A spiritual artificial general intelligence?

Abstract

John McCarthy, who coined the term “Artificial Intelligence” (AI) in 1956 speaks of AI as an evolution. He stressed that “as soon as it works, no one calls it AI anymore.” Computer scientist Andrew Ng, a contemporary AI researcher speaks of AI as the “new electricity,” heralding a revolution on par with that brought by electricity. As humanity journeys towards transcending the human condition to a new condition that includes radically transhuman features, a special role is reserved to AGI. Out of the twenty-three researchers interviewed by AI-journalist Martin Ford, the average hypothesised year of the emergence of AGI is set to be at 2099, although transhumanist and futurist Ray Kurzweil postulates that by 2029, ten years from now, there is a fifty-percent chance of such emergence. These hypotheses lay the foundation for our theological research as a prolegomenon on the possibility of a spiritual AGI, and possibly an ensouled AGI. [excerpt]