In Brighton, England
There’s been a suggestion that faith communities and traditions should be coming together to discuss the potential impact of artificial intelligence (AI) on the future of humanity, and some of us in this city have begun working together to organise such a conference.
A Directory of Faith Communities and Traditions in Brighton & Hove.
In the meanwhile, the following article has been submitted to the Brighton Quakers’ Newsletter.
Does the internet have a heart?
Since the dawn of civilisation, a concern for the future of humanity has almost certainly been sitting at the centre of every community of faith and tradition.
Recently, and prolifically in the mainstream media, there’s been a great deal of speculation which suggests human civilisation could now be on the verge of its greatest transformation since the end of the Ice Age.
Whilst global infrastructures, the internet and artificial intelligence (AI) have all become increasingly entwined, it’s become increasingly apparent, that all-pervasive internet has continued locking increasing percentages of our children’s attention firmly into the fabric of its many fascinating spaces. And yet what do we see there at the centre of that massive machine, apart from growing numbers of shopping channels and some indelible instruction to return more riches for a handful of billionaires?
I’ve been attending Brighton Meeting since the 1980s, and throughout all these many years I’ve been convinced that unless we’re endeavouring to seat, maintain & promote humanity [that of God, our species & its virtues] at the heart of the internet, then something else will be sitting in our place, and it will imagine nothing in the universe greater than itself.
And it’s almost driven me to total distraction wondering what one is supposed to do with an idea like that. I’ve even heard some Friends say that it’s probably already too late now for us to make any real difference in that online world. But maybe this conundrum is not a hindrance but an opportunity. So, I began wondering whether some endeavour for us might be more effectively promoted through an arts project. And then another Friend suggested that this idea might work more effectively as an art installation, in some place like the FMH garden. And then, after praying for some further guidance on this matter, I was (almost immediately and unexpectedly) presented with a red paper heart by a little girl, handing them out after Children’s Meeting.
If you’d like to get involved with this art project (planning, design and preparation – which might become a regular workshop in future months) then you could meet with me/us in FMH on any (or all) of these dates: Sunday 19 April, after the IFCG AGM; Thursday 23 April, at 6pm; Wednesday 29 April, at 1.30pm. And then further dates would be posted in this newsletter in May.
Peter Sharrock