Are we ready for an all-knowing artificial intelligence? One that is intimately familiar with us and can even give us relationship advice and help us choose right from wrong?
At this stage in the development of AI, humanity will be inching closer and closer to what is not all that different from a religion. People will trust and obey, as the old song goes, because the bot is super-intelligent and worth trusting.
Curiously enough, we’ve been building toward this future scenario, but fortunately that also means we should be well-prepared for an AI that is all-knowing and can demonstrate to others what it means to live separately from the power of technology. In fact, we can take a trip back in time to see how man has been trying to build a powerful artificial intelligence for many years.
The Mundaneum
Paul Otlet wanted to make a name for himself. The Belgian lawyer, book author, and entrepreneur had grown dissatisfied with his career choices back in 1910, and for good reason. The world was in a state of unrest, and in only four years time would enter a horrific world war like nothing anyone had ever seen, killing over 20 million people.
Otlet was nothing if not prescient, however. He was enterprising (he and his brother started a mining and railway business in 1906 at only 36) and ingenious. As far back as 1892, he had questioned the course of his life after obtaining a law degree, and decided he wanted to make a difference. He envisioned a world where information was king, governing both our thoughts and our actions.
By 1924, he had invented a colossus of information engineering: a virtual “city of knowledge” known as the Mundaneum. A vast collection of index cards – over 13 million of them – were housed in a massive government-owned complex with over 150 rooms, a precursor for every data center ever constructed. One only had to phone or telegraph the Mundaneum and make a request for information; an attendant would scuttle off to find the appropriate index card.
“The world seemed to be knitting itself together into one seamless and peaceful universally governed whole,” wrote Otlet at the time, explaining how he had finally discovered his purpose by building one interconnected brain. With ready access to information, humankind could coexist. The Mundaneum would create a new world order, Otlet said. “Everything in the universe and everything of man would be registered at a distance as it was produced, in this way a true moving image would be established, a true mirror of [mankind’s] memory.”
Alas, the Mundaneum was not meant to last. The index-card collection was onerous and complex; retrieving just one card took several minutes or more. Besides, no one at the time could quite understand the usefulness of having easy access to such a massive compendium.
How the times have changed
The times have changed tremendously.
While the Mundaneum itself was a cumbersome Tower of Babel built by a genius who was out of place and time in the world, we are living in an age when the “city of knowledge” has become a distinct reality. Google now indexes around 400 billion websites, and is currently transitioning to become an artificial intelligence powerhouse. As of December of 2023, there are about 8,000 data centers all over the world. Artificial intelligence is about to change how all of us think and act, similar to the Mundaneum. Immediate and efficient access to every book, every website, every speech, every social media post. Otlet would be proud, and thoroughly mystified, by the fact that the Mundaneum now exists.
Yet, the Tower of Babel analogy starts to break down quickly, especially if you know the story. Like Paul Otlet, those responsible for the Tower of Babel wanted to “make a name for themselves” and house all the information of the world in one place. It was never meant to be, because assembling a “city of knowledge” or an AI will lead to a reliance on that knowledge alone. As the Tower of Babel story reveals: “Nothing will be impossible to them.” (Genesis 11:6b)
Why worry?
This is a difficult concept to grasp. Why is having a wealth of knowledge so detrimental? Why was the Tower of Babel so worrisome?
The British author Simon Winchester, writing as a humanist, explains why having easy access to all knowledge and letting an AI rule over us is a turn in the wrong direction. His wonderful book Knowing What We Know: The Transmission of Knowledge: From Ancient Wisdom to Modern Magic has an entire chapter dedicated to the coming AI revolution. Winchester notes how a nearly infinite AI brain will make us less human, and more reliant on technology. He states that we already have all of the data processing power and storage to make an AI brain possible. Aldous Huxley made a similar point in his book from 1932 called Brave New World that an utter reliance on technology will mean that we don’t have to think.
What does that look like? One word: freedom. The freedom to live without restraint or encumbrance, the freedom to explore the world and everything it has to offer – within obvious limitations. With Jesus at the center of our lives, we are free to be fully human, not controlled by a technological dogma. For me, that means going for a drive without the aid of a GPS. It means putting my phone down and talking to my grandkids or playing chess. The wild frontier of human connection, social discourse, and open dialog.
A life free of tech constraints
Oftentimes, enlightenment in the world means a darkening of the spirit. Technology is leading us down a dark tunnel, and at the end of that tunnel is a lack of belief in a supernatural being who can guide and instruct us. We don’t have to fear a dystopian nightmare, but instead point the way forward – there is hope, technology won’t save you. One practical step away from utter reliance on “the city of knowledge” and AI is to simply put down our phones (which are persistent portals to every answer), to live in the moment and to relate with people on a social and emotional level.
An AI will eventually become a compendium of knowledge, teaching us what to believe and how to live. We know that is already on the horizon. Like my example of the wristmodal and the remediation session, an AI will start to guide our every move, similar to a GPS. We don’t have to let that happen. We can resist. It’s not futile.
Technology ultimately leaves you feeling cold and stale. It has always been that way. Video games, Netflix shows, TikTok videos – they are never as fulfilling as we might think. Yet, we can live in a way that reveals how much we crave human connection. There is no soul to information.