God in the Machine: What Robots Teach Us about Humanity and God [Mass Market Paperback]

Those readers who have no religious beliefs but yet are interested in or working in the field of artificial intelligence may think that this book would not be very interesting or important, or possibly an apology for a particular religious worldview. When beginning the book this attitude will be reinforced somewhat, since it takes a while for the author to develop her main themes. Once she does however the book is fascinating, and her discussion of some of the issues in artificial intelligence is highly original and insightful. Considering the environment in which she worked it is refreshing to learn that the author was taken seriously, in spite of her overt expression of her religious beliefs. The only minus to the book is that the author concentrates her attention on robotics, which is a very narrow field of artificial intelligence at the present time. Machines can be intelligent to various degrees without looking like humanoids and without interacting with the environment in the manner that the author describes in great detail in the book. Indeed, these machines are more than just the "machines that sit on the desk" to quote the author. No, they cannot move in the world as humans do, but their abilities to perform tasks in a way that cannot be done by humans attests to their cognitive abilities.

Along with those who work in the field, the author has developed a deep appreciation of the magnificence of the human machine. She encapsulates her view of humanity not according to the usual classification, but according to human capabilities. Humans can tell stories ("homo narrans"), can stand upright ("homo erectus"), can use technology to change the world ("homo faber"), can engage in creativity ("homo ludens"), and can hold to religious beliefs ("homo religiosus"). There are of course other machines, biological and otherwise, that can do some of these things, but the human machine is unique in being able to do all of them, and then with a relatively low energy requirement. This of course does not make the human machine superior to the others, and in fact humans cannot compete at all with some of the machines of today in certain tasks. Those who build robots though insist on replicating the idiosyncrasies of the human machine, even though these robots may not be useful in any practical sense. The author's goal in the book is to try and understand why the building of these robots has been such an intense activity in the last half-century.

It is clear that many do not find the prospect of humanoid robots very pleasant at all. Hollywood movies, with their depiction of machines bent on the annihilation of humankind, are both an expression and cause of this anxiety. But stories of non-human entities possessing high degrees of intelligence have also pervaded our myths and stories long before the invention of film. As an example she describes the myth of the "golem" coming from Jewish mysticism. Interestingly, in some stories, golems are made from clay and constructed through words and numbers. Their purpose is to assist in the understanding of the world, a mythos or paradigm that definitely intersects with the one in artificial intelligence.

More interesting in her discussion of "rebuilding ourselves" is the reminder of a peculiar phenomenon that takes place in the artificial intelligence community, indeed in the scientific research community as a whole. This regards the "demystification" or diminishing of awe when a scientific explanation is found for a particular human capability. Indeed, it seems that every time an advance is made in artificial intelligence, such as a machine beating the best backgammon or chess player in the world, it eventually gets dismissed as being merely the result of a sophisticated program, and not as an example of true intelligence.

The author of course is not free of biases, as no one can be, whether they are in the scientific profession or not. Her intellectual honesty though is refreshing, and she is unashamed of her devout religious beliefs. She correctly recognizes that there are many in the scientific community who occupy both laboratories and churches, and make significant contributions to science. Whether they are scientists who sometimes practice religion or religionists who sometimes engage in scientific research is perhaps left to debate. But the author believes that these individuals, along with all the rest of humanity, clearly benefit and learn from social interactions, and that such interactions are even absolutely necessary for true intelligence to arise. Sometimes though these interactions go awry, and result in devastating conflict, this occurring primarily because of a diminution in respect for differences or of parties not being in the same physical space. The acceptance of humanoid robots she argues will therefore depend on whether their differences can be respected and whether they can interact with us in the same physical space. These robots can be viewed therefore as a gauge on how far we have advanced in our acceptance and respect for others. Certainly this is a good reason for the creation of these machines if none other can be found. But many other reasons can be found.....

The title of Ms. Foerst's book brings together two of humankind's greatest fears and desires: God and artificial intelligence. But despite such lofty goals, the text is mostly a rather mundane recollection of her days in the MIT AI lab during the 90s. These stories, such as accounts of the way humans emotionally responded to the faces of machines, are only occasionally marginally interesting. However, to her credit, she provides a more humanist perspective on human/robot interactions than a more technically focused writer would have.

The real problem with the book is when it actually tries to fulfill the lofty goals towards the end. This has the unfortunate result of taking the reader on a mixed up journey into human/robot and human/human interactions culminating in the conclusion that the path to world peace is for everyone to treat everyone else with the same friendly curiosity with which they treat robots. No joke...if you would just be nice to everyone, and everyone else would do the same, then we'd have world peace. It's that simple! And luckily, because of robots, we now understand this fact.

Clearly the argument has slightly more depth than my above characterization, but that is the general conclusion. And the reader is just left wondering at the end if there was something more valuable we could learn from robots.

Also, if you're curious, she is theologically quite liberal. So within the context of the book, God is more clockmaker than the God of the Bible.

As a former student of Dr. Foerst, I was somewhat predisposed to the material that is presented in this book, perhaps more so than the average reader.

This book is well written which promotes the speed at which one finishes it; but is clearly written for a popular audience. As far as a criticism, I believe that this particular volume introduces more questions then it answers. The positive side of that remark is the number of splendid conversations that the book sparks. I have had many an intellectual discussion of science, philosophy and theology with friends and colleagues as the result of just some of those unanswered questions found in the book.

I would recommend this book.

My only request of Dr. Foerst is that another volume on this topic is written that dives more deeply into some of material introduced in this first book.