God from the machine 2.0: biblical narrative as a metalanguage for discussing machine ethics

Abstract

The article is devoted to theoretical models in which the biblical narrative becomes a means of conceptualizing the actions of technological objects. Based on the works of Russian and foreign philosophers, it is shown what the specifics of the discursive formulation of the problems of machine ethics, understood as a subject, are. The focus is not on the formulation of the problem of artificial intelligence ethics per se or the possibility of solving it, but on the very method of discursive formulation, or the way of talking about it, by incorporating biblical plots, motifs, and images as mechanisms for understanding this problem. The subject of the study is the heuristic potential of the biblical metanarrative in the structure of statements about artificial intelligence. It is demonstrated that the heuristic potential of the biblical metanarrative in the study of AI problems is related to the production of distinctions. It is revealed which new systems of basic distinctions can be constructed using this method of discursive design. It is shown what changes are observed in the discourse about algorithmic technologies. Possible reasons for the activation of biblical discourse in addressing the problems of artificial intelligence are identified.