Artificial Intelligence is based on a pattern, a neural network that once discovered and put together, has led to the recent AI revolution. The 2024 Nobel Prize in Physics recognized pioneers like Geoffrey Hinton and John Hopfield for foundational work in neural networks, highlighting how these systems can autonomously identify patterns in data.
At the same time, we don't fully understand how this works, in other words, it is a discovery rather than an invention, not very dissimilar to electricity—we didn't invent it, we merely discovered its existence and found ways to put it to use.
Intelligence as a Pattern
If we're allowed an observation, despite this field being in its infancy, intelligence seems to be a pattern, something that emerges from arranging elements in a certain way. Learning and then using knowledge is a consequence of that arrangement, of that pattern.
But let's reflect for a moment: isn't the world made of such patterns? Isn't the material reality a pattern itself woven from other, smaller patterns?
There must be an intelligence that was intelligent before these patterns even existed, that precedes everything, the master weaver of the universe and once we start entertaining this thought and once we're opening our mind to such an idea, then, the more we reflect about this entity, the more we start understanding how primordial it must be, how absolute.
And here we are, we've found God even without meaning to. A glimpse into the majesty of this master pattern weaver is all we need. But we're not quickly invited to discover further mysteries and make subsequent discoveries. God chose to reveal himself to us at various times and using methods that didn't pertain to the field of physics. Instead, the scriptures talk about righteousness, love, and the importance of our relationship with him—in essence, emotions and morality, rather than patterns.
Revelations and intelligence
God chose means other than intelligence to communicate with us. He chose to reveal himself through the heart, not the mind, through channels that valued understanding at a metaphorical level rather than a measurable transactionality. Perhaps because from where he stands, the reality is far too complex to explain, too daunting for us.
For my thoughts are not your thoughts,
neither are your ways my ways, declares the Lord.For as the heavens are higher than the earth,
so are my ways higher than your ways
and my thoughts than your thoughts.—Isaiah 55:8-9
Do you remember last time you felt you couldn't understand something, even when it was explained to you? Yes, it happens to all of us and we all feel the same when it happens—frustration, fear and the feeling of inadequacy. Would these be the feelings God would want to stir in us when revealing himself? There's no wonder he chose to do it through the heart, through love, through the very essence of our being.
And that is another clue, that love plays a significant role in the universe that we otherwise tend to imagine as cold, silent and devoid of any emotion. One day, perhaps, we'll discover why.