What is a soul? Can you lose your job for believing in one? Well, maybe not lose your job, but be placed on paid leave. Yesterday’s New York Times ran a story about Google engineer Blake Lemoine being put on leave after claiming a soul for the company’s artificial intelligence language model. Isn’t that what artificial intelligence is all about? We’ve become so materialistic that we no longer believe in souls, and when we create life we don’t expect it to have one, right Dr. Frankenstein? One of the sure signs that we are alive is our sensing of the many qualia of biological existence. We understand that we’re born, we’re biological, and that we will die. We also sense that there’s something beyond all this, our self, or mind, or psyche, call it what you will.
In our minds the soul has become entrenched with the Christianity that provides the backdrop to our somewhat embarrassing history of repression of those who are different. How do we redeem one without having to be shackled to the other? And once we do, can we declare why AI doesn’t have a soul while biological beings do? Or will we insist that it is solely human? In this odd world that’s evolved, we view animals as innocent because they can’t know what they’re doing. Historically there have been animals put to trial. That’s an aberration, however, from our usual ways of thinking. We don’t know what a soul is. We’re not even sure there is such a thing. To suggest a machine might have one, however, is taboo. Would we trust a soul made by humans?
Skepticism is good and healthy. So is having an open mind. We’ve been a polarized people for a long time. If it’s not politics it’s elites versus uneducated, materialists versus those who think there might be something more, self-assured versus those who question everything. The path of learning should keep us humble. We should be open to the possibilities. There’s no way to measure the immaterial since all our tools are material. Even psychology, which utilizes categories to help us understand neurodiversity, often finds chemical solutions to the most cerebral of problems. Perhaps overthinking is an issue—it can certainly get you into trouble. Believing in souls can put you in a place of ridicule or suspicion. Does AI have a soul? Does a soul emerge from biological existence, whenever a sufficient number of neurons gathers in one place? Is it the fabric of the universe from which we borrow a little? We have some soul-searching to do.
Carlos Schwabe, Death of the Undertaker; Wikimedia Commons
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