In Our Image: Artificial Intelligence and the Human Spirit.

In Our Image: Artificial Intelligence and the Human Spirit. By Noreen L. Herzfeld. Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 2002. xii and 135 pages. Paper 16.00

The author, a professor of computer science, wants to know why scientists are interested in creating artificial intelligence (AI). The search has led her, besides giving attention to the history and culture of AI, to theology as well. Now she raises the question of what it is that we want to create--for instance, what human qualities we would like to see in AI. First, she deals with definitions of human nature, especially when it comes to the spiritual question of what it means to be created in the image of God (imago Dei). Only then is she able to answer questions about the meaning and possibilities of creating something in our own image (imago hominis).

Herzfeld summarizes three basic approaches to the concept of imago Dei. First is the substantive definition, with an emphasis on rationality, as described by Reinhold Niebuhr. Second is the functional approach, the exercise of dominion over creation on behalf of the Creator, as explained by Gerhard von Rad in his exegesis of the relevant biblical passages. Finally is the relational understanding as defined by Karl Barth, who pointed toward the primacy of being in relation with God but also with others as constitutive of the imago Dei in us. After a careful review of the pros and cons of every position, Herzfeld sides basically with the latter view.

Definitions of imago hominis follow a close parallel with those of imago Dei. The preoccupation with AI obeys our quest for immortality (the substantive). There is a kind of faith in the AI community that our "mind children" will survive us. Another aim might be to expand our dominion, to extend our capacity for information and knowledge (the functional). Moreover, we also look to establish a new kind of relationship, one that it is not as messy as that with other human beings; a creation of our own, which can be similar to us yet at the same time other than us (the relational).

Herzfeld offers a Christian critique of the pursuit to create AI. Whether it is "cybernetic immortality" or an expanded dominion of the natural world or a correspondent with which to relate, our dreams fall short. In fact, she argues that there has been little progress in AI since the 1950s. In addition, our current understanding of human intelligence stresses the social and cultural dimensions over essentialist or individualistic ones. Above all, the point is strongly made that without a proper relationship with God, as well as with others, any notions of the human, or of its equivalent in AI, will always be incomplete.

The book ends with a brief proposal for developing an ethic that includes human-human, human-nonhuman, and human-computer relationships. Herzfeld's book is elegantly written. It is insightful about the ways in which we can think of AI, its end rather than its possibility, from a spiritual (not merely theological) viewpoint.

Nelson Rivera

Lutheran Theological Seminary at Philadelphia