Humanoid Robot Granted Citizenship By Saudi Arabia

27 October 2017 News Odyssey An ordered list of links for each blog series is on the Archive page. (0)
ZeroHedge.com | Tyler Durden | 26 Oct 2017

One of the reasons why Saudi Arabia has found itself in fiscal and budgetary dire straits in recent years, is that as a result of the plunge in oil prices in recent years, the government has been unable to keep paying the thousands of local and foreign workers who are (or were) employed on any number of local infrastructure and development projects. However, with the Aramco IPO also suddenly on the rocks even as the country's reserves continue to shrink and deficits grow, the Gulf kingdom appears to have come up with a radical solution to its structural problems, when on Wednesday Saudi Arabia became the first nation in the world to grant a robot citizenship.

The outspoken humanoid robot called Sophia, flown in from Hong Kong, was granted Saudi citizenship at the Future Investment Initiative, a major investment conference hosted by the Public Investment Fund (PIF) that aims to highlight the Kingdom’s ambitious Vision 2030 plan for the future. Read more.

A Godhead Based on Artificial Intelligence

09 October 2017 News Odyssey An ordered list of links for each blog series is on the Archive page. (0)
BioEdge.com | Xavier Symons | 7 Oct 2017

dead rose in grunge settingTired of organised religion? Maybe you should join a Silicon Valley religious start-up.

Former Uber exec Anthony Levandowski, for example, has registered a non-for-profit religious organisation in California, going by the name of Way of the Future. According to Wired, Way of the Future aims to “develop and promote the realization of a Godhead based on artificial intelligence and through understanding and worship of the Godhead contribute to the betterment of society”.

Levandowski’s De ex Machina religion is just one of several quasi-religious organisations now operational in the Californian tech belt.

“The church does a terrible job of reaching out to Silicon Valley types,” says Christopher Benek, a pastor in Florida and founding chair of the Christian Transhumanist Association. Benek argues that AI can participate in Christ’s redemptive purposes,” he said, by ensuring it is imbued with Christian values. “Even if people don’t buy organized religion, they can buy into ‘do unto others’.”

Self-proclaimed transhumanist visionary Zoltan Istvan argues that religion and science converge conceptually in the singularity.

“God, if it exists as the most powerful of all singularities, has certainly already become pure organized intelligence,” he said, referring to an intelligence that “spans the universe through subatomic manipulation of physics”. BioEdge: An AI alternative to organised religion

WIRED.com | Mark Harris | 09/27/2017

Many people in Silicon Valley believe in the Singularity—the day in our near future when computers will surpass humans in intelligence and kick off a feedback loop of unfathomable change.

When that day comes, Anthony Levandowski will be firmly on the side of the machines. In September 2015, the multi-millionaire engineer at the heart of the trade secrets lawsuit between Uber and Waymo, Google’s self-driving car company, founded a religious organization called Way of the Future. Its purpose, according to previously unreported state filings, is nothing less than to “develop and promote the realization of a Godhead based on Artificial Intelligence.” Read more

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...and every living creature that moveth, which the waters brought forth abundantly, after their kind, and every winged fowl after his kind ... the living creature after his kind, cattle, and creeping thing, and beast of the earth after his kind ...the beast of the earth after his kind, and cattle after their kind, and every thing that creepeth upon the earth after his kind: and God saw that it was good. -Genesis 1

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A SistersSite eBook

Flesh and Bone and The Protestant Conscience is an e-book on Amazon.com. It is 99¢ and in the Amazon lending library as well. It is also available here in PDF format. The book description follows.

Would you let your conscience be your guide?

Does God care if the skin and bone of the dead are passed along to the living for medical uses? Is organ donation OK with God? Should you sign a Living Will?

Did you know that dead organ donors are often anesthetized before their organs are removed? Do you know the current definition of death? The conscience cannot function without facts.

As we ponder the ethics of in vitro fertilization, stem cell research and man-made chimeras, our thoughts trail off. How then should we live? (Ez 33:10)

How should a Christian think about euthanasia by starvation when doctors and the state attorney general all agree it is time to withhold feeding from a brain injured patient? Some things are family matters, but someday it may be our family.

Here is a small book to help you think about whether you want to sign your driver's license, donate a kidney, cremate your loved one, and many other practical questions that may arise in the course of your healthcare decisions or watch over others.

It offers a special focus on the doctrine of the Resurrection that is related to such decisions. Sunday School classes and Bible Study groups could use this book to facilitate discussion about the issues covered.

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