Being Human as Being Set Apart What does it mean to be human? Although a few individuals are born with limitations or predilections or capacities different from the bell curve’s norm, people throughout the world share certain traits. We all have a consciousness that recognizes our selfhood, bodies that experience pain and pleasure, and minds with the capacity to notice, to interpret, and to draw conclusions. Most of us long for intimate connection and supportive community. At times, our emotions get the better of us, especially when our instinct to survive is threatened, and all of us can feel threatened by the most benign thing if it touches on our…
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As Above, So Below
In the Image of God No one can describe the ultimate. We lack words for that experience of eternity, vastness, that state and place and existence that is both embodied and a disembodied. Whatever this essence is that we think of as the divine, it exists beyond seeing and hearing. It is like a knowing without thought. In other words, God is awesome, magnificent, and terrifying, and it is utterly foreign. No account of this holy being, whether whispered in private conversations or written down in books, comes close to revealing its essence. For this endeavor, language is futile. So is painting, music, dance, and even fairy tale. Not that…
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Robots, the Internet, and Humanity
Robots Among Us Your life might not be populated with whirring and clicking creatures motoring around your house, but all of us depend on artificial intelligence in some way, even if only tangentially. Manufacturing plants and hospitals use robotic machines. Many of us interact with Siri or Alexa. Apps manage our finances and our entertainment. If you use those self-checkout lanes at the supermarket, you’re being helped by a computer that is, essentially, a stationary robot. In the technological and business world, there’s a lot of excitement about the possibilities. Sarwant Singh expressed the hope that we’ll soon be able to “create a new breed of mobile robots that act…