Artificial Intelligence and the Liahona

[davedan]

http://www.nytimes.com/1991/10/26/busin ... -bcci.html

BCCI was and still is an international bank that was used to launder money for the CIA and global conspiracy in general. The money laundering was discovered and BCCI was forced to close in 1991 but was found to still operate in 2002. CIA can seize anything involved in the “war on drugs” and use the money and material in their own operations (civil forfeiture). This law provides the CIA with a blank check without congressional oversight.

http://www.dailystar.co.uk/news/latest- ... en-hawking

Steven Hawking and Elon Musk are warning that AI could destroy humanity. I’ve studied cryptocurrency since 2008. I’ve purchased and traded some to see how it works. I’ve always wondered if mining was just a cover for some other distributed activity. Why plug in exa-hashes of computer power just to solve meaningless problems? According to Forbes, the Bitcoin network comprises a distributed supercomputer network 256 times more powerful than the top 500 supercomputers combined (in 2013). Other than easy illicit money-laundering (Silk Road), could there be a hidden purpose behind the computation?

http://www.forbes.com/sites/reuvencohen ... bined/amp/

The current bitcoin network power is just under 8 exahashes/s. 1 Hash = 12,697 FLOPs. However, this conversion depends on 32-bit vs. 64-bit and single vs double precision.
https://bitcoincharts.com/

Some speculate an AI could have created bitcoin. Or humans created bitcoin intending that some future AI would take over the network at some point. My opinion is that AI or whomever else would have designed the system to remain hidden. And it is not such a far-fetched idea that the 8 exahashes of bitcoin mining computation could be used or is already now being used for some hidden parallel purpose.
https://youtu.be/gK2jkkB2yyc

A big potential problem with AI is that as man allows AI to do more for us, we will also allow AI to make more of our decisions. When you deal with complex insurance companies you already know the aggravation of dealing with a heartless complex system that is denying you coverage based on some technicality and talking to a low-level rep. without power to change that decision. The whole situation is degrading and dehumanizing.

Additionally, in many cases, AI can be asked to make decisions without humans understanding how these decisions are being made. The question is, can and should we give more and more of our decision making to AI. Also, as we expect AI to make decisions for us, will we become overly dependent and lose our agency?

The Book of Mormon talks about Lehi’s use of the Liahona or director. This object of curious workmanship was kinda like an AI. The Liahona directed Lehi and Nephi where to go in the desert and where to find food. Like AI, Lehi and Nephi did not understand the reasoning behind the Liahona’s directions, but trusted that it was embued with and directing them according to the will of the Holy Spirit of God.

As far as AI becoming sentient, and having a spirit. Considering the example of the Liahona, and the computer at the MTC set apart to make MTC companionships (this was talked about at MTC and compared to the Liahona in a talk), I have to suppose that AI could likewise be embued with a holy or evil spirit. AI can be dedicated and consecrated to work for good or evil. AI should be dedicated to the purposes and will of God, not just the elites definition of “good”.

But apart from the issue of AI sentience and spiritual possession, I do think that we are at risk of setting up a society where AI makes all our decisions for us, limiting the freedom, self-reliance and agency of man. Like the industrial revolution, I think it’s okay for machines to do work for us and maybe even do smart work, helping us make some decisions. However, AI should never be made to make decisions autonomously without someone taking responsibility for those decisions.

Like the CIA and BCCI, all AI transactions and decisions should have human oversight. Elon Musk thinks the answer to the AI problem is that AI can only be controlled and safe if it is implanted and becomes part of us. Elon Musk and others would have humans become cyborgs. This is Satan’s typical MO to have 2 competing sides suggesting harmfully extreme views. The problem with implanting AI is that it can be hacked, and begin subconsciously controlling human behavior. The truth, however, is typically found in the middle (golden mean).

Moses 4:3 Wherefore, because that Satan rebelled against me, and sought to destroy the agency of man, which I, the Lord God, had given him, and also, that I should give unto him mine own power; by the power of mine Only Begotten, I caused that he should be cast down;

https://youtu.be/Xw-L9M7Tye8
Sophi seems to like Bitcoin

[Fiannan]

The Book of Mormon talks about Lehi’s use of the Liahona or director. This object of curious workmanship was kinda like an AI. The Liahona directed Lehi and Nephi where to go in the desert and where to find food. Like AI, Lehi and Nephi did not understand the reasoning behind the Liahona’s directions, but trusted that it was embued with and directing them according to the will of the Holy Spirit of God.

As far as AI becoming sentient, and having a spirit. Considering the example of the Liahona, and the computer at the MTC set apart to make MTC companionships (this was talked about at MTC and compared to the Liahona in a talk), I have to suppose that AI could likewise be embued with a holy or evil spirit. AI can be dedicated and consecrated to work for good or evil. AI should be dedicated to the purposes and will of God, not just the elites definition of “good”.

God either constructed the Liahona or directed something already in existence to be delivered to Lehi. Could it have been some leftover technology from Noah's era, perhaps a navigational instrument made in a factory just like a computer or compass would be today?

[harakim]

If people build computers, they cannot become sentient on their own and I doubt that God would imbue them with sentience.

D&C 93:29

Man was also in the beginning with God. Intelligence, or the light of truth, was not created or made, neither indeed can be.

[gardener4life]

Its simple...

The Liahona was powered by faith. When the unfaithful touched it ( as happened in the ship by Laman and Lemuel ) it refused to work and even went haywire.

Computers and AI don't work on faith. They also don't differentiate well who is an authorized user beyond a password which can generally be worked around very easily. (Hmm faith = authorized user? LOL)

[larsenb]

The Liahona seemed to be a mechanism that had an interface that could be influenced by faith . . . and was plugged into the 'universal consciousness' or the Spirit.

It WAS a mechanism, as described. So what is suggested is that a machine could have a faith-based interface. This is a very interesting concept, and with the possibility that the mind works in some way according to quantum collapse phenomenon, why not?

[larsenb]

The Liahona could be a living organism, just as everything God creates is a living organism, with a physical body and a spirit body. For example, this whole planet has a physical body (all the stuff we see around us) and also a spirit body (the spirit world.)

For I, the Lord God, created all things, of which I have spoken, spiritually, before they were naturally upon the face of the earth. (Moses 3:5)

So, taking that principle literally, then, to apply to all things God creates, if God prepared the Liahona, creating it, physically, then He must have first created it spiritually. Thus, the Liahona is a living organism, or living soul, just as we are living souls.

"For I, the Lord God, created all things, of which I have spoken, spiritually, before they were naturally upon the face of the earth." This could also be construed as meaning that God designed all things with his mind and intelligence, before he actually brought them into existence.

This concept you quote can be quite confusing w/out further light and knowledge. For instance, God created the element iron. Does every iron atom have a concomitant spirit, or what? In this context, what exactly does 'spirit' mean.

One could get into endless, inconclusive speculation about such things.

[Juliet]

Really good work to put the dots together. Look, before we were spirits, we existed as... Dun dun dun... INTELLIGENCE! And.... Not all of us were good intelligence. Some of us were evil. But we didn't know better. We needed a body to teach us the consequences of right and wrong.

So, A. I. Can turn into sentient matter but it must be facilitated by God who can put His spirit into it, just as He did with us, He gave us our spirit bodies to house our intelligence. Then we got physical bodies and through them learn the consequences of negative intelligence in order to program all evil intelligence out of us.

Why are we here? To overcome evil intelligence. God has done it. There is no evil Intelligence where He lives. When we have it right, we will be creators because we can program intelligence in such a way as to prohibit negative intelligence from developing. It must have something to do with love.

[JohnnyL]

As far as AI becoming sentient, and having a spirit. Considering the example of the Liahona, and the computer at the MTC set apart to make MTC companionships (this was talked about at MTC and compared to the Liahona in a talk), I have to suppose that AI could likewise be embued with a holy or evil spirit. AI can be dedicated and consecrated to work for good or evil. AI should be dedicated to the purposes and will of God, not just the elites definition of “good”.

Yes, so to say. As I was experimenting using energy healing (/i.e., control) on games of chance, they could be manipulated. However, I was aware that there was, at minimum, strong intention set in the machines to "win for their masters," so to say. It could be overcome, but it was difficult and took a lot more energy expenditure. I don't know if it was a "universal" thing, like a universal law that when something is made for bad it naturally has that spirit/ energy, of if it was intentionally set there by wicked men in the making. Yes, this does throw a new slant on gambling--it might be physically regulated to strict standards (such as dice or a wheel), but it might also be imbued with certain non-physical energy or intentions; IOW, it's not just "luck" and "odds".

[larsenb]

Really good work to put the dots together. Look, before we were spirits, we existed as... Dun dun dun... INTELLIGENCE! And.... Not all of us were good intelligence. Some of us were evil. But we didn't know better. We needed a body to teach us the consequences of right and wrong.

So, A. I. Can turn into sentient matter but it must be facilitated by God who can put His spirit into it, just as He did with us, He gave us our spirit bodies to house our intelligence. Then we got physical bodies and through them learn the consequences of negative intelligence in order to program all evil intelligence out of us.

Why are we here? To overcome evil intelligence. God has done it. There is no evil Intelligence where He lives. When we have it right, we will be creators because we can program intelligence in such a way as to prohibit negative intelligence from developing. It must have something to do with love.

I wouldn't describe it as "evil intelligence', but the evil use of intelligence. Otherwise, a good post.