When you get to be my age, many of my evening hours are spent in front of the TV set. Recently we watched a movie called, “Vantage Point,” with Dennis Quaid as a bodyguard for the president of the United States. As the film progressed, it became apparent that the president was in actuality being portrayed by a stand in for the Commander in Chief. It was an interesting concept. The fact that so much is being revealed about A.I. got me to thinking. I’m certain many conspiracy theories are out there about such possibilities. Artificial Intelligence has been around for a while, but the idea that a doppelganger of a famous person could be recreated to duplicate another kind of blew me away. I started thinking about other things in the world these days, being invented to duplicate life so perfectly that you can’t tell the difference between real and imaginary.

My crazy mind started to reach back into history. What if President Lincoln or John Kennedy had access to such a thing? What if all the important people in the world were able to put themselves on display in their own image, but not a real entity. I thought about the terracotta army created by the first emperor of China. A complete replica of real soldiers was unearthed to reveal what looked like a fierce infantry of armed men. In World War II, an imaginary group of soldiers and tanks duped the Germans into believing they were seeing the real thing. Do you suppose we’re heading in that direction? Maybe someday wars will be fought with such man-made armies. Eventually there may be no need for humanity at all. Heaven help us.

I know there is some good in creating a life-like image of an important person for their protection, but I wonder how much longer man will try to imitate God and His superhuman abilities. From the Garden of Eden all the way to present day, we see how humanity is not satisfied with what God has so brilliantly created and given to them. They think they can determine how long a person should live, whether a fetus should be aborted, if a mechanical version of themselves can replace the God given gifts of life. We may think that we know as much as God does. We may think ourselves capable of matching His power and strength. We might even think of ourselves as all-knowing or as omnipotence, but no amount of artificial intelligence will ever be able to replicate what God has masterfully created. After all, the term AI means artificial intelligence and holds no real intelligence at all. Who knows where it can lead and the harm it can cause if one of them goes rogue.