https://reunir.unir.net/handle/123456789/13022 2024-10-28T15:44:35Z https://reunir.unir.net/handle/123456789/13030 Editor's Note Burgos, Daniel; Oviedo, Lluis; Griffiths, Dai; Vestrucci, Andrea Research on the relationship between computing and the meaning of human life flourishes proportionally to the increasing digitalization of our world. More and more, reflections on ethics and politics, spiritual values and religious experiences, beliefs, and practices make use of digital media in order to spread their content or express themselves. If we still consider that there is truth in the well-known dictum that “the medium is the message”, then it is worth asking how the content of these reflections and practices are changing today. Every change is the introduction of something new, and this novelty can be interpreted either as the improvement or the worsening of the current situation. Generally speaking, research on either the positive or negative interactions between the advances in AI and the dimension of spirituality and analogue thinking are based on at least three approaches. The first produces analogies between concepts from human studies and concepts from computer science; for instance, speaking of “modeling” for concepts in human sciences, or considering the universe to be intelligently organized in an algorithmic order. The second approach is the application of research on AI and computer science to develop new insights on the extents, limits, and perfectibility of spiritual topics, discussions, or even practices. Finally, the third approach applies sociological, philosophical, aesthetic, or even theological concepts to assess the changes that digitalization introduces in spiritual practices, beliefs, and cultures. This special issue analyzes the current state of the art, and it addresses all three models of the research. By doing so, the issue will place the general question of the distinction between human and machine into sharper relief. Submitted by Susana Figueroa Navarro (susana.figueroa.n@unir.net) on 2022-05-06T08:22:56Z No. of bitstreams: 1 ijimai7_1_0.pdf: 80862 bytes, checksum: 09f5c25f9992e878cc1fb9aa6c6ab27d (MD5); Made available in DSpace on 2022-05-06T08:22:56Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 ijimai7_1_0.pdf: 80862 bytes, checksum: 09f5c25f9992e878cc1fb9aa6c6ab27d (MD5) https://reunir.unir.net/handle/123456789/13029 Can AI Help Us to Understand Belief? Sources, Advances, Limits, and Future Directions Vestrucci, Andrea; Lumbreras, Sara; Oviedo, Lluis The study of belief is expanding and involves a growing set of disciplines and research areas. These research programs attempt to shed light on the process of believing, understood as a central human cognitive function. Computational systems and, in particular, what we commonly understand as Artificial Intelligence (AI), can provide some insights on how beliefs work as either a linear process or as a complex system. However, the computational approach has undergone some scrutiny, in particular about the differences between what is distinctively human and what can be inferred from AI systems. The present article investigates to what extent recent developments in AI provide new elements to the debate and clarify the process of belief acquisition, consolidation, and recalibration. The article analyses and debates current issues and topics of investigation such as: different models to understand belief, the exploration of belief in an automated reasoning environment, the case of religious beliefs, and future directions of research. Submitted by Susana Figueroa Navarro (susana.figueroa.n@unir.net) on 2022-05-06T08:19:11Z No. of bitstreams: 1 ijimai7_1_3_0.pdf: 657004 bytes, checksum: 926f0d77a9f183dff708ce1b495bf438 (MD5); Made available in DSpace on 2022-05-06T08:19:11Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 ijimai7_1_3_0.pdf: 657004 bytes, checksum: 926f0d77a9f183dff708ce1b495bf438 (MD5) https://reunir.unir.net/handle/123456789/13028 Artificial Intelligence Seen Through the Lens of Bateson’s Ecology of Mind Griffiths, Dai Gregory Bateson developed a number of ideas which are relevant to artificial intelligence, and in particular to the ascription of qualities such as mind, consciousness, spirituality and the sacred. Relevant sections of Bateson’s key works are discussed, and his intellectual framework for an ecology of mind is summarized, and in particular his concepts of mind, learning, and the sacred. These are then applied to discuss whether artificial intelligence applications can be considered to possess ‘mind’. It is concluded that symbolic artificial intelligence falls short of Bateson’s criteria for mind, as do neural networks, although approach more closely. Nor are computers based on the rules of formal logic able to engage with the sacred, which is paradoxical in nature. However, artificial intelligence applications can form part of an ecology of mind and can be involved in the experience of the sacred. Bateson’s writing remains a fertile source of ideas relevant to an understanding of the nature and capabilities of artificial intelligence. Submitted by Susana Figueroa Navarro (susana.figueroa.n@unir.net) on 2022-05-06T08:01:14Z No. of bitstreams: 1 ijimai7_1_7.pdf: 852518 bytes, checksum: c112e138701f5952d979ea7881dd4598 (MD5); Made available in DSpace on 2022-05-06T08:01:14Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 ijimai7_1_7.pdf: 852518 bytes, checksum: c112e138701f5952d979ea7881dd4598 (MD5) https://reunir.unir.net/handle/123456789/13027 Emergent Models for Moral AI Spirituality Graves, Mark Examining AI spirituality can illuminate problematic assumptions about human spirituality and AI cognition, suggest possible directions for AI development, reduce uncertainty about future AI, and yield a methodological lens sufficient to investigate human-AI sociotechnical interaction and morality. Incompatible philosophical assumptions about human spirituality and AI limit investigations of both and suggest a vast gulf between them. An emergentist approach can replace dualist assumptions about human spirituality and identify emergent behavior in AI computation to overcome overly reductionist assumptions about computation. Using general systems theory to organize models of human experience yields insight into human morality and spirituality, upon which AI modeling can also draw. In this context, the pragmatist Josiah Royce’s semiotic philosophy of spirituality identifies unanticipated overlap between symbolic AI and spirituality and suggests criteria for a human-AI community focused on modeling morality that would result in an emergent Interpreter-Spirit sufficient to influence the ongoing development of human and AI morality and spirituality. Submitted by Susana Figueroa Navarro (susana.figueroa.n@unir.net) on 2022-05-06T07:56:08Z No. of bitstreams: 1 ijimai7_1_1.pdf: 452895 bytes, checksum: 4f1b3aa0b3d1071ad7c36b0653a9fd4e (MD5); Made available in DSpace on 2022-05-06T07:56:08Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 ijimai7_1_1.pdf: 452895 bytes, checksum: 4f1b3aa0b3d1071ad7c36b0653a9fd4e (MD5) https://reunir.unir.net/handle/123456789/13026 Why the Future Might Actually Need Us: A Theological Critique of the ‘Humanity-As-Midwife-For-Artificial-Superintelligence’ Proposal Dorobantu, Marius If machines could one day acquire superhuman intelligence, what role would still be left for humans to play in the world? The ‘midwife proposal,’ coming from futurists like Ray Kurzweil or James Lovelock, sees the invention of AI as a fulfillment of humanity’s cosmic destiny. The universe ‘strives’ to be saturated with intelligence, and our cyborg descendants are much better equipped to advance this goal. By creating AI, humans play their humble, but instrumental, part in the grand scheme. The midwife proposal looks remarkably similar to modern Christian anthropology and cosmology, which regard humankind as “evolution becoming conscious of itself” (Pierre Teilhard de Chardin), and matter as having a predisposition to evolve toward spirit (Karl Rahner, Dumitru Stăniloae). This paper demonstrates that the similarity is only superficial. Compared to the midwife hypothesis, Christian theological accounts define the cosmic role of humanity quite differently, and they provide a more satisfactory teleology. In addition, the scientific and philosophical assumptions behind the midwife hypothesis – that the cosmos is fundamentally informational, that it intrinsically promotes higher intelligence, or that we are heading toward a technological singularity - are rather questionable, with potentially significant theological and ethical consequences. Submitted by Susana Figueroa Navarro (susana.figueroa.n@unir.net) on 2022-05-06T07:51:34Z No. of bitstreams: 1 ijimai7_1_5.pdf: 632327 bytes, checksum: 281b28acc14ea84939893cf490de8339 (MD5); Made available in DSpace on 2022-05-06T07:51:34Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 ijimai7_1_5.pdf: 632327 bytes, checksum: 281b28acc14ea84939893cf490de8339 (MD5) https://reunir.unir.net/handle/123456789/13025 “The Singularity is near!” Visions of Artificial Intelligence in Posthumanism and Transhumanism Krüger, Oliver Over the past 20 years, the idea of singularity has become increasingly important to the technological visions of posthumanism and transhumanism. The article first introduces key posthumanist authors such as Marvin Minsky, Ray Kurzweil, Hans Moravec, and Frank Tipler. In the following, the concept of singularity is reviewed from a cultural studies perspective, first with regard to the cosmological singularity and then to the technological singularity. According to posthumanist thinkers the singularity is marked by the emergence of a superhuman computer intelligence that will solve all of humanity’s problems. At the same time, it heralds the end of the human era. Most authors refer to the British mathematician Irving John Good’s 1965 essay Speculations Concerning the First Ultraintelligent Machine as the originator of the idea of superintelligence. Individual elements of the singularity idea such as the impenetrable event horizon, the frontier and the ongoing acceleration of progress are contextualized historically and culturally. Submitted by Susana Figueroa Navarro (susana.figueroa.n@unir.net) on 2022-05-06T07:47:15Z No. of bitstreams: 1 ijimai7_1_2.pdf: 531069 bytes, checksum: 728472ad62c03193016fd1faa165e18d (MD5); Made available in DSpace on 2022-05-06T07:47:15Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 ijimai7_1_2.pdf: 531069 bytes, checksum: 728472ad62c03193016fd1faa165e18d (MD5) https://reunir.unir.net/handle/123456789/13024 Rituals and Data Analytics: A Mixed-Methods Model to Process Personal Beliefs Burgos, Daniel The goal of this research is to delve into ritual, religious, and secular phenomenology. It concentrates specifically on the relationship between pagan, cultural, celebratory, and traditional rituals and any other form of representation of a social sentiment focused on identifying, enjoying, or replacing a feeling (e.g. transcendence) as well as how these rituals overlap, replace, nourish, or make use of religious rituals bi-directionally. To achieve this goal, the research develops a semi-automatic process that leans on a mixed-methods approach, to explore the degree of ritual identity. This approach combines qualitative and quantitative research, applying a number of tools, such as systematic literature review, semi-structured interviews, data-analytics generic framework, and case studies. After a thorough systematic review of 251 publications, a semi-structured interview is designed and applied to 51 subjects. 10 significant aspects that define rituals are extracted. Subsequently, this list is completed with the 17 common elements of ritual identity from the systematic literature review. These combined indicators constitute the basis for building a data-analytics generic framework of ritual affinity through weighing each element’s relevance and presence to obtain a degree of total affinity. That framework is then applied to 34 representative case studies. The core findings reinforce the initial hypothesis, determining that rituals follow a similar pattern of structure and preparation according to a predetermined set of common elements, whether linked to religious or secular settings. Submitted by Susana Figueroa Navarro (susana.figueroa.n@unir.net) on 2022-05-06T07:27:53Z No. of bitstreams: 1 ijimai7_1_6.pdf: 1196512 bytes, checksum: e90905d2529040388139582eb6c2fcfb (MD5); Made available in DSpace on 2022-05-06T07:27:53Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 ijimai7_1_6.pdf: 1196512 bytes, checksum: e90905d2529040388139582eb6c2fcfb (MD5) https://reunir.unir.net/handle/123456789/13023 Artificial Intelligence and Spirituality Calderero Hernández, José Fernando Drawing from a conceptual review of the terms ‘mind’, ‘intelligence’, ‘spirit’, ‘spirituality’, ‘spiritual intelligence’ and their possible interrelations, an approach to the concept ‘human nature’ is made in relation to transhumanism and post-humanism. In addition, through a reflection on the nature and meaning of the terms ‘datum’, ‘coding’, ‘language’, ‘energy’, ‘concrete’, and ‘abstract’, some dimensions of ‘artificial intelligence’ (AI) and their analogies and differences with ‘the spiritual’ are shown. After a brief foray into the concept of ‘reality’ and its probable ‘fuzziness’, we discuss their intrinsic and inherent mutability, and the possible existential dependence of some of their parts on the intentional activity of personal beings. We point out the dangers, for intellectual rigor and therefore for life in general, and human life in particular, of reductionist interpretations of reality that, arguing at having been scientifically proven, are intended to provide a closed and indisputable explanation of facts and phenomena of diverse aetiology, ignoring the need for ‘management of the unknown’. Consequently, an open, synergetic, harmonious vision of the role of technology and the humanities, especially those most focused on the study of the intangible, is necessary for the progress of knowledge and, therefore, for the mutually beneficial care of humanity and nature. Submitted by Susana Figueroa Navarro (susana.figueroa.n@unir.net) on 2022-05-06T07:23:59Z No. of bitstreams: 1 ijimai7_1_4.pdf: 645923 bytes, checksum: ff560293f40dc22e74e47726f67c5f59 (MD5); Made available in DSpace on 2022-05-06T07:23:59Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 ijimai7_1_4.pdf: 645923 bytes, checksum: ff560293f40dc22e74e47726f67c5f59 (MD5)