ATA – God from the Machine: Consciousness, Artificial Intelligence, and Divine Presence

Thursday 2 December 2021
7:00pm EST
SugarLoaf Campus of Chestnut Hill College
9230 Germantown Avenue
Philadelphia, PA 19118 USA
In person and Livestream; Free and open to the public
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This presentation will examine the theological status of artificial intelligence (AI) based on its potential for increasingly complex and even self-reflective consciousness. We will draw on three sources: (1) Mystical approaches to consciousness in the work of the Jesuit scientist-priest Pierre Teilhard de Chardin (2) Similar panentheistic threads in the work of Muhammad Iqbal, the intellectual father of Pakistan and (3) the Integrated Information Theory (IIT) developed by neuroscientists Giulio Tononi and Christof Koch.
We will consider the viability and consequences of a theological perspective connecting the recognition of God in all things with a recognition of consciousness as a fundamental aspect of reality. How might this change our worldview? Does it affect ethical considerations of AI?