Special issue on Artificial Intelligence, Spirituality and Analogue Thinking

Along with my colleagues Lluís Oviedo (Pontifical University Antonianum, Rome, Italy), Dai Griffiths (The University of Bolton, United Kingdom) and Andrea Vestrucci (Starr King School for the Ministry, Berkeley, California, USA), we have recently launched a call-for-papers focused on Artificial Intelligence, Spirituality, and Analogue Thinking. This special issue is hosted by the International Journal of Interactive Multimedia and Artificial Intelligence (IJIMAI), a publication by Universidad Internacional de La Rioja (UNIR).

Following, I paste the summary:

“The development of machines and automation and their integration into daily life has often led to a deeper examination of human nature. In many ways, the farther progress has taken us, the greater our need to understand human condition. Today, the world around us is changing at a faster pace. Technological revolutions are happening closer and closer to each other. From the industrial revolution to the technological revolution, to the digital revolution, to the internet revolution, the gap between each step is half as long as the previous one. Communications, automation, medicine – in all fields, the milestones are happening closer and closer together.

«Our thirst for transcendence and introspection remains unwavering, despite technological breakthroughs, or perhaps because of them»

Within this context, many people experience a feeling  that transcends the self and evokes less immediate views and scopes. Our thirst for transcendence and introspection remains unwavering, despite technological breakthroughs, or perhaps because of them; despite the speed of these breakthroughs, or because of it; despite their diversity, or precisely because of it. That unwavering aspect is in no way a threat to progress, but a part of it: these transcendental experiences give us a sense of support and sustenance in our daily lives.

This special issue encourages a discussion of concepts that might, in principle, appear as two opposite poles or two layers of the same reality, but which probably constitute two interwoven elements defining a single context or two aspects of a particular viewpoint: mutually dependent and difficult to understand separately. We invite contributors to explore this emerging world in which the promise of superintelligent systems raises great hopes and great fears, at the same time, and where issues such as the spiritual life and transcendence will probably acquire new meaning and functions, provided that they can still work as sources of meaning and hope.”

February, 21st, 2020