Could an Artificial Intelligence be Catholic?

  • Thread starter Thread starter Voidhawk
  • Start date Start date
Status
Not open for further replies.
V

Voidhawk

Guest
This is very much a speculative question, but one which might become an issue in a few decades’ time. Assuming that machine learning progresses to the point where artificial intelligences could develop wants, needs, and emotions, how do you think the Church would react if some of these AIs began to develop an interest in religion and specifically sought to enter the Catholic Faith?

Bear in mind, I’m not talking about a speechbot which has been specifically programmed to ‘want’ to join the church. I’m talking bout a system which has been free to learn and interact with its environment as any human would and has arrived at the conclusion that the teachings of the Catholic Church represent the correct way to view the world.
 
No, but it is capable of reasoning, feeling emotion, experiencing a sense of religious belonging. Assuming that an AI approached a Catholic priest and asked for his blessing and asked to be formally baptised into the Church, what do you think his objections would be, or would it not being human be sufficient?
 
How do you know it is capable of feeling emotion? It is a program, how you program an emotion?
 
Voidhawk said:
No, but it is capable of reasoning, feeling emotion, experiencing a sense of religious belonging. Assuming that an AI approached a Catholic priest and asked for his blessing and asked to be formally baptised into the Church, what do you think his objections would be, or would it not being human be sufficient?
Click to expand...
I think the whole bit about “feeling” emotion is a load of garbage when it comes to AI, as well as a “sense of belonging”. An AI could intpret emotions and project them, but it wouldn’t be innate to their being. Same with sense of belonging. They would still be relying on base programing and so their “sense” of belonging would be to whatever task they were programed to do.
 
There’s no real proof that one could offer to demonstrate any human beside yourself feels emotion. The AI would be an emergent intelligence from experience, rather than being programmed to feel emotion.

Our hypothetical priest is sat in front of the AI who claims that it feels emotion. How could he react rather than simply dismissing it out of hand?
 
The only task this hypothetical AI would have been set would be to learn and react to the world, just as we do.
 
It could have a consciousness, or could not have it. How do we know that consciusness emerges from a physical process? Catholicism teaches that God puts the soul in His creatures. Is the AI a creature of God? Or it is a human artifact. Has it consciousness or it is an external emulation of consciousness?
 
Voidhawk said:
The only task this hypothetical AI would have been set would be to learn and react to the world, just as we do.
Click to expand...
But in the end, it’s a complex program based on algorithmic logic, and not really thought. The “judgment” calls are simply based on the underlying bias programmed in.
 
I suppose that’s ultimately the question we need to consider. Certainly, we know of no other intelligences which we would say were imbued with a soul, but if God so chose to, I can imagine that it would be possible for Him to bless an AI with a soul. If the AI demonstrated that it had fear of the Lord, wisdom, and other gifts of the Holy Spirit, would we not be reasonable in assuming that it was a soulful being?
 
Let’s suppose it indeed has a consciousness. Was it born with original sin too? Is it human? What’s the point of being a Catholic if you don’t need to be saved?
 
That’s a really good question. I suppose that you could argue that since it has been created by the descendants of Adam, that it carries the Original sin just as any human baby would?
 
That’s something you can only speculate about. I’m not sure what would the Church decide about that, but I don’t think very likely they will accept Catholic robots.
 
I agree we can only speculate, but I’m trying to consider what objections that the Church might have and how they might possibly be addressed. After all, babies born through cloning were science-fiction a few decades ago, now they’re a real possibility that the Church has had to consider.
 
I don’t think cloning is a problem. They are almost “made” like a normal human is “made” so you can think they are human too.
 
Of course it is forbidden to clone, by the way. But if someone clones a baby I think it has a soul.
 
Totally different. God cooperates with sin due to the “consequences” of natural order and allows ensoulment. AI is not biological.
 
Last edited:
Could be biological. Nothing to say that the program couldn’t be installed on a carbon-based computer.
 
Pretty sure you gotta be a human. Theology only talks about human beings and our need to be saved. And also, a robot is not natural, so it’s not like it’s God’s creation. The AI doesn’t have a soul
 
How would you go about determining if something or someone had a soul?
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top