ONLINE BUDDHIST AND CHRISTIAN RESPONSES TO ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE

I report the findings of a comparative analysis of online Christian and Buddhist responses to artificial intelligence. I review the Buddhist response and compare it with the Christian response outlined in an earlier essay (Tamatea 2008). The discussion seeks to answer two questions: Which approach to imago Dei informs the online Buddhist response to artificial intelligence? And to what extent does the preference for a particular approach emerge from a desire to construct the Self? The conclusion is that, like the Christian response, the Buddhist response is grounded not so much in the reality of AI as it is in the discursive constructions of AI made available through Buddhist cosmology, which (paradoxically), like the Christian response, are deployed in defense of the Self, despite claimed adherence to the notion of anatta, or non‐Self.     

INTRODUCTION TO THE SYMPOSIUM ON ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE AND APOCALYPTICISM

This is an introduction to the Symposium on Artificial Intelligence and Apocalypticism, which resulted from a conference hosted by the Centre for the Critical Study of Apocalyptic and Millenarian Movements (CenSAMM) in Bedford, UK. The introduction provides a brief history of scholarly work in the intersections of apocalypticism and artificial intelligence and of the emergence of CenSAMM from a millenarian religious community, the Panacea Society. It concludes by pointing toward the contributions of the symposium's essays.     

ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE AND DE LAS CASAS: A 1492 RESONANCE

Abstract. A comparison is made between two unlikely debates over intelligence. One debate took place in 1550 at Valladolid, Spain, between Bartolomé de las Casas and Juan Gines de Sepúlveda over the intelligence of the Amerindian. The other debate is contemporary, between John Searle and various representatives of the "strong" artificial intelligence (AI) community over the adequacy of the Turing test for intelligence. Although the contemporary debate has yet to die down, the Valladolid debate has been over for four hundred years. The question asked here is whether the contemporary debate can profit from the previous one. The common bond providing the basis for contrast is the issue of the "other" which is present in both debates. From this contrast, the observation is made that the question of meaning is intimately tied to the question of intelligence.     

INTEGRAL SCIENCE AND INTELLIGENCE IN ORGANIZATIONS

Integral Science's most distinctive effect is to shift the context of human interactions from competition against one another to seeking what is good for both one's self and the larger whole. The partnership environment it suggests creates a foundation of relationship that powerfully increases organizational intelligence. This simple switch creates the potential for both more humanistic and more effective organizations that are better able to meet the needs of the populations they serve.     

INTELLIGENCE AND WORK ADJUSTMENT IN AN NYC POPULATION

It seems to be generally accepted that disadvantaged persons perform poorly on aptitude tests even when they may have the ability to do a job (Zimpel & Panger, 1970; Seiler, 1970). Other evidence suggests that race is also a factor in poor test performance (Anderson & Smith, 1969; Parker, Kunce, & Bolanovich, 1970). This study is an attempt to see how useful a widely used intelligence test may be for predicting work adjustment of disadvantaged youth when race is considered as a factor.     

THE ATHENIAN ALTAR AND THE AMAZONIAN CHATBOT: A PAULINE READING OF ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE AND APOCALYPTIC ENDS

This article explores questions about chatbots in particular and artificial intelligence (AI) in general from a Pauline, that is, a Christian theological perspective. It does so in a way that focuses on a particular scene in the New Testament: Paul in the Athenian Areopagus, considering an altar to an “unknown God,” quoting Greek poets and philosophers, and sharing curious theology as he dialogues with Stoic and Epicurean thinkers (Acts 17:16–34). By examining the sociohistorical nuances of this scene and their philosophical and theological implications, this article shows how the altar Paul considers philosophically and theologically becomes the focal point for an important dialogue about apocalyptic ends, or ideas about who we are, where we are going, and who or what is responsible for that who‐ness and where‐ness. In turn, this can teach us how to ask practical questions, which can uncover the unsuspected apocalyptic ends represented by, or even contained within, common technological objects such as chatbots.     

AUGMENTED REALITY,ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE,AND THE RE‐ENCHANTMENT OF THE WORLD

There has recently been a surge of development in augmented reality (AR) technologies that has led to an ecosystem of hardware and software for AR, including tools for artists and designers to accelerate the design of AR content and experiences without requiring complex programming. AR is viewed as a key “disruptive technology” and future display technologies (such as digital eyewear) will provide seamless continuity between reality and the digitally augmented. This article will argue that the technologization of human perception and experience of reality, coupled with the development of artificial intelligence (AI)–based natural language assistants, may lead to a secular re‐enchantment of the world, in the sense outlined by Charles Taylor, where human existence is shaped through AR inhabited by advanced personal and social AI agents in the form of digital avatars and daemons, and that enchantment has been persistent throughout the formation of modernity and is being rekindled by the integration of AI in the plane of AR.     

SCIENCE AND RELIGION IN LATIN AMERICA: DEVELOPMENTS AND PROSPECTS

The state of the debate surrounding issues on science and religion in Latin America is mostly unknown, both to regional and extra‐regional scholars. This article presents and reviews in some detail the developments since 2000, when the first symposium on science and religion was held in Mexico, up to the present. I briefly introduce some features of Latin American academia and higher education institutions, as well as some trends in the public reception of these debates and atheist engagement with it in Mexico and Argentina. The primary conclusion of this article is that, even though the discussion is new to Latin American academic circles, it is gaining traction and will certainly grow in the coming years.     

LEGAL DEVELOPMENTS IN EMPLOYMENT TESTING: Albemarle AND BEYOND

Recent court cases have continued to support the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission's employee selection guidelines. The most unambiguous support came in Albemarle Paper Co. v. Moody , decided by the U. S. Supreme Court in 1975. The Court's 1976 opinion in Washington v. Davis set forth more relaxed statutory standards than those of the EEOC Guidelines, but subsequent lower court decisions have continued to support the EEOC Guidelines, and the new Federal Executive Agency Guidelines have not supplanted them. The EEOC Guidelines provisions upheld in Albemarle are compared with the APA Test Standards and with APA Division 14's Personnel Selection Principles, and implications for employment testing are discussed.     

CARGOISM AND SCIENTIFIC JUSTIFICATION IN THE SEARCH FOR EXTRATERRESTRIAL INTELLIGENCE

This article compares justifications of the search for extraterrestrial intelligence (SETI) presented by scientists with ideational constructs associated with cargo cults in Melanesia. In focusing on similarities between cargoism and SETI, I argue that, understood in terms of cultural practice, aspects of the science of SETI have significant similarities to the religious elements that characterize cargoism. Through a focus on the construction of meanings, I consider how SETI and cargoism use similar signification systems to communicate meaning related to local social contexts and I draw a parallel with the religious and meaning structure of cargoism to show that SETI and cargoism employ similar strategies to justify beliefs. As a result, in some ways SETI represents a scientific framework that inhabits cultural and epistemological space that overlaps with religious space.     

VALUE SYSTEMS AND ANOMIE IN THREE CULTURES

The Rokeach Value Survey was administrated to three equivalent groups of South Africans - Africans (Blacks), Indians (Browns), and Europeans (Whites) - along with the Srole Anomie Scale. It was hypothesized that a number of differences would occur between these groups based on socio-economic structure of the country, their respective affluence, and traditional cultural differences. Values assigned relatively high importance by the Africans concerned equality and peace, while the Europeans place higher value on friendship and love. Although there were large significant differences between the Black and White groups on anomie, these scores did not correlate very highly with the instrumental or terminal values. These results were interpreted in terms of the history and culture of the three groups and the socio-political structure of the society in which they live. Limitations of research of this kind are also noted.