Page 373 - Orthodoxy Zizioulas

A L G O R I T H M A N D A R T I F I C I A L I N T E L L I G E N C E
One might say that we are facing a new possibility: that we
ourselves may be fundamentally altered. But who will then stand
critically against this transformation, if the one who is to judge
it has already been altered? We have entered an age whose radi-
cal changes we have not yet fully grasped.
Now we are faced with a machine that thinks—perhaps even
feels. It has been reported that in a debate between a human be-
ing and a machine, the human prevailed only by a small margin.
In earlier cases, such as chess, the machine had already prevailed.
It is even suggested that machines may come to possess some-
thing like feeling. If that were to happen—what remains?
The fear, often expressed, is that humanity will create a ma-
chine more intelligent than itself—and become subject to it. This
development is the result of a long trajectory: the dominance of
rationalism. The balance between knowledge and feeling has
been broken. Knowledge prevailed, and now they attempt to
reintroduce feeling—but artificially. This cannot but risk distort-
ing the human being.
One might ask: did the human being change structurally
when we moved from manuscript to print? There is no com-
parison. What is happening now is of a different order—not
merely of scale, but of kind. The printing press expanded knowl-
edge, but did not threaten the balance of the human being.
Today, however, knowledge is reduced to algorithm. Technol-
ogy no longer easily allows one to have any interest beyond in-
formation. Information, information, information. One sees
young people traveling—once they held books; now all hold
their phones. And this is not the same as a book.
Yes, the phone gives knowledge. But it gives knowledge in
isolation. A book gives knowledge in the form of dialogue—it
engages the inner world of the person. Information, by contrast,
flows so quickly that it can scarcely be assimilated.
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