Episode 106 Artificial Intelligence with John Lennox

John Lennox, retired Professor of Mathematics at Univ of Oxford, joins David Capes to talk about his book, 2084: Artificial Intelligence and the Future of Humanity. 

Dr. Lennox was born in northern Ireland to remarkable parents who were Christians. They  allowed him to read and search widely.

In a climate of violence his parents treated everyone—Catholic and Protestant—with dignity. 

Lennox is an outstanding Bible teacher and scientist.  He has written dozens of books that have been translated into many different languages.  To learn more about John, see his webpage: www.johnlennox.org.

The title of John’s book, 2084, has a not-so-cryptic nod to George Orwell’s book 1984.  Many of Orwell’s “predictions” have come true: universal surveillance, use of technology to suppress the population, etc.

Artificial Intelligence (AI) is all around us and is raising questions in thoughtful minds.  In particular: what implications does it have for the future of humanity? 

There are two kinds of AI: narrow AI which is a system that functions to do one thing that, in the past, humans could do.  And because it is crunching a ton of data, it can do that one thing often better than humans do. 

But there are those who are interested in creating  an advanced AI that can do everything that humans can do and do it better. 

Whether that is achievable or not, we must wait and see. But it begs the question: what is a human being? 

Lennox is convinced of the biblical worldview that holds that humans bear the image of God in a unique way that cannot be shared with a machine. 

So, there are ethical problems in thinking about the limits of AI.  As with a lot of things, the technological advances are ahead of our ability to think ethically about it. 

John is already updating his book.  Because technology is moving so quickly, he is trying to keep his book up to date.  Look for a new edition in two to three years.

You can find his book and extra video content here.

Here is Professor Lennox and Peter Atkins debating Religion and Science.

For information about upcoming lectures at The Lanier Theological Library, click here.