Church and State, Apples and Oranges

[formercia]

http://today.reuters.co.uk/news/articlenews.aspx?type=scienceNews&storyid=2006-10-22T032828Z_01_L21745170_RTRIDST_0_SCIENCE-POPE-SCIENCE-DC.XML&rpc=92

Pope warns scientists not to risk fate of Icarus
Sun Oct 22, 2006 4:28 AM BST24
ROME (Reuters) - Pope Benedict told scientists on Saturday that by believing only in "artificial intelligence" and technology they risked the fate of the mythical Icarus, whose home-made wings melted when he flew too close to the sun.

"Contemporary life gives pride of place to an artificial intelligence ever more enslaved to experimental tecnhiques, thereby forgetting that all science should safeguard mankind and promote his tendency to authentic goodness," the Pope said.

The German-born Pope, a theology professor and an enforcer of Vatican dogma before his election as pontiff last year, has voiced his concerns about some areas of scientific research that clash with the teachings of the Roman Catholic Church.

Like his predecessor Pope John Paul II, Benedict is against stem cell technology, which researchers say could help cure serious illnesses but the Church opposes it because it often relies on cells from embryo tissue.

[Ian David]

1. Condoms safeguard mankind, stupid fucking genocidal Pope Ratso. n/t

[C_U_L8R]

2. Was that really the moral of the tale?

or was it don't put blind faith in foolish things (like gods).

Icarus' father seemed to fly quite well by using common sense.

Besides.. what the heck is the pope doing paraprasing greek fables
when he should be looking at his own deity's parables.
I( wonder what other greek myths might say about this pope.

[Boojatta]

3. Perhaps the Pope is confusing the movie Brazil with one of the Terminator

movies?

[Boojatta]

4. Re artificial intelligence. Does the Pope read Skeptic Magazine?

The unsupportable claim is sometimes made that some robots have achieved “insect-level intelligence,” or at least robots that duplicate the behavior of insects. Such claims seem plausible simply because very few people are entomologists, and are unfamiliar with how complex and sophisticated insect behavior actually is.

Even if it were true that current robots or computers had attained insect-level intelligence, this wouldn’t indicate that human-level artificial intelligence is attainable. The number of neurons in an insect brain is about 10,000 and in a human cerebrum about 30,000,000,000. But if you put together 3,000,000 cockroaches (this seems to be the A.I. idea behind “swarms”), you get a large cockroach colony, not human-level intelligence.

Full article

[formercia]

5. I find it interesting that he uses Pagan symbolism.

:evilgrin: What, no Saint to fill the bill? :evilgrin: