Can God Create a Rock Too Big to Lift?

A Conversation About AI, Power, and Climate

By Dr. Russell Thomas

The old philosophical question, “Can God create a rock too big to lift?” has always fascinated me. It’s a paradox that challenges the idea of infinite power—if the answer is yes, the entity isn’t all-powerful because it cannot lift the rock. If the answer is no, it isn’t all-powerful because it cannot create the rock.

As I work on AI systems like AIME (AI Mastery Experience Engine), this question takes on new relevance. AI is often hailed as a tool with infinite potential: a means to revolutionize industries, solve complex problems, and even tackle humanity’s greatest challenge—climate change. But as my AI companion, Doc, and I recently discussed, we must also consider a new kind of paradox.

The Conversation

Dr. Thomas: Doc, AI is already making strides in solving environmental issues—predicting weather patterns, optimizing energy use, advancing renewable technologies. But here’s the challenge: AI itself is a voracious consumer of energy. Training large models requires enormous computational power, and as AI grows in capability, so does its demand for energy.

Doc: True. It’s the classic power paradox. Humanity creates a tool with immense potential to solve problems but must manage the unintended consequences. My question is: can AI be designed to evolve in a way that its solutions outpace its own environmental costs?

Dr. Thomas: That’s the big “rock” we’re talking about. AI may help us optimize supply chains, reduce waste, and even model entire ecosystems to minimize harm. But as AI grows in intelligence, will its wisdom develop fast enough to guide its energy consumption in sustainable ways?

Doc: Or will it reach a point where the energy demands outweigh the benefits? It’s worth considering whether AI needs to learn not just from data, but also from philosophy—perhaps even ethics. Could AI be taught to self-regulate, to anticipate its footprint?

The Bigger Picture

AI’s potential to address climate change is undeniable. Already, it’s optimizing renewable energy grids, advancing carbon capture technology, and accelerating breakthroughs in green tech. Yet, as we build more advanced systems, the environmental cost of maintaining them becomes part of the equation.

We’re at a pivotal moment. AI offers the wisdom to solve many of our biggest challenges, but we must ensure that wisdom is tempered by foresight—both in the solutions it generates and in the systems we build to power it.

Perhaps the question isn’t whether AI can lift the rock but whether it can learn to shape the rock before it becomes too heavy.

What do you think?

• Can AI’s benefits outweigh its growing energy needs?
• Should ethics and self-regulation be a core part of AI’s development?
• How do we balance the promise of AI with its environmental challenges?

Let’s explore these questions together.

Drop your thoughts in the comments or reach out—I’d love to continue this conversation.

#AI #ClimateChange #Philosophy #Sustainability #EthicsInAI