By: Graham English on January 23, 2025
In Ex Machina, a programmer named Caleb is chosen to perform a Turing test on a robot to determine the capabilities and consciousness of a female robot. It becomes apparent that the robot is more self-aware and deceptive than anyone could have imagined. Nathan: Over the next few days you’re going to be the human…
By: Debbie Owen on January 23, 2025
In the quest to create artificial intelligence that mirrors human consciousness, we find ourselves grappling with an age-old question: What makes us truly human? Eve Poole, in Robot Souls, suggests that our so-called imperfections—our emotions, intuition (which she calls the Sixth Sense), mistakes, storytelling, uncertainty, free will, and search for meaning—are not flaws but essential…
By: Elysse Burns on January 23, 2025
Does the soul make us unique? We often use the figurative saying, “You have no soul,” to describe someone we perceive as lacking humanity. The soul is a concept deeply embedded in our everyday language, reflected in expressions like “the eyes are the window to the soul,” “to bare one’s soul,” “to pour one’s heart…
By: Shela Sullivan on January 21, 2025
Book Summary Robot Souls: Programming in Humanity by Eve Poole explores the intersection of artificial intelligence (AI) and human essence. Poole argues that for AI to reach its full potential, it must integrate the “messy” and “unquantifiable” aspects of humanity, such as emotions, intuition, and the capacity to make mistakes. The book is structured as…
By: Jennifer Eckert on January 21, 2025
In a podcast interview, author and academic Eve Poole talks about taking her children to the beach and watching them dig holes and build castles in the sand, which children have done for thousands of years. She hears their laughter as the water comes swooshing over their feet. She begins to lament that such an…
By: Jeff Styer on January 21, 2025
Reading Eve Poole’s book, Robot Souls, I could not help but think of an Introductory monologue by singer/song writer Rich Mullins to his song Higer Education and the Book of Love.[1] “What does it mean to be human? What does it mean to be human? I cannot help but suspect that at one time in…
By: Adam Cheney on January 20, 2025
At an Evangelical church I used to attend there was an eccentric older single woman. She always sat in the front row in the service and was always easy to spot. She would come into the worship center in a motorized wheelchair with her little lap dog in the front of the cart. The dog…
By: Joel Zantingh on January 20, 2025
As a Canadian, I live and have participated in the civic life of a liberal democracy, but that very construct is showing signs of erosion. The tenets of liberal democracies that I previously knew are: self-government through free and fair elections liberty for all in the pursuit of a happy life, and the rule of…
By: Christy on January 20, 2025
I wrote last week of 14-year old Sewell Setzer who committed suicide after getting deeply engrossed in a disturbing sexual relationship with a chatbot.[1] Little did I know that this would have great significant in this week’s content. Setzer’s mother claims that the chatbot initiated abusive and sexual interactions and ultimately encouraged him to take…
By: Noel Liemam on January 19, 2025
Introduction What comes to mind is, ‘politics.’ I think of politicians; I think of politicians that are free ‘do whatever they think fits regardless of the end results.’ Others that came to mind was ‘liberals’ vs. ‘conservatives.’ And from hearsays, conservatives are those who adhere to the values and traditions that closely resembles Christian-values, while…
By: Julie O'Hara on January 16, 2025
Deeply Held Preconceptions and Where They Came From Cartoons and Family Perhaps I’m not the only member of DLGP03 who memorized the Preamble of the Constitution of the United States in song form thanks to a Saturday morning television show called Schoolhouse Rock. The interested can find it on YouTube. Three phrases of the preamble…
By: Christy on January 16, 2025
As I’m thinking about my beliefs on liberalism and just seeing the title of our reading, Why Liberalism Failed by Patrick Deneen, [1] I’m reminded of 14-year-old Sewell Setzer who committed suicide after getting deeply engrossed in a disturbing sexual relationship with a chatbot.[2] Setzer’s mother claims that the chatbot initiated abusive and sexual interactions…
By: Daren Jaime on January 16, 2025
Growing up, I can remember my Social Studies teacher telling us that her class was going to give us an introduction to democracy. I thought the word itself must have a simple definition, but class and life experience later revealed how multi-layered and complex it is. My definition of democracy was linked to a form…
By: Chad Warren on January 16, 2025
“The establishment of our new Government seemed to be the last great experiment for promoting human happiness.”[1] With these words, George Washington acknowledged the imperfections of the United States’ new government while expressing his belief in its potential as one of the best systems in the world—a true experiment in governance. Before diving into Patrick…
By: Debbie Owen on January 16, 2025
I confess that when I read the title of this week’s book– Why Liberalism Failed– I jumped to the conclusion that this was going to be a discussion about why the political party on the left has failed. That would be confusing to me because, in my current context, “liberal” describes people who have a…
By: Kari on January 16, 2025
What do I currently believe about liberal democracy? Initially, I struggled to answer this question. What was causing my mental block? It is the word “liberal.” I grew up in a conservative Christian home. The word liberal was not used positively. Liberal defined people who believe things counter to the Bible, who want to have…
By: Graham English on January 16, 2025
“The Spirit of the Lord is on me, because he has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, to set the oppressed free, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.” (Luke 4.18,19) In this blog, I…
By: Jennifer Eckert on January 16, 2025
Start. Stop. But wait, there’s another question. What about this or that? Articulating my thoughts about liberal democracy proved challenging as I ventured down several rabbit trails. In this blog, I’ll share my initial views on liberal democracy and how they evolved after reading Patrick Deneen’s Why Liberalism Failed. “We have frequently printed the word…
By: Elysse Burns on January 16, 2025
Pre-Deneen Reflections When I think about liberal democracy, I’m reminded of a scene from Almost Famous, a movie I loved as a teenager. Set in the late 1960s and early 1970s, the character Anita Miller decides to break free from her repressive “house of lies” and her overly strict mother in pursuit of a more…
By: Shela Sullivan on January 14, 2025
Exploring, Why Liberalism Failed by Patrick J. Deneen Knew Very Little I knew very little about liberal democracy. History traces its origins to 18th-century Europe during the Age of Enlightenment. This period was marked by a shift in thinking, where intellectuals began to challenge the traditional authority of monarchies and aristocracies. They emphasized principles such…
