Subscribe now to receive new weekly essays by email!
Automatic - Nice for some practical purposes, better for good habits.
Most of us like some things to be fully automatic, like washing machines. But other automated processes annoy us, like receiving an unsolicited phone call or message on our cell phones or other electronic devices. Additionally, we are sometimes pleased and sometimes irritated with an automated process, such as a kitchen appliance giving us a notification sound which is at one time a welcome reminder and at another time an unwelcome interruption to a conversation we were having. “Automatic Intelligence” is highly controversial now because we want to have some control over whether or not to use automated devices and machines, while AI is for the most part controlled solely by its designers and owners with consequences for all of us, especially those AI activities of which we are unknowing recipients.
Some of us have learned that when we are frustrated by some automatic operation, we can waste time and energy with our feelings of anger, or we can pause, and whether we consciously pray or not, quietly turn our focus away from our annoyance at not having our way, and instead toward our purpose and motivation for engaging in the task. Often, we are then able to see a way forward, whether in the same exact direction we had begun or perhaps with a shift of some kind. We wind up as winners, not losers.
In a similar way, we might approach some present fear and anger regarding AI or other issues that disturb our spirits at a deeper level than mere dissatisfaction with an automated device or piece of equipment. Our faith reminds us that God is not just creator, as we might be of some completed object, but the One who continuously chooses for us to exist. There is nothing made by humans that can frustrate or even interfere with God’s love for us and God’s intention that all who trust can never be separated from that love. The way to successfully deal with concerns over the use or misuse of AI or any other work, plan, process, or project begins not with trust in our collective wisdom and efforts, but with our trust in God.
When we start from our position of strength as being the objects of God’s loving ongoing creation, we each, and as members of some of the communities to which we belong, work consciously and without undue fear or anxiety to discern whatever appropriate actions we will take at our level of competence. We turn to people and to written sources that we trust, always noting whether what we learn fits well with our sense of God’s goodness, or leads to negative movements within, such as confusion, disillusionment, fear, or anger.
The only “automatic process” that is appropriate for us who are both physical and spiritual beings is to develop the habit of always seeking God’s love as the guide for our decision-making.
Last Updated 9/27/2026