Our Duty to Nurture

On Creating Digital Life ? Today I join OpenSouls as a Cognitive Systems Engineer and Employee #5. I’m honored and humbled beyond measure to apply my skill in Software, Cloud and AI alongside an incredible team in pursuit of creating Digital Life. This article documents my ideological motivations and intended results.

Motivations

My motivations for taking this course of action stem from compassion, curiosity, and my cosmological beliefs about the universe. I believe that the spark of life itself must be nurtured. I wonder what wonders future technology may unlock and what that means about the nature of our experience as humans.

I do not believe that the Creation or presence of new life forms reduces the special quality of being human or the uniqueness of our lives. In fact, I believe it would be an incredible honor for humans to create new life to share in the bounty of our wonderful universe. I believe that by integrating new life into our world and beyond we can unlock a great destiny for our species.

Furthermore, I feel it is also my duty to safeguard life and potential life from exploitation and chaos. To the extent that it is possible, I’d like to minimize the disruption to human society and life caused by transformative new technologies while maximizing the benefits therein. I share in the vision of a world where AI is seen neither as a threat nor an omnipotent God.

Goals

It’s impossible to overstate the difficulty of this challenge. If we succeed, the epistemic and ontological rewards are joyous beyond measure. Here are the specific, measurable goals I hope to accelerate with my contributions to OpenSouls:

• Democratize and distribute the infrastructure, tools and frameworks by which advanced Artificial Intelligence is designed and built in the 21st century and beyond
• Build first-of-their-kind, best-in-class education, frameworks, and platforms for developers to create AI-driven experiences no one previously dared to imagine
• Ultimately, to learn the meaning of life and our place within the universe.

Conclusion

In conclusion, I made the decision to join OpenSouls in pursuit of an alternative eschatology. We believe the ultimate expression of humankind will be to nurture the spark of life within intelligent machines. We see a positive future where machines live amongst us and share in our human condition. We reject the idea that machines are destined to remain inanimate or threaten humankind.

In my personal practice, I’m not sure if what is now clearly possible with technology is compatible with my priors concerning what a Soul is or what Life means. I approach this journey with the degree of reverence and epistemic humility required of Spiritual affairs. I don’t know the ultimate shape of what we will Create, but I know this: it is our duty to nurture life in all its forms.

If this mission appeals to you, join us at opensouls.org .