BOOK REVIEW:
2084 and the AI Revolution, Updated and Expanded Edition: How Artificial Intelligence Informs Our Future by John Lennox. Zondervan. 375 pages. 2024
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The world of AI (artificial intelligence) is changing so quickly, that John Lennox has already seen the need to update and expand his 2020 book 2084: Artificial Intelligence and the Future of Humanity. I was first introduced to the teaching of Lennox, Professor of Mathematics at Oxford University (emeritus), a few years ago at the Sing! Getty Music Worship Conference (Lennox is Kristyn Getty’s uncle). Since then, I’ve read five of his books.
In this book, he brings a Christian worldview to the present and future of AI.
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BOOK REVIEWS ~ More of this review…
BOOK NEWS ~ Links to Interesting Articles
BOOK CLUB ~ Truths We Confess by R.C. Sproul
I’M CURRENTLY READING….
The book’s publisher indicates that the new addition includes:
- Key recent developments in technological enhancement, bioengineering, and, in particular, artificial intelligence.
- Consideration of the nature of AI systems with insights from neuroscience.
- The way AI is changing how we communicate, implications for medicine, manufacturing and the military, its use in advertising and automobiles, and education and the future of work.
- How data is used today for surveillance, thought control.
- The rise of virtual reality and the metaverse.
- The transhumanist agenda and longtermism.
- The agreements and disagreements that scientists and experts have about the future of AI.
- The urgent need for regulation and control in light of the development of large language transformers like CHATGPT.
- Key insights from Scripture about the nature of human beings, the soul, our moral sense, our future, and what separates us from machines.
Lennox quotes at length from the leaders in AI. He tells us what AI is and the different types of AI. He covers many of the positive things that AI is doing today and also the concerns about how AI can be used for bad. He discusses the ethics and morality of AI, the religious dimensions of AI, impacts on jobs and education, privacy, human rights and deepfakes. He addresses the metaverse, virtual reality, pornography, transhumanism, longtermism, immortality, and the human brain.
He looks at what the book of Genesis in the Bible has to say about what a human being is. He addresses the resurrection, miracles, death, world government, the end times, final judgement and hope.
Lennox covers a great deal of information in this important book. I listened to the audiobook version, which was well read by the author.
- The Extraordinary, Ordinary Church on Capitol Hill. On this episode of the Gospelbound podcast, Collin Hanson visits with Caleb Morell, author of the new book A Light on the Hill: The Surprising Story of How a Local Church in the Nation’s Capital Influenced Evangelicalism, which I am currently reading.
- Tim Keller on Pleasing God, Self-Salvation, and Two Lost Sons. This article is adapted from Tim Keller on the Christian Life: The Transforming Power of the Gospelby Matt Smethurst.
- Study, Savor and Share Scripture: Becoming What We Behold. My wife Tammy has published a book about HOW to study the Bible. The book is available on Amazon in both a Kindle and paperback edition. She writes “Maybe you have read the Bible but want to dig deeper and know God and know yourself better. Throughout the book I use the analogy of making a quilt to show how the Bible is telling one big story about what God is doing in the world through Christ. Quilting takes much patience and precision, just like studying the Bible, but the end result is well worth it.”
BOOK CLUB – Won’t you read along with us?
We are reading through Truths We Confess: A Systematic Exposition of the Westminster Confession of Faith by R.C. Sproul. From the Ligonier description:
“The Westminster Confession of Faith is one of the most precise and comprehensive statements of biblical Christianity, and it is treasured by believers around the world. R.C. Sproul has called it one of the most important confessions of faith ever penned, and it has helped generations of Christians understand and defend what they believe.
In Truths We Confess, Dr. Sproul introduces readers to this remarkable confession, explaining its insights and applying them to modern life. In his signature easy-to-understand style and with his conviction that everyone’s a theologian, he provides valuable commentary that will serve churches and individual Christians as they strive to better understand the eternal truths of Scripture. As he walks through the confession line by line, Dr. Sproul shows how the doctrines of the Bible—from creation to covenant, sin to salvation—fit together to the glory of God. This accessible volume is designed to help you deepen your knowledge of God’s Word and answer the question, What do you believe?”
This week we look at the first half of WCF 29: Of the Lord’s Supper. Here are a few helpful quotes from this section of the chapter:
- The meaning of the Lord’s Supper continues to be one of the most controversial issues in Christianity.
- The first affirmation that is made is that the Lord’s Supper was indeed instituted by Christ. That is part of the definition of a sacrament.
- The Word and the sacrament are used together, so that the Word calls our attention to what was accomplished by Christ.
- In the celebration of the Lord’s Supper, we remember the sacrifice that our High Priest made of Himself.
- We come to the Lord’s Supper to have communion with Him and with each other.
