Quotes of Note: Elder Maxwell on Increasing Faith

April 19, 2011 By benspackman Leave a Comment

I miss Elder Maxwell…

There are other things we can do daily to bolster the faith of others as well as our own. Peter prescribed: “But sanctify the Lord God in your hearts: and be ready always to give an answer to every man that asketh you a reason of the hope that is in you with meekness and fear” (1 Peter 3:15).

The word answer here means a verbal defense or a reason statement. The very act of so giving our witness will help not only others but also ourselves. As Brigham Young said, we will grow in the knowledge of the truth as we “impart knowledge to others,” by means of which we “will also grow and increase.” Hence, President Young continued, “Wherever you see an opportunity to do good, do it, for that is the way to increase and grow in the knowledge of the truth.” If, instead, we are reluctant to do good, we “will become contracted” in our views and feelings.

-Elder Neal A. Maxwell, Lord, Increase Our Faith (Salt Lake City, Utah: Bookcraft, 1994), 113-114.

Elder Maxwell, I think, knew that the word was Gr. apologia, whence we get “apology.” But instead of “being sorry,” it meant “the defense of a position, answer back, reply.” I might paraphras as “Be prepared to explain the reasons for your faith,” which for me lies in the same ballpark as the idea kicked around the Naccle of inoculation (see here by DMI Dave, or here by me) or put more scripturally, “preparing [our] minds to be faithful to the Lord their God.” (Alma 48:7)

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President Lee on your Seminary Teacher’s Uncle’s Friend whose Daughter Married a Guy who Ran Into President Hunter and the Three Nephites in an Elevator

April 7, 2011 By benspackman 6 Comments

In context of rumors, random stories, space doctrine, and basically the kind of thing missionaries pass around without any kind of substantiated provenance, President Lee said,
“…it never ceases to amaze me how gullible some of our Church members are…”

— President Harold B. Lee, “Admonitions for the Priesthood of God”, Ensign, Jan 1973

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As an eagle gathereth her eaglets

April 5, 2011 By emilyu 1 Comment

I spent some time today watching live feed of a pair of eagles caring for their hatchlings in a large cottonwood tree in Iowa. One egg hatched on April 2, a second on April 3, and the third will hatch within a couple of days. You can catch the 24 hour feed here. It was remarkable to watch them – especially around 5 pm central time when one was feeding the hatchlings a fish. The female and male take turns sitting in the nest while the other hunts for food – and the nest is fit for a noble bird. It’s 5-6 feet in diameter and weighs a ton and a half! Watching them feed was interesting, but mostly all they do is groom the nest, occastionally shift their weight, adjust their feathers, and patiently sit, warming their young.

One thing that struck me is how powerful they look – large birds of prey with sharp eyes, a beak for tearing flesh, and large talons. Yet they’re nurturing, carefully and patiently providing their precious offspring – the only three they’ll have this year – with everything they need to get started in life. It made me think of the metaphors Christ uses in the scriptures to liken his care for us to a nurturing mother:

“How oft have I gathered you as a hen gathereth her chickens under her wings, and have nourished you.” (3 Nephi 10:4)

“Can a woman forget her sucking child, that she should not have compassion on the son of her womb? Yea, they may forget, yet will I not forget thee.” (Isaiah 49:15)

These are tender, even intimate images Jesus chooses to represent the care he has for us. But I very seldom feel that his care is so available and eagerly offered. I wonder why? What can I do to let Christ nurture me? How can he nurture me? These are questions I’ll try to ponder as we approach Easter and see the earth shake off winter and her creatures nurture their little ones.

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Is Strong AI Possible? Mormonism Says No.

March 31, 2011 By emilyu 6 Comments

Last month the artificial intelligence computer system “Watson” beat the two biggest winners ever on Jeopardy!. Watson is a kind of specific artificial intelligence – it’s programmed to do something very specific, which is to answer questions for Jeopardy!. As David Ferrucci, lead researcher of the IBM team that created Watson said, it can only respond to content it’s been given and analyzed; it understands language “only in a way we call statistical machine learning. It gives you the answer that makes sense to you, but it doesn’t mean anything to the computer.” [1] It can’t make a joke or do it’s own interview.

Computers excel at many tasks where human intelligence fails. And they’re getting faster and faster. But when it comes to basics of human abilities, such as “spatial orientation, object recognition, natural language, and adaptive goal-setting,” humans still win hands down.[2] Strong AI, or artificial general intelligence doesn’t exist. But some people think it will, and sooner than you might think.

Technological savant Raymond Kurzweil believes that because computers are getting faster and an ever increasing rate, that this exponential growth will eventually result in humans creating artificial intelligence that is smarter than they are. He estimates this will happen by 2045. It sounds like science fiction, and in fact this scenario is precisely what the very excellent TV series Battlestar Galactica was based on. His critics say that he underestimates the complexity of the human brain. Says biologist Dennis Bray, “Although biological components act in ways that are comparable to those in electronic circuits, they are set apart by the huge number of different states they can adopt.” He says chemical modifications on top of modifications which spread out in multiple directions result in a “combinatorial explosion of states endow[ing] living systems with an almost infinite capacity to store information.” [3] As someone trained in biology I’d have to say the argument based on the power of exponential growth falls apart for me because while living systems do experience exponential growth, this growth is always a phase, not a continual state of being. The growth curve of bacteria in culture looks more like a stretched-out letter S than a letter J. Our computing power is growing exponentially, but does that necessarily mean it always will?

An article on AI in the March issue of The Atlantic points to human adaptability as a reason artificial intelligence will never beat natural intelligence. People assume that human intelligence is static, while artificial intelligence can evolve rapidly. In the Turing test computers compete against humans to try to fool judges into thinking they are actually human. If more than 30% of the judges believe a computer is a human being, the computer wins. So far no computer has done it, but they’re getting close. Eventually, a computer is probably going to beat the Turning test. But does that mean humans are beat forever? The Atlantic article points out that after IBM computer Deep Blue beat Garry Kasparov at chess in 1997, Kasparov wanted a rematch, but IBM dismantled the computer and it never played again. Once beat, Kasparov was ready to re-tool and go for it again. I’ll bet he could have won, because he’d be able to adapt to the nature of his opponent more quickly than Deep Blue could.

Regardless of the physiological and philosophical arguments about whether strong AI is possible, I think Mormon theology says it’s not. For one thing, Doctrine & Covenants 93:29 says that intelligence is like matter and energy – it can’t be created or made. And the Book of Abraham says that intelligences existed before any physical parts of our nature. The scriptures are no doubt using the word intelligence in a different way than our everyday usage, referring to something spiritual in nature rather than just IQ. But it’s the spiritual intelligence that makes us unique as humans, I think. Could a computer ever feel the Holy Spirit? Would it ever yearn to commune with God? To create? Could it yearn for anything at all? As humans, we don’t just think, we also feel. It seems to me that if an AI system can’t do those things, it’s lacking in a significant aspect of human intelligence.

What do you think? Is the Battlestar Galactica scenario possible? Or can no one create general/natural intelligence?

1. “10 Questions” Time, March 7, 2011, pg 104.
2. “Artificial Intelligence? Why Machines Will Never Beat the Human Mind” by Brian Christen. The Atlantic, March 2011, pg 68.
3. “2045 The Year Man Becomes Immortal” by Lev Grossman. Time, February 21, 2011, pg 48.

Filed Under: Speculation 6 Comments

Quotes of Note- The FP and President Clark on Assertion vs. Revelation

March 28, 2011 By benspackman 5 Comments

I’ll admit upfront that there’s more than one way to read this.

Dogmatic assertions do not take the place of revelation, and we should be satisfied with that which is accepted as doctrine, and not discuss matters that, after all disputes, are merely matters of theory. Your brethren, (Signed) JOSEPH F. SMITH, ANTHON H. LUND, CHARLES W. PENROSE.

-James R. Clark, comp., Messages of the First Presidency of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints 6 vols. [Salt Lake City: Bookcraft, 1965-75], 4:264-65.

At first read, I take it to mean that in absence of clear revelation, doctrine cannot be established through dogmatic repetition or assertion, regardless of who is doing it. However logical the assertion may seem, one must wait for revelation. In that light, a letter (apparently never sent) from President Reuben J. Clark to Elder Joseph Fielding Smith seems relevant. They had a bit of an argument over things like the creation and age of the earth. Clark responded to Smith thus.

You [Smith] seem to think I [Clark] reject the scriptures, or some of them. I do not intend to do so, but obviously I am no more bound by your interpretation of them than you are by mine….Now, as to what the earlier brethren have said–where they have declared themselves as speaking under inspiration and by the authority of the Lord, I bow to what they say. But where they express views based on their own understanding and interpretation, then none of us are foreclosed from exercising our own reasoning powers, inadequate though they may be; but the earlier views do not foreclose us from thinking. This is particularly true, where we come to interpreting their interpretations.

-D. Michael Quinn, J. Reuben Clark- the Church Years (BYU Press, 1983):167-168. That whole chapter of the bio, on Clark’s views on faith, reason and intellect is fascinating, worth reading, and available online.

Discuss.

Filed Under: Quotes of Note 5 Comments
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