In Our Image: Artificial Intelligence and the Human Spirit

by Noreen Herzfeld

In Our Image is the first extensive theological engagement with the field of Artificial Intelligence (AI). Herzfeld probes this new field, which seeks to model human intelligence in computers, for its theological depth. She argues that "At the root of the fascination our current culture has with creating an image of ourselves in an intelligent computer lies a continuing problematic of defining ... what it means to be truly human." She shows how AI continues the classic Christian quest for defining the image of God in humans. Offering a smart, accessible history and typology of research in AI, Herzfeld shows how its rival schools parallel competing options in the theological anthropologies of Niebuhr, von Rad, and Barth. She probes our interest in AI and argues that a relational anthropology informs the best research and the many depictions of AI in science fiction and film. Herzfeld's exciting work further develops this relational model, in which she finds a needed corrective to the individualistic and narcissistic tendencies of much recent spirituality and the seeds of a human/computer ethic.

Genres: Technology, Theology, Christianity

152 pages, Paperback

First published September 5, 2000

Reviews

[Kai · Rating 2 out of 5]

I have some Thoughts and Opinions about this book, but shall curtail them for the sake of brevity.
The first 4 chapters are good. Nothing groundbreaking, but an interesting approach to the topic that kept me reading. The first 4 chapters I would rate 4/5. Then Chapter 5 happened.
The chapter was rife with assumptions, unsupported inferences, and lack of good reasoning. One of the examples the author used (Iran Air 655) is…problematic. Not only was the section lifted from a different book about AI (not aviation), but if anyone gives a cursory search about the incident, they will realize that human error is outstandingly the issue, from multiple dimensions, rather than AI or any software issues.
It only went down from there.
I reached the conclusion. And it just collapsed. Half of the conclusion was unrelated to the rest of the book, and the stuff that wasn’t was wholly unsupported by reason. Disappointing.

Read to chapter 4, then mark it as read. Save yourself the pain.

[Taylor Barkley · Rating 5 out of 5]

Brief but it packs a punch. The author does an excellent job of summarizing the three major schools of interpretation for the Imago Dei and conceptions if artificial intelligence. She isn’t heavy handed either in any conclusions—maybe in interpretations—but merely puts the different thoughts forward.

[Milo · Rating 4 out of 5]

Definitely one of the more immediately-coherent reads of philosophy. (Okay, so technically it's shelved under theology and science, but it's an easy crossover.) I don't necessarily agree with everything she said deity-wise, but I still liked her conclusions of losing ourselves to AI before we even know who the heck we are. We have a God complex without any of the reasoning to back it up, and we try to perfect everything else before ourselves to somehow vicariously make us look good. I also appreciated the way she handled her theological arguments. She didn't try and claim that X should be the way things are, but rather X is what most Christians believe. She was simply cool with it; not falling into hypocrisy.