The ‘Logos’ and the ‘Machine’: A Journey in Language, Logic, Computation, Action & Service

The Digital Paradox: Flesh and Blood in a World of Circuits

Preface: In the age of artificial intelligence, our greatest challenge and opportunity lies in harnessing technological advancements while preserving and celebrating the uniquely human qualities that define our existence.

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“Begin the morning by saying to yourself, I shall meet with the busybody, the ungrateful, arrogant, deceitful, envious, unsocial. All these things happen to them by reason of their ignorance of what is good and evil. But I, who have seen the nature of the good that it is beautiful, and of the bad that it is ugly, and the nature of him who does wrong, that it is akin to me, not only of the same blood or seed, but that it participates in the same intelligence and the same portion of the divinity, I can neither be injured by any of them, for no one can fix on me what is ugly, nor can I be angry with my kinsman, nor hate him. For we are made for cooperation, like feet, like hands, like eyelids, like the rows of the upper and lower teeth. To act against one another then is contrary to nature; and it is acting against one another to be vexed and to turn away.”

– Marcus Aurelius, Meditations

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Digital Consciousness

Daily, as I sit at my desk, surrounded by the hum of phosphorescent tubes and the bright light of day, I'm struck by the paradox of our modern existence through the eyes of a Christian with a stoic disposition and a scientific grasp of reality. We are creatures of flesh and blood, yet we spend our days immersed in a world of machines, interaction with them, digital communication, and electricity – yet I’m tremendously grateful to work in an environment of human interaction, cooperation and teamwork! I’m proud to say that during the recent pandemic – I worked in person and survived… yet I wasn’t afraid for myself – I’m a strong young man!

Nevertheless, human evolution, on trend, seems intent on propelling us out into the void of infinite probabilities. I think the Danish philosopher and theologian Kierkegaard would have agreed that these modern conditions, by their functional characteristics – the rush and busyness, the tempus fugit of modernity – likely make anxiety more prevalent as a mind condition.

This juxtaposition has not always been a theme in my life; I was fortunate to have grown up in wilder, greener surroundings, allowed to be free in mind and autonomous in body – possessing essential dignity – which is a human right for all, I would and do defend! I hasten to say that I didn’t grow up under well-off means, yet I was privileged to know the joy of the wild by a unique set of circumstances. Thus, contrastingly, from my earliest encounters with technology in 1990s South Africa, I have viewed myself as a master of the machine, yet not of nature, servant to nature, yet not of machine. Like any other, I find myself a man, a human – meaning ‘earth man’ in Latin – something set apart from the rest of material creation. Indeed, unique among nature – humans have language, pass down knowledge of tool making, and have concepts of life and death, yet still enjoy biological lives with everything of the ordinary that goes along with that.

Now, in my current role, which entails a lot of desktop work and writing, I find myself curious, and gratefully so, of the possibilities that exist for the future of the human journey – humbled in my fears, optimistic in my experience of the good. In this digital age of advanced technology, extensive screen time, information abundance, and artificial intelligence, there is still cause for hope in a quiet and good life!

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Language – A Sociocultural Inheritance

The power of words has always fascinated me. As a child, I would find symbology complicated, including all the letters, their order, and pronunciation. I had to learn them by rote, through passages, sound and logographic expression, syllables and roots, meaning, and usage. Yet, as for my oracular expression – I have always been gifted in the delivery of my mother’s tongue! I love and enjoy conversation and constructing worlds of meaning through words. Later, as I pursued my academic studies, varied as they were, I began to understand the true complexity of human language – the history of its yearning! It is a system so intricate, so nuanced, that even our most advanced AI models can only but approximate its richness of true spirit – its daring degree of valour.

Human language is, in many ways, the story of humanity itself. From the earliest cave paintings to the digital communications of today, our ability to communicate complex ideas has set us apart from all other creatures on Earth. Several recorded ancient peoples that I know of certainly understood this profoundly – Hebrew, Greek, Latin, and Sanskrit speakers, for example. As I understand it, Hebrew has at least three different terms for falling short, Greek has at least four distinct words for love, Latin and Sanskrit have incredible descriptive power which can differentiate concepts, and yet the Indo-European 3, Greek, Latin and Sanskrit have the same root word for father – and the Hebrew word abba is similar to my Alba – the mythical name for the homeland of my people, and, so – for me – through language, in a figurative sense a son of Japheth finds accommodation in the tents of Shem. Indeed, in modern English, people might describe a strange happening or event as being weird, which syllabically evokes an outcome which the fates have weaved – a concept found in many Germanic cultures, yet preserved in entirety only in Norse Sagas, a consequence of late Christianisation. Languages have this fantastic ability to encode for the inheritance of a culture. In my own culture and language, I would honestly say that understanding of the common law is found and implied within a so-called vulgar (meaning common) language, English – in its diversity of construction, its everydayness, and its idiomatic expressions. Logos – the Word, the divine reason implicit in the cosmos, ordering it and giving it form. This is a significant human characteristic.

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Echoes of Babel

As I reach my mid-life season – 35 beckoning – a man like any other, awarded but only 3 scores and 10 to sojourn 70 years in the wilderness, to come to find God – this is the quest, the journey, the goal and the destination all at once. The universality of certain narratives across cultures strikes me. The themes present in the story of Nimrod and the Tower of Babel, for instance, appear in various forms in traditions around the world in accounts of stealing from the gods, of divine providence or retribution, of the relationship between the made and the maker, of body and mind, spirit and nature, of governance and justice, of imagination and destiny – whether Prometheus, Arjuna or Baldur – man has had his heroes. It speaks to a fundamental truth about the human soul – our boundless ambition and our desire to reach beyond our limitations. But it also serves as a cautionary tale, reminding us of the dangers of hubris and the importance of humility.

“The purposes of a person’s heart are deep waters, but one who has insight draws them out.”

– Proverbs 20:5

In my own life, I've experienced both the exhilaration of technological advancement and the disquiet of realising its limitations. I remember the first time I used a computer to play ‘video’ games as a little boy. My much older brother – by 17 years, had been an early adopter of technology – during its incoming availability in the democratic dispensation of my youth when South Africa was suddenly flung into the path of modernity and the country re-joined the international society of nations. ?The curiosity of it all, ideas, technology, new liberties, and the seeming freedom of it all – a breathtaking time. I learnt quickly that computers were fun machines that could do fun stuff but were also complicated! I had the same moral view of them as I would of other implements or tools – I was eager to understand them, not revere them. The machine could process the words but couldn't understand the cultural context – well, at least not yet – I learnt a little about their protocol, way of thinking, and code – and this prepared me for the AI revolution. Alas, I suggest avoiding emotional appeal – you must give a mind machine clear instructions as sure as you must employ a mechanical tool with precise and deliberate physical action. Keep emotional resonance, the sheer humanity behind our motives for your interactions with other flesh and blood beings.

“He has made everything beautiful in its time. He has also set eternity in the human heart; yet no one can fathom what God has done from beginning to end.”

– Ecclesiastes 3:1

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Feeling, Intuition & Creation

This realisation has led me to a deeper appreciation of what it means to be human. Yes, we are computational beings in a sense. Our brains process information and make decisions based on input. But we are so much more than that. We feel, we intuit, we create. We possess what the ancients might have called the divine spark – that ineffable quality of the forward-looking imagination that allows us to love, protect, safeguard, empathise, fight for, commiserate with, and experience what it means to be alive while conscious of being alive with as much dignity and grace as you can muster – amid feelings of awe and wonder, fear and despair.

As I've navigated my young adulthood amid the advent of a technologically marvellous new digital age, I've had to learn to fight against the pull to extremes within our human nature. On the one hand, I've embraced the power of reason and sentience to enhance our cognitive abilities, with the truth echoing out through the aeons about who we humans are as ethical creatures endowed with the propensity to issue out Love, Justice, Wisdom and Power – mingled together. I use the tools of reason, logic, science, technology – and now AI – to assist me in my work to brainstorm, invent, innovate, inspire thinking, provide objective feedback and criticism, and help me interrogate my mental processes. But I've also learned to respect these tools' limitations and value the uniquely human qualities that no machine can replicate.

“To dare is to lose one's footing momentarily. Not to dare is to lose oneself.”

– Soren Kierkegaard

This balance is not always easy to maintain. There have been times when I've found myself submitting to a servile mindset, relying too heavily on rational thought spiralling into ‘the permutation of the possibility of the probability of eventuality’ – my definition of the fear of fear or anxiety! Yet, thankfully, I have somehow remained tethered to that core of human essence – the possession of a soul – which in its Hebrew meaning refers to a whole entity, body, mind, life’s goings’ on and that animating force – the breath of life. I've been awakened by a moment of supernatural human connection – a conversation with a friend, a co-worker, or a co-religionist that sparks a new idea, or elsewhere, a piece of music that moves me deeply to the current of organic, mortal and time-bound existence.

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Technology & the Human Spirit

Historically, we are living through a pivotal moment in human history. The development of artificial intelligence represents a leap forward in our technological capabilities that rival the invention of the printing press or the industrial revolution. But like those earlier advancements, it also presents profound ethical and philosophical challenges.

“There is one gift above all others that makes man unique among the animals, and it is the gift displayed everywhere here: his immense pleasure in exercising and pushing forward his own skill.”

– Jacob Bronowski, The Ascent of Man

As I look back on the path of human history, I'm struck by how often we've faced similar crossroads. The advent of written records, in some places, for instance, might have spurred with scepticism fear that an affixed interpretation would weaken our memories and dilute the power of oral tradition – of the culture of words themselves. The rise of the printing press led to concerns about the spread of heretical ideas and the erosion of traditional authority.

Yet humanity has always found a way to adapt to integrate new technologies into our lives while preserving the essence of what makes us human. I believe we can do the same with AI and other emerging technologies. The key lies in remembering that these tools are extensions of our minds, not replacements for them.

In my work, I've found that combining human creativity with computational power produces the most powerful results. When I'm writing, for example, I might use various AI tools to assist and outsource computational problems or else to help me as a sounding board to generate ideas, verify my logic, or check my grammar. But the heart of my work – the emotions, the insights, the unique perspective – comes from my own informed, classically educated, and studied lived experience, my human consciousness, which is all my own, and I’m proud of it!

We must maintain this balance as we move forward into this brave new world. We should, I believe, embrace the power of technology to enhance our capabilities, but we must also cherish and nurture the qualities that make us uniquely human – that capacity to feel and to know joy mingled with suffering. Our capacity for love, empathy, and moral reasoning are the things that truly set us apart from other animals, as the Psalmist said in praise to God, “You have made them a little lower than the angels and crowned them with glory and honor. You made them rulers over the works of your hands; you put everything under their feet.” – Chapter 8, Verses 5 and 6.

Humanity's passage to the present has been one of constant evolution and adaptation. From the first use of tools to the development of language, from the agricultural revolution to the digital age, from the atomic bomb to the Apollo landing, we have continually pushed the boundaries of what's possible. But through it all, we have remained essentially human.

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Orchestrating the Balance

As I look to the future, I'm filled with excitement and fear, but I remain intrepid! The challenges we face – climate change, social inequality, the ethical implications of AI – are all daunting – true, and ‘life is difficult, and then you die’, some say. But I'm heartened by the knowledge we collectively possess and the tools at our disposal to meet these challenges. Our capacity for reason, ability to communicate complex ideas, capacity to deal out justice and mercy, and the light of imagination within us have seen our species through countless crises in our long and brutish history.

Ultimately, it all comes back to the Logos – the Word. As intelligent beings, we think and so exist, and thus, we are all animated by the divine spark that actuates our material world’s trajectory! Suppose we choose to remember this and cherish our humanity, even as we push the boundaries of technology. In that case, we can navigate the challenges ahead and create a future which honours our technological achievements and essential human nature. Tools are not the enemy… like all machines, they are extensions of the body of man.

“Language does for intelligence what the wheel does for the feet and the body. It enables them to move from thing to thing with greater ease and speed and ever less involvement.”

– Marshall McLuhan

As I finish writing these thoughts, the sun has set on many of my days already. Yet, the forward-looking sky of human imagination is always ablaze with colour, a natural spectacle that no digital display can truly capture. I'm reminded once again of the beauty and complexity of our world, and of our unique place within it. We are indeed creatures of flesh and blood, but we are also beings of spirit and intellect, capable of greatness beyond measure. Let us move forward into the digital age with this knowledge, balancing the power of our inventions with the wisdom of our hearts.

“Anxiety does not empty tomorrow of its sorrows, but only empties today of its strength.” – Charles Spurgeon, an English preacher.

I challenge you to embrace innovation while fiercely guarding the essence of our humanity. Share your insights, voice your concerns, and actively participate in shaping a future where technology, science and AI amplifies rather than diminishes our human qualities. Together, let us forge a path that honours both our technical and philosophical, ethical and social advancements as well as our timeless and indomitable human spirit – creating a world where compassion, creativity, and consciousness guide our evolution through to the next cultural epoch.

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Epilogue

The Hippocratic Oath then for me, as a man like any other, is this: “In to whatever place I enter, with whomsoever, I should be reverent of wisdom, cognisant of the present, whether alone or in company, mindful of the future, yet not committed to it ?– meditating day and night, having two special objectives in view with regard to remedy of all affliction, namely, to do good or to at least do no harm.” Yes, we must always understand the current capabilities and tools available, and also, the potential future impacts of our actions. To quote the so-said spirit-inspired words of the other great physician and disciple of Jesus, Luke who wrote “Stand firm, and you will win life.” – Gospel of Luke, Chapter 21, Verse 19. Let’s remember that too!

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By Struan Robertson

Disclaimer: The views expressed are that of the author alone and written in his personal capacity. This piece is intended to stimulate thoughtful reflection on the intersection of technology, philosophy, and human experience. The author draws from various philosophical, religious, and linguistic traditions to illustrate points. These are not the be all and end all of wisdom. I believe that human wisdom exists everywhere the spoken word is said. Readers are encouraged to critically engage with the ideas presented and form their own conclusions. This article is not intended as professional advice, and readers should consult appropriate experts for guidance on specific technological and professional situations – as for your life, I encourage you to live it.

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* All quotations are from Goodreads, unless otherwise stated.

** All scriptural references are to the NIV translation of the Bible.