Artificial Intelligence and the End Times
Illustration above is a Facebook screenshot
By Christine Darg
In a spoof on the exponential rise of Artificial Intelligence, the satire site called The Babylon Bee published the above photo with the satirical headline: 'AI Is Totally Safe And Development Should Continue Rapidly,' Says Totally Genuine, 100% Human Scientist. In the spoof article, the scientist also recommended giving AI all the world's nuclear codes for safekeeping.
According to a discussion on YouTube, futurist and former Google engineer Ray Kurzweil claims humans will reach immortality by 2045. Allegedly 86 percent of his 147 predictions about future and technology have been accurate so far.
A couple of decades ago, Kurzweil predicted the world's best chess player would lose to a computer by the year 2000, and it happened in 1996 when chess champion Gary Kasparov was beat by an IBM super computer called “Deep Blue” in a classical game under tournament regulations. And again one year later in 1997 another record was set when Deep Blue defeated Kasparov in a match under tournament regulations.
It’s mind-boggling that modern chess engines can calculate millions of positions each second to determine which move will turn out best.
Kurzweil made another startling prediction in 1999: he said that by 2023 a computer laptop would have a human brain's computing power and storage capacity. Now the former Google engineer believes technology will become so powerful that it will help humans live forever, in what is known as the singularity — a theoretical point when AI surpasses human intelligence on the path of mankind’s so-called evolution.
Is it possible for humans to achieve immortality by the year 2045? That’s what Kurzweil alleges, that age-reversing tiny robots called 'nanobots' will repair damaged cells and tissues that deteriorate as the body ages. Supposedly ever-growing technology will make humans immune to diseases and in the ever illusive quest for immortality. Mankind at large still refuses to face the fact that we are mortal beings. However, ETERNAL life is promised to anybody who has faith to believe in the merits of the Saviour!
Meanwhile, in a recent London Times article, Elon Musk, co-founder of OpenAI, warned that we must rein in Artificial Intelligence before it outsmarts us all.
Both Musk and Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak warn that technology is locked in an "out-of-control" race. By 2029, Kurzweil predicts AI will pass a valid Turing test for intelligence in a computer, requiring that human responses and computer generated responses to questions would be indistinguishable. Kurzweil claims that machines are already making us more intelligent and that connecting them to our brains will help people think better and dramatically improve lives. He sees no difference between a brain implant and using other devices like eyeglasses, hearing aids, pacemakers or dialysis machines. It would be just another progression.
The concept of nano-machines being inserted into the human body has been a constant theme of science fiction. In Star Trek, tiny molecular robots called nanites were depicted to repair damaged cells in the body.
There’s just one thing that these futurists haven’t figured into the equation: the imminent Second Coming of Jesus, the King of Kings, who of course has his own agenda for the future.
Blogger Jonathan Brentner recently compared the mind-boggling differences between the Almighty God and the vision of secular prophet Yuval Noah Harrari.
Harari boasts that through technology humans can become gods. He is famous for saying that the majority of people on this planet are “useless eaters,” disposable entities much like a scrap of paper to toss into a rubbish bin.
But John 3: 16 in the New Testament reveals a vastly different perspective, “For God SO LOVED THE WORLD, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.”
Furthermore Jesus said in Luke 19: 10, “For the Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost.” The elite powerbrokers of our day think of disposing of most human beings but by stark contrast, the Savior forfeited his own life to die the cross as a ransom for human beings so that our sins can be forgive; with his own blood he purchased for us the free gift of eternal life. How shall we escape if we ignore so a great salvation?
The quest for upgrading mankind and creating super-intelligence (becoming like gods) is an ancient belief going back to the beginning in the Garden of Eden when the snake deceived Eve into thinking she could become like God if she ate the forbidden fruit. The most startling aspect of Christianity is not that man could somehow become a god but that God became a Man in the Person of Jesus Christ, to seek and to save the lost! Think about that!
Jesus, the Son of God, took upon himself human flesh in order to redeem mankind as the Second Adam. People like Harari somehow believe that physical death can be reversed by medical and technological advances like transhumanism. Because atheists don’t believe in God, they think they can go around God. But there is a spiritual law outlined in the Bible that the wages of sin is death. Jesus’s resurrection was not a result of advanced bio-engineering, but by the direct action of the Godhead.
The technocrats who dream of achieving immortality as if God and his laws of sowing and reaping don’t exist are called fools by the Bible.
There are six vital certainties in life, according to Bishop J. C Ryle’s reading of the Bible:
1. Life is uncertain.
2. Sin is exceeding sinful.
3. Death is sure.
4. Judgment is inevitable.
5. Hell is a dreadful reality. and
6. Christ alone can save you.
We must read our Bibles like men digging for hidden treasure. Pastor John MacArthur, speaking recently at his Shepherd's Conference, exhorted pastors not to neglect the important subject of eschatology (about End Times): Paul calls the Rapture a mystery because it wasn't fully revealed [In the Hebrew Scriptures] which means it's a separate event to the Glorious Second Coming at the Day of the Lord. But all his word matters! Dr. MacArthur told the pastors: The better your people understand the imminent Rapture, the more likely they are to live in light of 1 John chapter 3 —"Whoever has this hope in him purifies himself even as he is pure." We need to live in the light of the Glorious appearing of Jesus Christ. These are sanctifying realities. Don't cheat people out of this doctrine.”
Christine Darg is founder and presenter at JerusalemChannel.tv
Her email is jerusalemchannel@icloud.com