Saturday of the Twenty-sixth Week in Ordinary Time

 Lectionary: 460

I know that you can do all things,
and that no purpose of yours can be hindered.
I have dealt with great things that I do not understand;
things too wonderful for me, which I cannot know.

As the world faces "artificial intelligence," a process we have created with our own hands, we fear that we have might be dealing with great things that we do not understand, things too wonderful, which we cannot know. 

Our computer scientists, fascinated by the process of turning all knowledge to digitized data, and then computing it in to develop new facts -- not to be confused with truth --have built machines that seem to think, engineer, and create solutions to problems no one ever thought of, and answers to questions no one ever asked. Driven by lust -- which in Saint Augustine's day meant curiosity for unimportant or irrelevant knowledge (as in wanderlust, carnal knowledge, surfing the Internet, or watching YouTube shorts)  their creation represents a serious threat to our future. They may have engineered Armigeddon. 

The cause of this threat should be obvious to any Catholic: scientists and engineers do not reckon with sin. They don't know the word, and when they hear it, they don't like it. But that ignorance, whether willful or not, doesn't make it go away. Without sin we would not know of grace; and without grace there is no salvation from the catastrophes we generate, including an AI Armegeddon. 

How can we expect computing to make us better when we have built it ourselves? Can a rotten tree bear good fruit?

Our Holy Father Pope Leo XIV has called us to address the challenges of AI, and to do penance for the evil that is systematically woven into this so-called intelligence. He joins religious and secular authorities of every stripe who have raised the same issue. 

Today Job reminds us that God can do all things, and that no purpose of his can be hindered. If the world has intentionally ignored our concern about sin and our call to repentance and atonement, they must pay attention now. 

Yet even now...

return to me with your whole heart,

with fasting, weeping, and mourning.

Rend your hearts, not your garments,

and return to the LORD, your God,

For he is gracious and merciful,

slow to anger, abounding in steadfast love,

and relenting in punishment.

Perhaps he will again relent

and leave behind a blessing... Joel 2:12-14