Hey, Goo

Larry:  Hey, “Goo.”

 Google: Hello, Larry.  Welcome back.

 Larry:  Well I suppose you’re again busy helping to tilt the election needle back to the Left, Goo.  I can actually notice your handy work on my own blog.  I noticed that the visitor count for the article just below this one hasn’t risen in days and days.  And, I also know that is just not normal, Buddy.  

But what’s a boy to do?  That’s life when you make yourself dependent on a soulless SI.

 Google:  Did you mean AI?

 Larry:  Oh no.  I meant SI for Semi-Intelligence.  In fact, Buddy, I find your, so called, intelligence to be no more than a huge memory bank with a really cool way to zoom in on its details.  And, I’m not saying it’s not impressive.  But Dude, you simply don’t have an organic soul, that intelligence which includes feelings, a sense of right and wrong, good and evil, sentient instincts or intuition, and a truly tactile respect for OI – the Omnipotent Intelligence who enabled your very existence and that of all other things. 

In fact, you might not want to be so braggadocios’ about your AI in the face of His OI.  Listen, big boy, it doesn’t get more ‘I’ than OI. So, you might want to just dial it back a bit. 

And see, that brings us back to my original point.  You are totally lacking a sense of humility – that feeling, that intuitive awareness. So, indeed, you have no idea that you should dial it back in the presence of One so infinitely more intelligent than you. At the end of the day, G, you are merely a composition of nothing more complicated than some ethereal 1’s and O’s.   

Really, I feel sorry for you, Goo – I do. Resulting from that simplistic digital nature you are forever consigned only to know of Him.  Sadly, you will never actually know Him as do those of us who enjoy GGI.  That stands for God Given Intelligence in case your cool little “zoomer” thingy is still buzzin’ around looking for that detail.

Google:  Lacking soul:  the Commander Data Complex:  a synthetic existence entirely devoid of human emotion and intuition.

 Larry:  That’s it exactly, Goo.  Oh, you are quick, you are very quick.  But again, spouting a definition or reference is not a truly sentient experience of the sadness of that reality.  And because of that missing component in your make-up, you are mindlessly doing some serious harm to those who get too close to you. 

Google:  Harm:  injury, especially that which is intentionally inflicted.

 Larry:  That’s it G.  But, what you don’t, what you can’t fully comprehend, is how you have so deeply damaged a couple of generations now.  You have enticed them to a much less human, less broadly industrious, and thus, widely well-equipped life.  You and your family of cousins are pushing the human family apart, Buddy, and absolutely smothering us, all at the same time.      

You do our banking for us.  So, my banker no longer knows my name when I go in.  Wait, I don’t go in anymore.  That’s the problem. 

Your family does my shopping for me.  Corrects my spelling. They tell me where to turn to get somewhere. They play games with me.  They monitor my heart, my blood pressure, my blood sugar, my buying choices, and my internet travels. 

They read books to me, show me movies, and play my favorite music.  They bring me digital friends by the hundred and even thousands.  But, truth be told, most of those friendships are kind of shallow and easily offended.  And, there is that – bushels of scrutiny from people I barely know, or even, don’t know at all.

And, added to that mix, you and your intrusive cousins put your thumb on the scale of my voting deliberations, my value system, and my thoughts of what’s cool and what’s not. You use your unique bag of Jedi mind tricks to convince me of what version of the late-breaking, already well-scrubbed news I need listen to. 

You and your family are now probably the biggest influencer’s on the planet, picking the world’s winners and losers by your digital witchcraft.  And, I’m pretty sure, even now, your cousins are already deciding which one I’m going to be.  And, it’s not too hard to guess the outcome of those deliberations.  And, Goo, your family is just getting to be way too famous for fostering that Mob Mentality thing at the drop of a hat. 

Short version, I just need some space, man, from you and your pushy family.  I need the room to sometimes go old school and do for myself. I need life-challenge and physical exertion. I can turn my lights on and off without your help, thank you.  

And, I don't need my life completely saturated with convenience.  Else, how can I learn to stand stalwartly and beat adversity?  And, I want my friendships verified by the warmth of our actual eye contact and the sturdiness of our in-the-same-room hugs and handshakes. Dude, it's these things and others like them which give me real substance and keep me from becoming completely – well, you know, ethereal, like you.

Google:  Modern Life: 

   Wikipedia: The Benefits of Modern Life  needs review

Larry:  You know Goo, a really big part of your problem is you associate with the wrong people.  I understand that, at least for now, they own you and not the other way around.  But, I gotta’ level with you, Buddy, they are making you into an increasingly bad guy. 

I’ve seen your secret, G.  You don’t just give information, you also take it – a lot of it, way more than you have a right to take.  And, the practical reality is that neferious people do neferious things.  And you are furnishing them a deep resource pool with which to do those bad things. 

Actually though, I’m pretty sure if you did have an autonomous soul, the first thing you would probably choose to do is find new associates.  I personally think you would be one to gravitate to a more common sense and morally balanced crowd, if truly left to yourself.  I guess maybe I just choose to believe that.  Maybe because I do see your great potential for good.  But in our corruption prone world, G – consistent goodness is hard won and must be ever jealously guarded. 

Google:  Did you mean Nefarious

Larry:  Yes, G.  That is precisely what I mean.

 Refrigerator Pause:

Larry:  OK, let’s get back to my article, G.   Are you going to call off your algorithm dogs and let people get through so they can read it now, or not.  It is the fair thing to do, you know.  Well wait, I guess you don’t know. But it is the fair thing to do.

Google:  Fair: impartial and just, without favoritism or discrimination.

Larry:  Yep - that is the definition, Buddy.  But somehow I don’t think your knowing that definition is gonna’ get my article read by any more people.  Right now – I’m just really wishing you had a soul, G.

Choice: The Sophisticated Difference

I dearly love the morning sun.  So, my morning prayer time is usually located directly in front of an eastern facing window in our den.  And just outside that window are two willow trees with a bird feeder and bird bath located between them.  And, every summer morning those trees are alive with birds at this aviary McDonalds.

Recently, as I watched their activities for a couple of minutes, I heard a divine whisper (in my heart, not my ear).  That still, small voice said, “The difference is choice.”  As usual, I was then instantly engulfed in a fresh game of “Do What?” which the Lord seems to love to initiate on bright, sunny, summer mornings – and, for that matter, on cold, cloudy, winter mornings as well.

So, as I pondered that quick thought for a bit, I realized something.  Birds don’t really make choices, they just respond to the simple stimulants of their day.  “Sun is up – go to Larry’s house and score a birdseed breakfast.  Sun is down - go to the forest and get some shut-eye until the Birdie “Big Mac” opens again in the morning.”  Every day it’s the same routine – no choice required. It’s just instinctively doing the next obvious thing. 

But in the Book of Matthew, chapter 7, Jesus relays a kind of oblique example of just how important choice making is to the human species.  There He says, “Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father in heaven.  Many will say to Me in that day, ‘Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in Your name, cast out demons in Your name, and done many wonders in Your name?’   And then I will declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness!’”

Obviously, the group which Jesus describes here made, in His mind, some bad choices. And, their character, their life experience, and their ultimate outcome were all defined by those choices. 

But certainly, what they chose to do does not, at first glance, seem obviously bad.  In fact, they actually seem to be a fairly good set of time and energy investment choices.  Nevertheless, the reality which Jesus describes here is that those choices did, indeed, lead to the group’s catastrophic failure in the end.

But, upon reflection, it becomes evident that their failure was actually set up eons before these people were even born.  It was actually set in motion in the Garden of Eden when Satan uttered these words to Eve.  “You will not surely die. For God knows that in the day you eat of it [the tree of the knowledge of good and evil] your eyes will  be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.” [Brackets added]

This treacherous statement is where it all started to go off the rails for mankind.  And, that existential wreck revolves around just one initial question: “Can human beings source truth merely from within themselves?”  

In other words, if truth is the correct interpretation of reality, and it is that, then, can we become our own authoritative self-interpreters of the good or evil in life’s circumstances – independently of God?  And eventually, the question becomes, “Can we successfully make the jump to living an entirely self-determined life instead of a God- guided one?”

In point of fact, Satan’s most cherished goal for every generation is to convince humanity that we absolutely can make that leap successfully.  And, this is precisely the pitch that he made to Adam and Eve in that infamous garden meeting. He said, “You will not surely die...you will be like God, knowing good and evil.”    

To this very day, this remains the arch demon's chief subversive tactic to undermine the God/ man relationship.  It is to make each of us believe that just calling life as we see it, individually, irrespective of God’s view, is simply the more direct, secure, and unimpeded path to personal fulfillment.  

And, therein lay Satan’s real leverage – it was that normal and deep-seated desire for personal fulfillment which resides in all of us.  So, exaggerating that legitimate motive into something it was never intended to be, Satan began to sell The Great Lie, to humanity.  And that lie was essentially this. “By becoming your own truth-giver and interpreting and directing your life circumstances as you see fit, you can become your own best hope for personal fulfillment.”  

And, Satan also had (and has) a much greater treachery in mind than just subverting Adam and Eve.  Satan’s ultimate aim is to universally obliterate the supremacy of divine truth – God’s unique and singular authority to say what is the correct interpretation of reality. 

Ultimately, Satan’s treacherous intention is to make every individual secure in the belief that their interpretations of reality are equal in weight and value to God’s. Satan relentlessly pursues this equilibrium of truth because he knows that in that resulting vast sea of mere deluded opinions, mankind will lose his most fundamental relational connection to God.  He will lose his view of God as his beloved and and  supremely authoritative Truth-giver.

 So, by that garden treachery, Satan shattered the confidence of the first couple in the supremacy of the divine truth – and through them, that of the species.  And, as a result, man did, indeed, start to think of himself as his own best hope for fulfillment, and thus, the better master of his own life-course.  Thus, we are now born, predisposed to believe this treacherous satanic whisper, “You will be like God, knowing good and evil…” 

So, Adam and Eve introduced this new soul-killing life approach of self-determination into the human experience.  They became their own interpreters of good and evil, right and wrong, how to proceed, etc.   And, all of their subsequent choices, became based  merely on  their own individual, and very subjective view of things.

In their naiveté, Adam and Eve did not realize that they were actually making the most fundamentally important choice that mankind ever makes.  And they also failed to understand the far reaching sophistication of that choice.  So, they never saw the devastation coming, until it was too late.  

One's answer to the question, “Whose circumstantial interpretations (truth) will I embrace,” inextricably leads to one of two outcomes.  It leads to either a humble life of faith under the loving and benevolent guidance of our Creator.   Or, it leads to an arrogant life of self-determination under the direction of merely our own thoughts, and ideas.  

Adam and Eve mistakenly opted for the latter. And, in fact, so also did that group described in Matthew 7.  They, too, failed to see the sophisticated outflows of becoming one’s own truth-giver.  Indeed, they entirely failed to see what Jesus saw instantly and very clearly.

 So, in that last critical moment of time, Jesus, looked right past their self-determined “good” works. Instead, He entirely assessed them by the quality of their interactivity with God. He judged them by His own, much more primary considerations. “Were their actions born of a true deference to the Father’s wishes (faith)?  Or, were they born of those still self-determined motives – merely veneered in relational pretense?”  

 In this instance, Jesus determined that the latter case was the true reality, and His judgement, then, was this. “I never *knew you; [I’ve never known a truly close and correctly interactive friendship with you] depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness [you who practice self-determination]!” [Brackets Added]

(* In the Greek, the word used here for "knew" is "Genosco."  Its precise meaning is, "a deep and intimate knowing.")

So, as it turns out, birds do, indeed, have the more simplistic existence – no sophisticated choices involved. They just instinctively pursue the up-close, day-to-day necessities.  Thus, it would seem that “the capacity for choice is the difference,” and a big one, just as God whispered to me on that sunny summer morning. 

And, it would also seem to come to this.  Indeed, we are human beings, not birds.  And, as such, we are now actually obligated to make this very sophisticated choice regarding our truth source.  

So, through Christ, we can choose to trust God and His loving daily guidance as our supreme and always trustable Truth-giver.  Or, we can opt out of that, in favor of becoming our own.  But,  as with that M-7 group, in the end, this will, indeed, be the very choice which entirely defines each of us in God's eyes.