For more than ten years, I have been following and studying the writings and philosophies of futurists and technology engineers who were bold in their prognostications of how technology would "advance humankind", even to the point of living forever by uploading our brains to the "cloud", and replacing our worn-out body parts. After all, they clearly implied, it won't be necessary to cling to God to have eternal life.
In 2013, I wrote a post, citing that Ray Kurzweil -- an acclaimed inventor, futurist, and [then] Director of Engineering at Google -- had published an article on CNN.com in which he predicted 5 ways our lives would be dramatically affected in the very near future. Let's see how far down that road we've come in the last ten years. He predicted that ...
1. By the early 2020s, we will have the means to program our biology away from disease and aging. According to Mr. Kurzweil, in 2013, scientists already had "the genome code" and could actually reprogram our body's processes, much like a computer is re-programmed. Here is a direct quote from him: RNA interference, for example, can turn genes off that promote disease and aging. New forms of gene therapy, especially in vitro models that do not trigger the immune system, have the ability to add new genes.
But as we saw in 2020, with the worldwide pandemic, RNA interference can have the opposite effects on genes, too, resulting in promotion of diseases and death. So, I ask... was this science used for the betterment of mankind? Was it true "Signs and Wonders", or was it "Deception"?
2. By 2030, solar energy will be able to meet all our needs, revolutionizing the production of food and water. In 2013, Kurzweil predicted hydroponic production of fruits and vegetables -- so far, so good. But he also predicted "in vitro cloning of muscle tissue for meat". We saw that rolled out as McDonald's "Impossible Burger", or fake meat. But here is the quote that set my spirit on edge: "We are also headed towards another agriculture revolution, from horizontal agriculture to vertical agriculture, where we grow very high quality food in Artificial Intelligence controlled buildings [my emphasis, not his]. That's when my warning bells started going off. Our food supply will be controlled by machines?
3. By the early 2020s we will print out a significant fraction of the products we use including clothing as well as replacement organs. I could see that trend emerging; we were already consuming digital versions of books, movies, and music. In the ten years since, that trend has only grown. But it was his pride in which he announced the following, that once again, had me questioning, "Signs and Wonders" or "Deception"? He said, "We can already experimentally print out organs by printing a biodegradable scaffolding and then populating it with a patient's own stem cells, all with a 3D printer." After all, who needs a Creator God, right?
4. Within five years, search engines will be based on an understanding of natural language. Well, we've reached that milestone, and gone beyond. We have surpassed IBM's "Watson" who got its knowledge by reading Wikipedia and other encyclopedias, a total of 200 million pages of natural language documents, and then combining all that knowledge to come up with a system that could engage a person in dialogue to clarify questions and discuss answers that were ambiguous or complex.
Ten years later, we are increasingly encountering, LLMs (Large Language Models), a type of artificial intelligence (AI) algorithm that uses deep learning techniques and massively large data sets to understand, summarize, generate and predict new content. In other words, computers are increasingly able to think like humans, and the concern is that they will soon be able to out-think us, as their learning capacity grows.
5. By the early 2020s we will be routinely working and playing with each other in full immersion visual-auditory virtual environments. By the 2030s, we will add the tactile sense to full immersion virtual reality. Much like the telephone is virtual reality, in the auditory sense, in that you can meet with someone as if you are together, Kurzweil predicted that we will soon be able to add visual, tactile and what he called "full immersion" virtual reality to our existence.
There's only one small hitch ... the full package will require tapping directly into the nervous system. But it's no big deal, he insists. "We'll be able to do that in the 2030s with nanobots traveling noninvasively into the brain through the capillaries and augmenting the signals coming from our real senses."
So, can you see that as far back as ten years ago, the Enemy was sowing seeds of deception into our collective desire to be "plugged in"? But have the advancements in technology and Artificial Intelligence resulted in what the Bible predicts will be false Signs and Wonders for our Age? Consider this statement by Gabe Lyons, an alumnus of Liberty University, and a Christian media expert, who isn't afraid to warn about the coming threats to our world, while encouraging and equipping Christians to strengthen our own culture of faith ... "I believe Christians ought to be the most thoughtful, the most informed, and the most educated on every single question that our culture is asking,” Lyons said. “We have a responsibility to do that because the Scriptures and the Church (body of Christ) throughout history have always had the best answers to what human beings face … to the questions [this] generation is asking.”
He warns that the goal of artificial intelligence is to form a singular language so that nothing becomes impossible for man. He referenced Genesis 11, explaining that humans have a desire to lift themselves up rather than submit to God — a temptation [and I submit, a deception] as old as time. “What is the thing that artificial intelligence wants from you?", he asks … "it wants you to stop thinking".
I agree! It is time that we, as Christians, begin seeing the challenge being presented to us. Do we really need this growing dependence on AI and machines? Critical thinking is an important component of our humanity, and we've been given that by our Creator! Do we really need gene editing? Or a neural link in our brain? Or nanobots that supplement and magnify our natural senses and body functions? Do we really need to perfect what God designed, which is in His image? We must ask ourselves if we need to be "enhanced" ... or do we trust God's divine design?
Unfortunately, what I see happening is that we are being trained to abandon our own critical thinking, and rely more and more on machines. When we do that, we are stepping away from God. We must not be fooled or deceive ourselves! All the benefits of man's "artificial enhancement" are false Signs and Wonders. They will result in future generations that Gabe Lyons says "won't see a God, or believe in Him, and will start to think they're their own god".
That is why it is essential that we Christians each develop -- through our spirits and critical thinking [from God] -- our own worldview of who we are, why we matter, and why we're here. It must all come through the lens of being divinely created, and through the truth of Christ's redemptive act on the Cross for us. And here's the critical point ... we must be able to defend it, if we are going to occupy this earth until Christ returns. We must defend the truth of our divinely saved humanity, because I promise you this ... AI, in all its accumulated knowledge, will try to challenge that truth! But remember Scripture, which says Be not deceived. God will not be mocked.
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Isaiah 44: 9, 20: All who fashion idols are nothing, and the things they delight in do not profit. Their witnesses neither see nor know, that they may be put to shame... a deluded heart has led him astray, and he cannot deliver himself or say, “Is there not a lie in my right hand?”
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