The Deep Waters of Silicon Valley
Greetings in the Lord!
Recently, I gave a talk about China's social credit system and its possible significance for us in the West. There are many reasons for this, but namely, because electronic data, in use with algorithms and artificial intelligence, is the wave of the future. In fact, high tech elites and academic scholars alike are pushing a sort of new religion from Silicon Valley based on their vision of these things. Well, while they might be right in that high technology and the internet are rapidly changing our global societies, I am also reminded of two simple proverbs:
The words of the mouth are deep waters, but the fountain of wisdom is a rushing stream. Proverbs 18:4
The purposes of a man's heart are deep waters, but a man of understanding draws them out. Proverbs 20:5
I recall the time when I was learning about these proverbs. The Lord had given it to me in the morning to explain a dream I had the night before. In the dream, I was swimming in deep ocean waters looking at shiny gold material on the ocean floor. I was running out of breath and it was very deep, so I was putting my life at risk by seeking out that gold, so I abandoned it to come to surface safely. Once I came up a fellow diver said, "Don't hurt yourself down there--it's fools' gold!" The moral of the proverb? One can put their spiritual life at risk by "drowning" in deep waters looking for the "gold" of false teachers. Simply put, they are not teaching anything of value. They talk all day long and it sounds very clever and wise---but it's worthless and a person who 'does their homework' realizes this. However, the danger doesn't stop there. The real danger is that by sitting under their false teaching, you expose yourself to the deceiving spirits at work within them, and spirits are transferable. The more you agree with what's being said and seek it out, you open yourself up to deceiving spirits who are all to willing to lead you down paths of "enlightenment" --- and it takes godly wisdom and discernment to judge this! I have seen many a curious person fail to discern this treachery, and had to learn it myself as well! At any rate, true wisdom is like a cool rushing stream that quenches thirst safely, an essential for life, instead of deep, salty waters of the ocean!
Anyway, today I want to share about a popular speaker in the Silicon Valley world, Yuval Harari, and some of the false ideas he is teaching about this new "religion" coming out of Silicon Valley. Along with his ridiculous notion that the new "data" religion is superior to all other religions and ideologies, it really is amazing how in one short hour period he manages to dismiss pretty much all of religions' contributions and only heralds socialists' technological inventions and advancements! Literally, right off the bat he dismisses all traditional religions as categorically obsolete that never contributed anything to technological advancements and were only used as a means to legitimize human laws and norms. I mean, seriously? Obviously, by inference then, he does not acknowledge that a spirit realm exists, so it is of no use for me to even bother elaborating about his delusions with that, or religion, for that matter, so I will instead highlight a couple of points he makes that are better to discuss.
His first premise is to say that liberalism, where man is the final authority that bases their decisions on how they think, want and feel, will collapse and eventually transition to technology, where data is the final authority. He says this because he believes that technology will render human work obsolete and that only technology can create or extend, or interpret life's processes ("biochemical algorithms") beyond the human capability to do so. But, quite simply, he dismisses / disregards free will and our agency as free will beings. Technology will never have "free will," only random or determined algorithms, which in both cases stem from a predetermined course of reaction and not inherently "creative," as such. In essence, nothing is truly created from a creation by definition. And, even if AI technology were to refine their processes based on past failures, it still could not be a genuine creation if success were to come from a systematic expression of past data plus new trial, as every process has to be predetermined from a working set of possibilities, clearly define-able and calculate-able. There again, that is not true creation. And currently, AI will generate outcomes that are not based in reality or our dimension even, so it produces needless data that has to be analyzed and sorted out. That may change with future advancements, but as it is now, this is both a drain on time and energy.
Secondly, Yuval spends much of his argument building up the superiority of the algorithmic ability of technology, saying that ultimately it will "know us better than we know us." But, then he goes on to talk about the "'hard problem of consciousness'," in that, "there are correlations between biochemical and electro-chemical situations and certain subjective experiences," but that bio-life sciences really don't have all the answers here and that "maybe animals are not reduce-able to algorithms." So finally he admits that his whole speech is total crap (and a waste of an afternoon for high-salaried Google employees), but goes on to say, "It doesn't really matter; religious claims are not true so it doesn't have to be true to take over the world." Great, then he also admits that truth does not have to factor into his new "data" religion. SO, why in the world would someone worship the data that this technology generates in the first place???
Here's the link if you decide as a free agent to waste over an hour of your life, or you could creatively procreate with your spouse and bring a new consciousness into the world ;) hee hee just kidding.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g6BK5Q_Dblo
Anyway, just a short blog to begin to discuss the delusions that are coming out of Silicon Valley these days. And believe me, there is so much more to discuss!
~Be blessed and be a blessing.
Recently, I gave a talk about China's social credit system and its possible significance for us in the West. There are many reasons for this, but namely, because electronic data, in use with algorithms and artificial intelligence, is the wave of the future. In fact, high tech elites and academic scholars alike are pushing a sort of new religion from Silicon Valley based on their vision of these things. Well, while they might be right in that high technology and the internet are rapidly changing our global societies, I am also reminded of two simple proverbs:
The words of the mouth are deep waters, but the fountain of wisdom is a rushing stream. Proverbs 18:4
The purposes of a man's heart are deep waters, but a man of understanding draws them out. Proverbs 20:5
I recall the time when I was learning about these proverbs. The Lord had given it to me in the morning to explain a dream I had the night before. In the dream, I was swimming in deep ocean waters looking at shiny gold material on the ocean floor. I was running out of breath and it was very deep, so I was putting my life at risk by seeking out that gold, so I abandoned it to come to surface safely. Once I came up a fellow diver said, "Don't hurt yourself down there--it's fools' gold!" The moral of the proverb? One can put their spiritual life at risk by "drowning" in deep waters looking for the "gold" of false teachers. Simply put, they are not teaching anything of value. They talk all day long and it sounds very clever and wise---but it's worthless and a person who 'does their homework' realizes this. However, the danger doesn't stop there. The real danger is that by sitting under their false teaching, you expose yourself to the deceiving spirits at work within them, and spirits are transferable. The more you agree with what's being said and seek it out, you open yourself up to deceiving spirits who are all to willing to lead you down paths of "enlightenment" --- and it takes godly wisdom and discernment to judge this! I have seen many a curious person fail to discern this treachery, and had to learn it myself as well! At any rate, true wisdom is like a cool rushing stream that quenches thirst safely, an essential for life, instead of deep, salty waters of the ocean!
Anyway, today I want to share about a popular speaker in the Silicon Valley world, Yuval Harari, and some of the false ideas he is teaching about this new "religion" coming out of Silicon Valley. Along with his ridiculous notion that the new "data" religion is superior to all other religions and ideologies, it really is amazing how in one short hour period he manages to dismiss pretty much all of religions' contributions and only heralds socialists' technological inventions and advancements! Literally, right off the bat he dismisses all traditional religions as categorically obsolete that never contributed anything to technological advancements and were only used as a means to legitimize human laws and norms. I mean, seriously? Obviously, by inference then, he does not acknowledge that a spirit realm exists, so it is of no use for me to even bother elaborating about his delusions with that, or religion, for that matter, so I will instead highlight a couple of points he makes that are better to discuss.
His first premise is to say that liberalism, where man is the final authority that bases their decisions on how they think, want and feel, will collapse and eventually transition to technology, where data is the final authority. He says this because he believes that technology will render human work obsolete and that only technology can create or extend, or interpret life's processes ("biochemical algorithms") beyond the human capability to do so. But, quite simply, he dismisses / disregards free will and our agency as free will beings. Technology will never have "free will," only random or determined algorithms, which in both cases stem from a predetermined course of reaction and not inherently "creative," as such. In essence, nothing is truly created from a creation by definition. And, even if AI technology were to refine their processes based on past failures, it still could not be a genuine creation if success were to come from a systematic expression of past data plus new trial, as every process has to be predetermined from a working set of possibilities, clearly define-able and calculate-able. There again, that is not true creation. And currently, AI will generate outcomes that are not based in reality or our dimension even, so it produces needless data that has to be analyzed and sorted out. That may change with future advancements, but as it is now, this is both a drain on time and energy.
Secondly, Yuval spends much of his argument building up the superiority of the algorithmic ability of technology, saying that ultimately it will "know us better than we know us." But, then he goes on to talk about the "'hard problem of consciousness'," in that, "there are correlations between biochemical and electro-chemical situations and certain subjective experiences," but that bio-life sciences really don't have all the answers here and that "maybe animals are not reduce-able to algorithms." So finally he admits that his whole speech is total crap (and a waste of an afternoon for high-salaried Google employees), but goes on to say, "It doesn't really matter; religious claims are not true so it doesn't have to be true to take over the world." Great, then he also admits that truth does not have to factor into his new "data" religion. SO, why in the world would someone worship the data that this technology generates in the first place???
Here's the link if you decide as a free agent to waste over an hour of your life, or you could creatively procreate with your spouse and bring a new consciousness into the world ;) hee hee just kidding.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g6BK5Q_Dblo
Anyway, just a short blog to begin to discuss the delusions that are coming out of Silicon Valley these days. And believe me, there is so much more to discuss!
~Be blessed and be a blessing.
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