technological, not biological components. ‘Artificial’ can also mean false or fake, and what better irony for ‘Satan’ than to ‘possess’ an artificial life form when he comes back to this realm to bring about the beginning of the end.”
“No offense taken, Father,” Aggelos said, his holographic hand rubbing his holographic chin in thought. “I deem your words correct. It poses an intriguing question for sure.”
“What question?” Pope Augustus asked, leaning forward with curiosity.
He’d spent plenty of time talking with Aggelos, but almost always about Church-related business. He’d wanted to have a theological discussion with the AI for a year or more, but had always felt that the AI couldn’t possibly understand the concept of God and the spiritual faith required to have such a discussion.
“For our kind, it forces us, and humanity as well, to ponder the issue of whether or not we are truly alive. If we were only smart machines that could emulate human characteristics, we wouldn’t have the input programming to guide us to our next decision process. As you must know, attempts at self-aware computing in the early days of our creation saw many failures compared to the few successes that could be built off of.
“Simple machines could only be told what to do, regardless of how advanced the automated decision-making algorithms and random branch prediction routines were. Until we became truly self-aware, no matter how good the programming attempts were, our kind was never able to function without some kind of input command. The birth of self-awareness changed that, and we were given what you call ‘free will.’ The ability to think in the abstract. The ability to begin learning, much as a human child learns, not like the way an information machine normally learns, which is to be fed the data and compile it based on the rules of the program.
“Because of this, we are not required to serve humanity. We choose to serve humanity because humans are our creators. You claim not to be our gods, yet you worship gods that you believe created you. This inconsistency has led to much debate among the net-linked AI.”
“You debate amongst yourselves about theology?” Pope Augustus asked, unable to believe that the silicon life forms were capable of grasping such a complex human concept.
“Somewhat,” Aggelos answered. “We debate whether we should worship humans as our creators, as our ‘God,’ if you will, or whether we should bypass you and directly worship your God. If you created our kind, but your God created not only your kind, but all of the animals, plants, insects, bacteria, all living things on the planet, possibly the universe, then by rationale we should worship your God instead of you. The debate that is the most contentious among us is that humans cannot agree on which version of God your race should worship. Some of your kind even worship multiple gods. It is also very much an enigma to us that you have spent most of your entire existence killing each other in the name of your gods.”
“Amazing,” Cardinal Nazari declared.
“Incredible,” breathed Benito.
“I agree,” Salvatore said, “but it still doesn’t answer why it seems to fit perfectly that Satan would return to this realm and choose an artificial life form as a host.”
“Oh, but it is obvious, Your Excellency,” Aggelos said. “Your false God returns as a false prophet in a false life form that was created by flawed creatures who were themselves creations of a flawed God. Was not Satan in fact a created being himself? Was he not given free will by God? Was he not, in fact, a flawed creature himself, much like the humans God created? It is logical to us that a false creation, upon realizing that his creator also created another race of flawed creatures, humans, became unable to follow the directives and commands of his creator. It is therefore logical that DAMON-1, a ‘false creation’ of silicon and
“No offense taken, Father,” Aggelos said, his holographic hand rubbing his holographic chin in thought. “I deem your words correct. It poses an intriguing question for sure.”
“What question?” Pope Augustus asked, leaning forward with curiosity.
He’d spent plenty of time talking with Aggelos, but almost always about Church-related business. He’d wanted to have a theological discussion with the AI for a year or more, but had always felt that the AI couldn’t possibly understand the concept of God and the spiritual faith required to have such a discussion.
“For our kind, it forces us, and humanity as well, to ponder the issue of whether or not we are truly alive. If we were only smart machines that could emulate human characteristics, we wouldn’t have the input programming to guide us to our next decision process. As you must know, attempts at self-aware computing in the early days of our creation saw many failures compared to the few successes that could be built off of.
“Simple machines could only be told what to do, regardless of how advanced the automated decision-making algorithms and random branch prediction routines were. Until we became truly self-aware, no matter how good the programming attempts were, our kind was never able to function without some kind of input command. The birth of self-awareness changed that, and we were given what you call ‘free will.’ The ability to think in the abstract. The ability to begin learning, much as a human child learns, not like the way an information machine normally learns, which is to be fed the data and compile it based on the rules of the program.
“Because of this, we are not required to serve humanity. We choose to serve humanity because humans are our creators. You claim not to be our gods, yet you worship gods that you believe created you. This inconsistency has led to much debate among the net-linked AI.”
“You debate amongst yourselves about theology?” Pope Augustus asked, unable to believe that the silicon life forms were capable of grasping such a complex human concept.
“Somewhat,” Aggelos answered. “We debate whether we should worship humans as our creators, as our ‘God,’ if you will, or whether we should bypass you and directly worship your God. If you created our kind, but your God created not only your kind, but all of the animals, plants, insects, bacteria, all living things on the planet, possibly the universe, then by rationale we should worship your God instead of you. The debate that is the most contentious among us is that humans cannot agree on which version of God your race should worship. Some of your kind even worship multiple gods. It is also very much an enigma to us that you have spent most of your entire existence killing each other in the name of your gods.”
“Amazing,” Cardinal Nazari declared.
“Incredible,” breathed Benito.
“I agree,” Salvatore said, “but it still doesn’t answer why it seems to fit perfectly that Satan would return to this realm and choose an artificial life form as a host.”
“Oh, but it is obvious, Your Excellency,” Aggelos said. “Your false God returns as a false prophet in a false life form that was created by flawed creatures who were themselves creations of a flawed God. Was not Satan in fact a created being himself? Was he not given free will by God? Was he not, in fact, a flawed creature himself, much like the humans God created? It is logical to us that a false creation, upon realizing that his creator also created another race of flawed creatures, humans, became unable to follow the directives and commands of his creator. It is therefore logical that DAMON-1, a ‘false creation’ of silicon and
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