Magnifica Humanitas: A critical and timely counterweight

For some, artificial intelligence and its related components represent a boon for the human community. A tool of unimaginable power that will finally enable us to control almost every aspect of our lives — even death and the afterlife. For others, it evokes a sense of impending doom.

“Don’t worry about it,” say the enthusiasts. People said that about the lightbulb, and the telephone, and computers, too. Don’t be a Luddite. And anyway, look around. Humanity survived.

Well yes, say those who look on with some trepidation. Human nature always reasserts itself.  

But we seem to have deconstructed that, too. We have come to a place where we are not even sure human nature is a real thing. What happens when we decide to leave the real world behind?

Perhaps these conflicting views account for why there was real anticipation when word got out that Pope Leo XIV planned to publish an