Mathematics professor Steven Strogatz shared the biblical message at the heart of his argument against becoming overly reliant on AI.
“I’ve been thinking a lot about the meaning of life. Like, what’s the point? Which is a question a lot of us are asking in my profession,” Strogatz, who teaches math at Cornell University, said during an appearance on “The Daily” podcast. “I’ll just tell you about my journey. Not the answer.”
He explained that the university’s math department had recently held a “town hall meeting” with students and faculty. One student asked, “What’s the point if the AI can do math better than any human being?”
“Sure, I could sit there and learn from it, but I want to discover things, too,” Strogatz said of his argument against the technology. “I want that thrill…I don’t want my life to be in vain. So if you take that way from me, what am I doing?”
Related: Hollywood Opens Up to AI as Creators Weigh Human Costs
He then referenced Pete Seeger’s “Turn! Turn! Turn!”
“That’s biblical, right? That’s from Ecclesiastes, which I had never read. So I wanted to learn, what’s Ecclesiastes about?” Strogatz said, sharing that “the lesson is that your life is precious because it’s short. That you have to make the most of it while you’re here.”
He continued, “There’s another line in there that says, ‘everything is beautiful in its time.’ If everything is beautiful in its time, we get to have a turn where we’re in love, we’re creative, we do what’s meaningful…we do have a time. Otherwise, we’re dust, right? We’re ashes to ashes, dust to dust. The beautiful part is the in-between.”
Strogatz made similar comments when discussing the topic with WBUR, explaining, “If you just had answers, you don’t get the instrumental value of understanding…understanding feels good.”
“There’s an experiential value of understanding in that anyone who does puzzles knows it’s fun to have the aha moment, the eureka moment,” he said. “And you could say who cares if it’s fun? That’s frivolous. I think it’s one aspect of what makes life worth living, that joy is actually useful. What else are you going to do while you’re here? Wouldn’t it be nice to be happy?”
Other researchers have looked into AI’s effects on our problem-solving skills, with Harvard lecturer Dan Levy saying, “If a student uses AI to do the work for them, rather than to do the work with them, there’s not going to be much learning.”
“At the end of the day, if you think you’re in school to produce outputs, then you might be OK with AI helping you produce those outputs,” he added. “But if you’re in school because you want to be learning, remember that the output is just a vehicle through which that learning is going to happen. The output is typically not the ultimate goal.”
Strogatz’s link between Ecclesiastes and the importance of stepping away from AI is a wonderful way to think about the joy we can get from being present in each moment.
Read Next: AI for the Glory of God
Questions or comments? Please write to us here.
