Animal Farm

I had a lengthy discussion today with a fellow student on the subject of radical egalitarianism and yet the subject of women in ministry never came up. No one quoted qualifications for elders, the book of church order, or made references to Romans 16. Our discussion actually ignored the place of women in the church for a much odder and more interesting discussion. Specifically we were discussing the merits of personhood. Recent happenings in various fields of Philosophy of Mind, as well as advances in scientific processes have led to questions of what it means to be a person. What will follow on this blog is a series of posts which concern these questions; what does it mean to be a person, what does it mean to be made in the image of God, and how will future considerations change our theology of man?

The first topic under discussion is how artificial intelligence relates to questions of worship. Specifically; what are the limits of personhood and how might this become a problem for Christian theology.

Suppose someone enters your church with an artificial heart; is there any reason to deny him the ability to worship since he is less than “fully” human? I think most sane people would agree that he is still considered human, even with a mechanical implant which is necessary for life. But supposing science continues to develop, what percentage of a person must be “original” to be considered human? What about a man with an artificial heart and four artificial limbs, or a person with an entirely artificial internal organ system, or a human brain placed within a mechanical body? Does this sound ridiculously science fictionish to you? It shouldn’t!

Recently engineers and neurobiologists developed a robot whose central processing center is comprised of rodent brain cells which can successful navigate obstacles and solve simple problems. Simply put this is a very primitive brain within a mechanical device. Presumably, it is not a tremendous leap to have part or all of a human brain within a mechanical body. In fact one can imagine a person who underwent a severe trauma receiving a full body prosthesis in the future. Suppose that this mechanical body with a human brain had the range of human emotions, will, personhood, etc…Should he/it be allowed to serve you communion on Sundays?

What about memory implants – suppose that a person’s memory was supplemented by mechanical devices (and assume that the computer you are using to read this doesn’t already count as an extension of your memory.). Sound amazingly impossible. It’s not! Researchers have already begun work on neural implants which would supplant memory. Would a person with this implant be human? Probably so – but what if she had all her memory functions driven by neural implants? What if her brain was comprised entirely of artificial neural networks?

Combine these two examples, and you have a difficult question; is artificial intelligence possible and what does this do for our theology. Suppose you have an entirely artificial system of neurology combined with an artificial body; a machine, pure and simple. Does such a thing have a soul. If not, then where ought the line be drawn on the spectrum between a person with an artificial limb say and an artificial person.

In the near future it is at least feasible to see people who in part or whole have their various biological systems supplemented by machines? At what level of supplementation (if at any level) are these people considered less than people? – Could a partial human brain, supplemented with memory chips and artificial processors and housed within a mechanical body be considered “created in the image of God?” Should such a person (thing?) be allowed to worship God? Is there the possibility for a soul in the machine?