Must Artificial Intelligence open the door to “that hideous strength” described by C.S Lewis? Time will tell, though I suspect the answer to the juggernaut that is Artificial Intelligence may well be the Babel scenario.
In recent online postings, writer Rod Dreher has been commenting on various predictions of an apocalypse caused by Artificial Intelligence. Like all apocalyptic predictions, there is just enough substance to the theory to make it seem plausible and terrifying. For those who are not up to speed on this latest dire prognostication, the projected story line goes something like this:
Artificial Intelligence is already so advanced and accelerating exponentially, that the computers will eventually achieve consciousness. Already some users interact with the Artificial Intelligence, not only conducting conversations, but seeking advice and guidance from the machine. The guidance sometimes includes advice about their relationships, their careers, and even their spiritual development.
Most of us have no idea the extent of integration and involvement Artificial Intelligence has on our day-to-day lives. As it advances and is integrated with robotics, the scenario is unimaginable. Smart robots will increasingly take over jobs held by humans. The computers will not only organize, but will control infrastructure, planning, and execution by the machines. We will have machines controlling the machines, and as the machines become conscious they will begin to see human beings as their competitors.
The smart robots who are designed as military machines will turn on the human race—designing and implementing plans for the global elimination of the human species. The machines will command smart military robots to disseminate germ and chemical warfare on a massive scale and, conscious and in charge of the military arsenal, will unleash the nuclear missiles that are waiting in their silos to rain down on the blissfully unsuspecting citizens of our cities.
Dreher recalls C.S. Lewis’ dystopic novel, That Hideous Strength (published in 1945), and rightly sees the disembodied head of the criminal Alcasan as a prophetic image of Artificial Intelligence. Readers may remember that the atheistic humanist scientists of N.I.C.E. (National Institute of Co-ordinated Experiments) are intent on world domination through science and technology. Lewis’ fertile imagination (and was it also prophetic inspiration?) grasped that the utopian future would involve transhumanism through technology, and now eighty years later, the transhumanism and Artificial Intelligence so horrifyingly foreseen in That Hideous Strength appears to be among us.
In Lewis’ frightening story, the artificially maintained head of Alcasan became the vehicle for demonic interference, and Dreher and others wonder if Artificial Intelligence, as it becomes conscious, may also become a channel for dark forces. Is such a thing possible, or is it simply the somewhat paranoid musings of superstitious Luddites? The underlying question to be asked is, “Can demons enter and use material objects to attain their nefarious ends?”
Exorcists will testify that demons can, and do, infest the human person, and their presence is manifested physically. Those knowledgable about the occult will affirm animals can be the “familiars” of occult practitioners and be infested with the dark angels. Furthermore, material objects are the tools of demons—tarot cards, ouija boards, dream catchers, crystals. All sorts of material stuff has been used by the witches and wizards down through history to manipulate, invite, and enable the dark spirits. T.S. Eliot reflects on this in Dry Salvages:
To communicate with Mars, converse with spirits,
To report the behavior of the sea monster,
Describe the horoscope, haruspicate or scry,
Observe disease in signatures, evoke
Biography from the wrinkles of the palm
And tragedy from fingers; release omens
By sortilege, or tea leaves, riddle the inevitable
With playing cards, fiddle with pentagrams
Or barbituric acids, or dissect
The recurrent image into pre-conscious terrors—
To explore the womb, or tomb, or dreams; all these are usual
Pastimes and drugs, and features of the press:
And always will be, some of them especially
When there is distress of nations and perplexity
Whether on the shores of Asia, or in the Edgware Road.
Artificial Intelligence, then, can be seen simply as the latest technological tool to dabble with the diabolical. That this dabbling is done in ignorance and innocence is even more disturbing. Furthermore, like a high-tech Alcasan, Artificial Intelligence could become a mask or costume of the anti-Christ—the ultimate ghost in the machine.
But need it be? Not necessarily. The material stuff of magic is just material stuff. The eye of newt that bubbles and troubles is, on the one hand, just the ocular organ of a reptile. For the witch it is part of the potion that opens the door to the devil. For the person reading tea leaves they may be an opening to the occult, but they are just tea leaves. For the haruspex the patterns in the intestines of a bull reflect the pattern of the stars and the predictions of human destiny. To a butcher such kooky theories are merely tripe.
Must Artificial Intelligence open the door to that hideous strength? Time will tell. It could be that Lewis’ precociously prescient novel not only foretold the horror, but also glimpsed the glorious solution. In That Hideous Strength, the nefarious plotting of the not-so-nice denizens of N.I.C.E. are foiled by an unexpected intervention along the lines of ancient Babel. In the face of apocalyptic concerns, it is worth remembering that a humanity who has got too big for its britches is nothing new.
The people of Babel had a shared language, and they had a new technology: bricks and bitumen mortar—and with a god-like ambition they decided to build a tower that would reach to the heavens. They said, “Come let us make a name for ourselves lest we be scattered abroad upon the whole face of the earth. And the Lord said, “Behold, they are one people, and they have all one language; and this is only the beginning of what they will do; and nothing that they propose to do will now be impossible for them. Come, let us go down, and confuse their language, that they may not understand one another’s speech.” (Genesis 11:4-8)
It is difficult to prophesy, but it is not always difficult to predict, and knowing how God loves the world and the children he has made, I suspect the answer to the juggernaut that is Artificial Intelligence may well be the Babel scenario: that the shared language of computer technology may suddenly develop a glitch from heaven: that the whole dazzling edifice may experience a hiccup of earthquake proportion; that the shared language of the computers will somehow inexplicably be garbled; then the tower of Mordor will fall and the minions of Sauron will be scattered abroad.
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