Fourth Sunday of Easter
April 30, 2023 •
Spiritual beings have no power to create anything spiritual at all. That power only exists in the physical universe by what we believe as God's design.
Why is this important?
Because it helps us to understand in our attempts to create AI (artificial intelligence) something simple should be clear: it will never become self-aware. That's impossible. Dogs aren't self-aware. Trees aren't self-aware. Only human beings are self-aware. Now, in the rejection of Judeo-Christian philosophy and theology, there is this heresy of "materialism" that believes that everything in the universe is the only thing that actually exists, and that human beings are just evolved monkeys. This is the lie.
But you have to understand something about human beings - something we know by revelation, but even philosophically, it makes perfect sense - that human beings can't create new persons. Did you know that? You mothers and fathers? You've never created a new person. . . .
You have to understand how you participate in creation. You see, since humans beings are not just animals, like dogs and whales, you're not just creating a material copy. That's all matter can do.
As mothers and fathers all you're doing is participating in the natural order according to material beings in the physical universe, to recreate a body. That's what the egg and the sperm do. They recreate a human body. But they can't make a soul, right? No spiritual being has the power to recreate spirits. God reserves that to Himself alone. Even the angels can't do this. . . . That's why to create another human being you need three beings. A mother, a father, and God.
God steps in at the moment the egg and sperm come together . . . and creates - out of nothing - a new soul and infuses it into that new body. Now there's a person.
But God made the person. You helped Him by making the body.
Let's assume for argument's sake, that we have the ability to create something in regards to artificial intelligence, that's incredibly advanced. Incredibly advanced. It can think like a human. And seem to make decisions like a human. Ok. Fair enough. But it will only be mimicry, because it will never have a soul.
We can't create souls. It won't gain sentience some day. That is actually impossible. So don't be afraid of the "terminators" taking over. It will only have so much power and control as we choose to give it since we - humans - are the greatest thing in the physical universe. We're the only thing in the physical universe that is not just physical.
We have this soul - this intellect and will - that is superior to anything else. Which is why we were given mastery over the universe. . . .
What is the thing we should fear about artificial intelligence? It's not that it'll become aware and who knows what will happen after that. That will never happen, you don't have to worry about that. The fear should be, one: who is programming it? And two: how do they plan to use it. But that's the same with any scientific advancement like the internet, or splitting the atom. It's just another human creation. Artificial intelligence will just be a very, very impressive hammer. . . . That's all it will ever be. What you should fear is human's use of it. . . .
So we need to pray for the people who are programming AI. Because it will simply mimic their views. Their philosophies. Their convictions. And it'll make decisions based on those premises. . . .
But we all said together in the responsorial psalm: "The Lord is my Shepherd, there is nothing I shall want." Our Lord Jesus Christ is enough. Is that true for you? Regardless of what happens in the world around us. He is our Shepherd. He will take care of His sheep. All I need to do to be assured of my own safety and well-being in the grand scheme of things is: follow the Shepherd. That's my job. I seek to follow the Shepherd, wherever He may lead me, and I leave the rest up to Him.
Acts 2:14a, 36-41; Ps 23: 1-3a, 3b4, 5, 6; 1 Pt 2:20b-25; Jn 10:1-10
Homily begins at 18:37