptic AI's most sacred commitments; it both imports religious culture into robots and AI and exports it (transformed) into wider culture" (71), is it believable that use of Siri is a religious act (click image at left for a charming Siri conversation)t?

Your answer: