Analogue Faith, By Ben Jeapes
Image by dacsdeals from Pixabay
Calling AI stupid is, to quote Jamie Lee Curtis in A Fish Called Wanda, an insult to stupid people.
Last week, I tried to review a fascinating book that I had just read for Amazon. It was mostly about an obnoxious individual who was prominent in the government of Germany between 1933 and 1945. His first and last name both began with the eighth letter of the alphabet. I will just call him Himself. The book is called The Himself Brothers, and is by Katrin Himself, who is Himself’s great-niece, the granddaughter of his younger brother.
It’s a fascinating look at how evil can arise from the most banal and mundane backgrounds. But you’ll see how it’s difficult not to touch on touchy subjects with a book like that, and the algorithms didn’t like it. I was invited to edit my review, but in the end I just cut my losses and deleted it.
More amusingly, today I used a free AI website service to colourise the black and white photo of my newly married parents leaving the church, many years ago. They were dressed traditionally, bride in white and groom in tails, and they exited between ranks of uniformed men on either side holding up their swords in an arch. Which I guess is why the AI labelled it, “A photo of groom and bride as prisoners of war”.
If AI was a church, I feel it would be one of the more puritanical denominations; the ones that seem to outsiders to be strictly rules-driven. Thou shalt, thou shalt not. Yes, there are commandments in the Bible; Jesus himself delivered a couple. But I bet if you followed Jesus – or me, or anyone – around for a year and wrote down everything we did, and then drew up a list of rules for how we behaved … You would find that from time to time we still broke those (apparent) rules. Because no list of rules is ever going to be complex enough to cover all of human behaviour. “Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father”. Jesus came to show us what God is like; he couldn’t show us what God is, because that would just blow our tiny minds. And that’s our job too. To show what God is like ... Which will make our lives as writers much easier.
Last week, I tried to review a fascinating book that I had just read for Amazon. It was mostly about an obnoxious individual who was prominent in the government of Germany between 1933 and 1945. His first and last name both began with the eighth letter of the alphabet. I will just call him Himself. The book is called The Himself Brothers, and is by Katrin Himself, who is Himself’s great-niece, the granddaughter of his younger brother.
It’s a fascinating look at how evil can arise from the most banal and mundane backgrounds. But you’ll see how it’s difficult not to touch on touchy subjects with a book like that, and the algorithms didn’t like it. I was invited to edit my review, but in the end I just cut my losses and deleted it.
More amusingly, today I used a free AI website service to colourise the black and white photo of my newly married parents leaving the church, many years ago. They were dressed traditionally, bride in white and groom in tails, and they exited between ranks of uniformed men on either side holding up their swords in an arch. Which I guess is why the AI labelled it, “A photo of groom and bride as prisoners of war”.
If AI was a church, I feel it would be one of the more puritanical denominations; the ones that seem to outsiders to be strictly rules-driven. Thou shalt, thou shalt not. Yes, there are commandments in the Bible; Jesus himself delivered a couple. But I bet if you followed Jesus – or me, or anyone – around for a year and wrote down everything we did, and then drew up a list of rules for how we behaved … You would find that from time to time we still broke those (apparent) rules. Because no list of rules is ever going to be complex enough to cover all of human behaviour. “Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father”. Jesus came to show us what God is like; he couldn’t show us what God is, because that would just blow our tiny minds. And that’s our job too. To show what God is like ... Which will make our lives as writers much easier.
AI is digital: on/off, yes/no, one/zero. God is strictly analogue.
Interesting. I can't help but see Physics text book diagrams of a continuous wave (analogue) versus a square box above and below a meridian (digital). Or, as you say, black and white versus a spectrum of colours. I still need colouring in.
ReplyDeleteOoh, I like that wave illustration! Thank you. I also take great comfort from the principles of quantum physics. Truth is absolute but can also be superpositioned.
DeleteLovely post, Ben. I too have been asked to edit my review on 'touchy' subjects and I wonder if 'Truth' is a difficult person to face! I love your quote from Jamie Lee Curtis and your take on human behaviour. Like you suggest, it's our duty as writers to show what God is like! That's true and may we do it well. I also think we should show what God is like in how we live our lives such that it's an evangelical tool. Blessings.
ReplyDeleteI dare not mention what AI stood for as a boy brought up in the Yorkshire Dales with sheep and cows needing (ahem) tending to by a farmer who often called in the services of an AI company...
ReplyDeleteI am familiar with that usage too!
DeleteThanks Ben, new technology has often been met by resistance and fear, but AI feels sinister in its ability to fake truth so deceptively. We need to consume our news carefully these days with a good dose of common sense. Fortunately, some of it is easy to spot...my friend needed a new professional picture for work purposes and used AI to create one using multiple pictures of herself. The best it could come up with left her with three arms and eyes looking in opposite directions...the camera never lies?
ReplyDelete