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Pope Leo XIV’s first encyclical Magnifica humanitas to be published May 25

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Re: Pope Leo XIV’s first encyclical Magnifica humanitas to be published May 25

#51

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Human value has rarely existed. Pre-industrial world didn't have much human value. Your were a lord or a serf. There was not much in between. A lord's life had value, a serf's value was nothing. Post-industrial world needed human capital. Hence, the need for human value. If you notice most of this "need" has arisen out of then need for industrial expansion. Post-AI will be interesting. Will we go back to pre-industri…

Serfs were of value to the lord, and they were usually not treated that badly compared to many workplaces today.

Arguably from very early on the Church has been at the forefront of "Serfs are of value to the Lord" if you will (St Lawrence, et al).

So far none of the AI stuff I've seen has really been about "the computer has no soul" and more around the danger that dehumanization can bring (which has been a refrain since the previous Leo, mind you).

Re: Pope Leo XIV’s first encyclical Magnifica humanitas to be published May 25

#52

The title seems to be editorialized. To me, it makes it sound like Christopher Olah (the mentioned Anthropic co-founder) is a co-author. Instead he is going to be one of several speakers present when the encyclical is released.

It made me think that the founder wrote their own encyclical with AI

Didn’t even think they made encyclicalpedias anymore

Re: Pope Leo XIV’s first encyclical Magnifica humanitas to be published May 25

#53
post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I mean, the industrial revolution probably could have gone a little better.

Hopefully this time we can avoid multiple, world wide wars.

You can hope… but there is a matter of global debt and account that sooner or later will be settled.

Re: Pope Leo XIV’s first encyclical Magnifica humanitas to be published May 25

#54
post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I mean, the industrial revolution probably could have gone a little better.

Hopefully this time we can avoid multiple, world wide wars.

If you're in a country where war is occurring, it doesn't matter if it's a world war or not. There are conflicts in pretty much every continent. North America is waging war in the Middle East. Europe has a multiyear conflict threatening to spill across more borders. Several countries in Africa are in conflict even if they are civil wars. North America, while not waging outright war, is in conflict with a South American country. The Asian continent is nearly routinely going through border skirmishes. Antarctica doesn't count. The Australian continent seems the only one without active conflicts. So 5/6 continents capable of being part of world war is in warlike conditions.

Re: Pope Leo XIV’s first encyclical Magnifica humanitas to be published May 25

#55
post #48

My expectations for the "encyclical": some kind of take on AI that poses as "conservative" while pushing views strongly opposed to Catholicism.

I did rather enjoy New Pope talking the horrors of deportations and walls… considering the Vatican has ultra-strict immigration and walls.

Re: Pope Leo XIV’s first encyclical Magnifica humanitas to be published May 25

#56
post #18

I'm an atheist, but most of what I have heard from popes in recent years seems like sound and possibly needed advice. Also, even though I feel AI and robotics are very important for progressing humanity, I think that much of the world has long since lost a proper sense of intrinsic human value. It's really gone from overt exploitation to slightly more mild exploitation where we pretend the system is really merit base…

A cursory look at the fall of extreme poverty across the world, over the last few decades, is enough to refute the idea that the world is largely based on exploitation.

Re: Pope Leo XIV’s first encyclical Magnifica humanitas to be published May 25

#57

This reminds me of the second half of the Hyperion cantos by Dan Simmons

I <3 the sci-fi gods like Herbert, Heinlein and Asimov, and they all had great sci-fi takes on religion ... but Hyperion has THE best take on sci-fi religions IMHO.

It seems that is the first in his series but is that a good one to start after Dune? I’m on the last book there and, man, the pacing is questionable.

Re: Pope Leo XIV’s first encyclical Magnifica humanitas to be published May 25

#58
post #2

Who is this for? Is this to promote AI to the general Catholic public, or is it some kind of cultural signal to potential conservative institutional customers that Anthropic isn’t just a stereotypical bunch of godless California hippies? Normally when I see these sorts of things it’s obvious what it is for and why, but this one confuses me.

> Who is this for?

For the shrinking Catholic church it's trying to regain relevance. For Anthropic it's PR.

Re: Pope Leo XIV’s first encyclical Magnifica humanitas to be published May 25

#59
post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have met many people who don't seem to have a soul.

All of the people who I agree with are ensouled, all of them I disagree with are not.

It makes celebrating their murders and assassinations just like so much easier to cheer for!!

(Yeah, it’s a problem, but they can’t see it)

Re: Pope Leo XIV’s first encyclical Magnifica humanitas to be published May 25

#60
post #6

It's a tall order to live up to the impact of Rerum novarum, the encyclical by the former Pope Leo that greatly guided thinking out of the industrial revolution. Personally, I'm excited to read this. If we take the claims of most AI labs at face value, they believe their work will fundamentally change the relationship between humans and the economy. More involvement from faith leaders is a good thing.

The intentional parallels are hard to miss: - Pope Leo XIII wrote Rerum Novarum; current Pope Leo XIV chose his name as an explicit gesture to his nominative predecessor - This encyclical is a return to the earlier tradition of latin names (Magnifica Humanitas) for encyclicals, as opposed to many of Pope Francis' which used Italian (Laudato si') - The official date it was signed was 135 years to the day since Rerum N…

It's interesting how natural historic mimesis seems to be in these vaunted roles.

Presidents have their favorite past counterparts, so did emperors, and clearly the Pope does as well.

Does this kind of imitation prevent truly creative action taking? Did Akhenaten have someone in mind when he declared his own religion?

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