What if it were possible to link your thoughts with a computer, so that the information and thoughts that flow through the electronic impulses from the 80 billion neurons firing in your brain could be downloaded or enhanced and educated by means of a wireless computer network. This is the avant-garde thinking in the artificial intelligence (AI) computing world. The well known Ellon Musk ( founder of Tesla and Space X), is actually starting a company called Neuralink which he hopes will be the start of developing a helpful use of this technology that will ultimately prevent humans from becoming obsolete with the inevitable advance of robotics and artificial intelligence. His fear is that humans will not be able to keep pace with the abilities of artificial intelligence unless we can find a way to network mentally with that information. Musk says that if we can’t find a way to do this, human’s risk the possibility of becoming “house cats” to artificial intelligence, meaning, nice to have around, but not necessary. His idea is to create a “neuroprosthetics” that would work as a kind of mental telepathy by designing an injectable mesh-like “neural lace” on your brain allowing you to access abilities (night vision for example), and the ability to compute and gain knowledge by means of this symbiosis between man and machine.
While all of this is quite fascinating, it is an example of a wrong path that scientism takes when it ignores the realities of man’s soul and the qualities of the human being who is made in the image of God. We were made for communion with God. To know God and to enjoy him is the highest use of our minds and human faculties. It is by the perfect Gospel work of Jesus Christ that we can be brought into a relationship with the living God who illuminates our minds to grasp the realities of his grace, presence, wisdom and power for our lives. Never will a machine or human mind achieve for us what Christ has achieved in opening up the way to God. Both now and through all eternity we enjoy an ever deepening and glorious knowledge and love for Christ and his eternal glorious purposes.
