Comments on: God and Robots

By: queuno

queuno — Thu, 16 Jul 2009 01:52:06 +0000

Ward Clerk in a Box. I’m thinking it wouldn’t be hard to automate or robotize most clerk functions into a single unit that can just be shipped out to each ward. This would be a real blessing for isolated branches that don’t have the personnel to staff a full clerking team. You might even roll in the executive secretary, too.

*shakes head*

Maybe, if the people who design and maintain MLS would ever get out of their bubbles and observe *real* wards in action, we might get an MLS could be run by a robot. As it is, the robot would explode from trying to navigate a ward that doesn’t fit into MLS.

(at least MLS is better than the ward directories on the Local Unit Websites…)

By: Dennis

Dennis — Wed, 15 Jul 2009 06:18:38 +0000

Raymond (41),

The OP and the comments here are probably largely in jest, but I’m very glad you made your point. In other words, joking notwithstanding, I found myself a little uncomfortable about this post and its ensuing comments, especially regarding what can be interpreted as wanting to flee the messiness (and imperfection) of human-human relations. Robots might be more “efficient” in some ways, but it seems “efficiency” is not really part of the plan of salvation (though perhaps someone else’s plan?)

So, again, joking notwithstanding, I want to emphasize that there are many reasons to be concerned about technological takeovers. Even in the grocery store aisle, I would add.

By: Mark D.

Mark D. — Wed, 15 Jul 2009 04:34:54 +0000

I look at the semi-classical sense of a God without body, parts, or passions as essentially the same as considering God to be the same as “goodness”, and “love”, and “power” and every other quasi-static perfection.

By: Raymond Takashi Swenson

Raymond Takashi Swenson — Wed, 15 Jul 2009 00:35:25 +0000

I have always thought that the description of God in the Nicene Creed as “without body, parts, or passions” and as “pure thought” sounded a lot like an Artificial Intelligence. There is a famous science fiction story “Good News from the Vatican” about the election of a robot pope. If inafallibility is the standard of performance, an artificial intelligence would seem to fit the bill much more nicely than a typical fallible human. For that matter, the vision of eternity that many Christians, both Catholic and Protestant, currently embrace seems to have no role for the physical body and could be fulfilled (or simulated) in software on a very large and fast supercomputer, on which all of the souls of saved humanity are simply uploaded.

In contrast, the fundamental LDS doctrine that we must experience opposing ends of the spectrum of experience militates against making perfect robots our ideals of behavior. As Eugene England observed in his essay “The Church is as True as the Gospel”, it is our striving together in the midst of our mutual imperfections which is the “refiner’s fire” that enables us to perfect ourselves, to become like Christ.

By: anon

anon — Sat, 11 Jul 2009 01:49:33 +0000

Maybe I’ll get a robot that replaces me in meetings. I’ll have to made sure it has the EQ lesson manual and scriptures to read out loud. I wonder if I can program it to sleep when the Dry Council speakers rambles on?

By: Bookslinger

Bookslinger — Sat, 11 Jul 2009 00:37:55 +0000

Mark N.: one local chapel in Indianapolis has the hymns (or most of them) programmed into an electronic organ in the RS room. It has default settings, but you can change the tempo, key/pitch, number of verses, and tell it to play the intro.

By: Bookslinger

Bookslinger — Sat, 11 Jul 2009 00:35:47 +0000

Anon at 2:42pm. Last time I helped out with counting the donations (back when I was a ward exec-sec, and was a backup-backup), if money came in without a slip, it was up to the Bishop to allocate it. Back then, when there was a “Ward Budget” item, my bishop had me put one slip-less check from an inactive member into that category. The only notation in the memo field of the check was “dues.”

By: anon

anon — Fri, 10 Jul 2009 19:42:09 +0000

I pay my tithing and donations automatically through my bank by check to the bishop’s house. But I guess that there’s a clerk that probably fills out the slip for me. His problem, not mine.

By: Mark N.

Mark N. — Thu, 09 Jul 2009 23:14:52 +0000

Seems to me that given the apparent shortage of ward and/or stake organists and other general keyboard instrument players, MIDI-capable organs are probably the closest thing in most buildings right now that could be seen as being somewhat robotic and could conceivably replace human beings, freeing them up for much more important duties like watching over the Primary Nursery.

A MIDI organist would also eliminate the position of ward chorister, since the organist would only be paying attention to the MIDI clock so far as determining the tempo would go. It would still be helpful for the ward to have some kind of visual cues as to the speed of the music, but I’m sure that could be easily automated in some way.

By: Glenn Smith

Glenn Smith — Thu, 09 Jul 2009 21:09:36 +0000

Our Canadian banking system permits us to pay many bills from a home computer. Different from the US BillPay, a check is not sent. Rather, an electronic transfer is made directly to the recipient’s bank account. It would be convenient to pay tithing that way. However, there is much in favor of physically presenting the tithing to the bishop. It’s not so much the money as it is the process of handing over to the Lord even the widow’s mite. I’m not expressing this point very well – it just seems to be more spiritual (right word???) to actually pay the tithing money rather than click the pay button. I guess it’s the connection with the Lord via the Bishop that matters more.