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EDITORIAL
Turn thoughts to script- electronically!
Dear readers,
Wouldn’t it be great to have an application which would turn our thoughts into script at the rate of 100 words a minute? Fascinating? Really? Creepy? Probably! Is it possible? Facebook promises such an application within the next two years!
The possibilities of the electronic world around us change and progress in leaps and bounds. It is hard to keep up.
Twenty years ago, videoconferencing was expensive and certainly not accessible for everyone. What at one time needed a lot of hardware and a big computer now fits in our pocket, almost for free. Well, not quite for free. Even if it seems free, we pay by giving up our information and with an avalanche of personalised advertisement.
The way we communicate has changed incredibly. This also keeps changing the way we relate and to whom we relate. Every so often I go into a room full of people at a conference and nobody is there. Yes, there are bodies in the room, but everybody is either in a digital conversation with a someone somewhere else or busily responding to e-mails.
And now the next big leap is just around the corner. Just think it and it will be written for you. The next step will probably be that I think of it and my thoughts will go directly into the brain of the addressed person. How efficient and how convenient.
But wait a moment: There is an application which makes my thoughts accessible so that they can be written down into my smart phone to be transferred to another person. This means I need to give permission for my brain to be accessed for this application to work. A machine can then read my mind. It interacts with my brain. What seems to be a next logical step in developing electronic aids in fact once more is a huge change how I talk with and relate to others. And it possibly becomes an open door, a breach into my brain. In the worst case someone might put thoughts into my brain which lead me to say or do things which are not from me …
There are all kinds of interests driving these developments. It is important to learn what is the motivation behind them. Some are noble and good, some are just business, some smell like power and others are self-interest of various shades.
What is needed is an ongoing and thorough debate concerning Artificial Intelligence and Technology and some robust legislation which helps human life to flourish.
What fascinates me most is the thought that the Holy Spirit of God already interacts with me and my thinking. In fact, he wants to interact with me so that I might know the truth and live for justice, peace and joy. I wonder how Artificial Intelligence interacting with my brain and the Holy Spirit will get along with each other.
As you can see in this newsletter the EEA engages with this topic. This is just a start. More is to come.
Watch this space
Thomas Bucher
General Secretary EEA
Yours,
Thomas Bucher
General Secretary EEA
