@HomewithDean – Homily 03/26

I’ll call this thought Galileo, AI, and the cat.<br />Before 1610, it was generally accepted that the Earth was the center of the universe and that humans were the center of everything. But in 1610 a 46 year old Italian astronomer with a rudimentary telescope named Galileo changed all that. No problem, right? No, actually … big problem. Galileo’s discovery had a deep psychological impact. In short, it humbled the entire human race. Changing our position in the universe got us wondering if we were anything special and opened up a whole load of new questions about what it means to be human. Questions we apparently were not ready to answer. Galileo’s reward for making one of history’s most important scientific discoveries was to be sentenced to life imprisonment by the Catholic Inquisition.<br />It wasn’t the first time our collective ego had been dealt a blow, and it certainly wouldn’t be the last. To this day we continue to struggle, and we still haven’t learned our lesson. Case in point, there are millions of Americans who believe America can’t just be a good country. No, it has to be the greatest country, and to say otherwise is unpatriotic and treasonous. America must be the best. Otherwise, we’re just like everyone else … losers.<br />And it’s not just Americans. It’s humans. The only reason I can think of why we continue to attach so much of our value to being the best, the biggest, the strongest, the richest, the most powerful, the most influential, the most popular, etc., etc., is a deep seated fear that none of those things are actually true. And if they’re not true, then who are we? What are we worth?<br />Well, get ready for yet another blow. The advent of AI—artificial intelligence—is lining up be yet another chink in the armor of our collective ego. It may prove to be the biggest blow of all. Galileo may have proved we’re not the center of the universe, but ever since those days of the Enlightenment we have still been able to hold on to one last title … the smartest thing on the planet. Very shortly it