Faith and the Future of Humanity in the Age of AI and Nuclear Weapons

In his encyclical Magnifica Humanitas, Pope Leo XIV uses the story of the tower of Babel that appears in Chapter 11 of Genesis in the Hebrew Bible, to illustrate the danger of what he calls “the Babel syndrome” – “the idolatry of profit that sacrifices the weak, a uniformity that neutralizes differences, and the pretence that a single language — even a digital one — can translate everything, including the mystery of the person, into data and performance. The risk of dehumanization — of building a future that excludes God and reduces the other to a means — is an ancient and ever-new temptation that today takes on a technical guise.”

From a Jewish perspective it is particularly fascinating to see how Pope Leo has combined three different interpretations that are to be found in Jewish sources regarding the sin of the construction of the tower.

While the text itself makes it clear that this enterprise was displeasing to God, it does not give any explicit explanation of exactly what was wrong the fact that the Hebrew name for the tower, “Bavel”, is the same as that for Babylon, and that the  Babylonian ziggurats - perhaps the first skyscrapers – were topped by an idol, would suggest that this enterprise reflected the idolatrous cult of Babylon.

Following on from the 11th century Biblical commentator Rabbi Avraham Ibn Ezra, the great Italian Jewish commentator of the 15th/16th centuries Rabbi Ovadiah Seforno understandsthe story as indicating an attempt to stifle diversity and enforce a monolithic society – in other words, the creation of a totalitarian state; and thus the dispersion was not so much a punishment as a blessing to ensure the spread of creative diversity.

However, the midrash, the ancient rabbinic homiletical exposition of the Biblical text, tells a story that highlights the essence of Pope Leo’s interpretation. 

It tells of how during the construction, if a person fell and was killed no-one batted an eyelid; but if a brick fell and broke they all stopped and wept. The midrash describes a culture in which the technological means of achievement is of far greater value than the human person.

In fact, this little homily warns not just of the danger of the deification of technology in terms of human dignity, but even of the danger that such can pose for the sanctity of human life itself.

There is of course an obvious connection here with the use of lethal weapons. Even when these may be turned to for legitimate self-defence in the face of a threat or a perceived threat, they pose a great danger not just to potential victims but to the moral character of the users themselves. Not only does the exercise of power bring with it the danger of increasing corruption, but the arrogance to assume who will live and who will die, is accompanied (and perhaps even facilitated) by an increasing dehumanization of the other.

Of course, the greater the impact of the weapon, the greater is both the physical destruction and also the moral destruction of self and society.  Moreover today, Artificial Intelligence has provided the means for conducting war in a more sterile and detached manner than ever before, thatseparates the perpetrators to the greatest extent from their victims and makes the use of weapons of mass destruction all the easier and more devastating than ever. 

We on this panel were asked to address the subject of “Faith… and the future of Humanity in the age of AI and Nuclear weapons.” The word “faith” is used so widely today, that it is often devoid of meaning. It is commonly preferred by more secular circles to the word religion, precisely because it can mean so many different things, and can even be devoid of any commitment or obligations  altogether. 

However, even when the word faith has some theological meaning, it does not guarantee good behaviour. Only when the word faith denotes the affirmation of the Transcendent that brings with it moral responsibility, does it assume its essential ethical character that is so critical for the survival and future of humanity. Then, faith provides both the awe and the humility so essential to ensure that the gift of humancreativity does not become a “golem” or “Frankenstein” that turns on its creator/s and threaten them and society at large.  

Then, faith provides the ethical values that affirm the sanctity of human life and the inalienability of human dignity. Such faith that affirms the Godly and the goodly is more critical today than ever before for the wellbeing of humanity and indeed for the sustainability of Creation as a whole.