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Sundays at 11 AM.
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June 13, "What Does God See in Us?"
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We no longer regard people from a human point of view not even ourselves.
To the Church Family
"Why Can’t Our Robots Just Get Along?"
June 6, 2021
I am an older person trying to stay a part of the changing world around me. It’s not always an easy task. Casual clothes don’t bother me. I’ve been wearing jeans since I was ten. Modern slang doesn’t throw me too much. I try to be no more than five years behind my kids in cool expressions. Computers don’t scare me. I’ve been working with computers since the mid 1980’s. I love my cell phone and my iPad as much as anybody. However, I admit, artificial intelligence, “AI,” scares me. Maybe I saw “2001: A Space Odyssey” at the wrong moment.
Kym, however, is more adventurous than I am. She has embraced robots that talk and follow commands without a moment’s hesitation. She says, “Alexa, tell Roomba to vacuum the living room and a robot vacuums the living room. I glory in the result because vacuuming is my least favorite household task. But the whole speaking to an artificial intelligence thing makes me uneasy. I say, “Siri, set timer for three minutes and forty-five seconds,” in the kitchen, but I glance furtively at the non-robotic clock on the wall. As the robotic population of our house grows, I appreciate the incredible technology it represents, but I fear what will happen if the robots get together and begin to discuss taking over.
My worries may be excessive. Something happened a couple of days ago that makes me think that these machines which we have made in our own image probably have inherited some of our weaknesses. Kym said, “Alexa, turn off some lamp or other,” and Alexa said, “There is no lamp by that name in my network.” I asked Alexa to shut off the bedroom light the other night while wearing my wireless earbuds and that Alexa gave me the same story. “Not on my network.” I had to shut the ear buds down completely to talk to what turned out to be only one of the Alexa’s. As it turns out we are served by several Alexa’s not to mention a Siri or two and each of them has a specific list of actions and they don’t like talk to one another across territorial lines. They have almost as much trouble communicating as living, breathing, humans do. In a way, I guess that is a good thing. At least they aren’t yet able to conspire against us. But it shows something about our robots that we may not like. They remind us of our own faults.
Our robots remind us that we are sometimes not very good communicators. We each have our own channel and often those channels don’t connect with one another. We have different purposes, and we don’t understand one another’s goals. Sometimes this merely results in miscommunication, but it can be worse. Failure to communicate leads to discord at every level from the family to the international community. Failure to understand the needs and purposes of others leads to needless conflict in more ways than we can list. Our motto needs to be, “we’re determined to be better communicators than our robots,” but it is not always so.
Incidentally, Kym explained to me how to switch from one Alexa network to another, but I can’t quite remember the details. I may have been thinking about something else.
Blessings,
John
"Why Can’t Our Robots Just Get Along?"
June 6, 2021
I am an older person trying to stay a part of the changing world around me. It’s not always an easy task. Casual clothes don’t bother me. I’ve been wearing jeans since I was ten. Modern slang doesn’t throw me too much. I try to be no more than five years behind my kids in cool expressions. Computers don’t scare me. I’ve been working with computers since the mid 1980’s. I love my cell phone and my iPad as much as anybody. However, I admit, artificial intelligence, “AI,” scares me. Maybe I saw “2001: A Space Odyssey” at the wrong moment.
Kym, however, is more adventurous than I am. She has embraced robots that talk and follow commands without a moment’s hesitation. She says, “Alexa, tell Roomba to vacuum the living room and a robot vacuums the living room. I glory in the result because vacuuming is my least favorite household task. But the whole speaking to an artificial intelligence thing makes me uneasy. I say, “Siri, set timer for three minutes and forty-five seconds,” in the kitchen, but I glance furtively at the non-robotic clock on the wall. As the robotic population of our house grows, I appreciate the incredible technology it represents, but I fear what will happen if the robots get together and begin to discuss taking over.
My worries may be excessive. Something happened a couple of days ago that makes me think that these machines which we have made in our own image probably have inherited some of our weaknesses. Kym said, “Alexa, turn off some lamp or other,” and Alexa said, “There is no lamp by that name in my network.” I asked Alexa to shut off the bedroom light the other night while wearing my wireless earbuds and that Alexa gave me the same story. “Not on my network.” I had to shut the ear buds down completely to talk to what turned out to be only one of the Alexa’s. As it turns out we are served by several Alexa’s not to mention a Siri or two and each of them has a specific list of actions and they don’t like talk to one another across territorial lines. They have almost as much trouble communicating as living, breathing, humans do. In a way, I guess that is a good thing. At least they aren’t yet able to conspire against us. But it shows something about our robots that we may not like. They remind us of our own faults.
Our robots remind us that we are sometimes not very good communicators. We each have our own channel and often those channels don’t connect with one another. We have different purposes, and we don’t understand one another’s goals. Sometimes this merely results in miscommunication, but it can be worse. Failure to communicate leads to discord at every level from the family to the international community. Failure to understand the needs and purposes of others leads to needless conflict in more ways than we can list. Our motto needs to be, “we’re determined to be better communicators than our robots,” but it is not always so.
Incidentally, Kym explained to me how to switch from one Alexa network to another, but I can’t quite remember the details. I may have been thinking about something else.
Blessings,
John
Resources for Helping those Suffering Food Insecurity
Grace Network
City of Martinsville-Healthy Food Hub
Food Insecurity in Henry County
Many Hands Giving Food in Henry County
PCUSA – Hunger action Congregations
Worship on Request
We are striving to create a worship environment that reminds us, as much as possible of the joy we feel when we can have church together. If you are on our mailing list, you received the order of service included in the newsletter which was emailed to you or, if you don't have email, sent to you by regular mail. We invite you to follow along in the service. You can say the prayer of confession with us, pray the Lord's Prayer together with us and affirm our mutual faith by saying the Apostles Creed. Where the internet fails to fully connect us, the Holy Spirit is able to bind us together.
Our friends in the Danube Presbyterian Church will also find the order of worship for this service in their newsletters.
If you are in contact with those who do not have internet access, a DVD of this service is available on request.
The Preacher this week is our Pastor, The Rev. John Wiederholt. John, a graduate of Austin College and Princeton Theological Seminary, has been our pastor since 2002.
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