Check out this fascinating video. Cornell University’s ‘Creative Machines Lab’ have created a ‘ChatBot’. It’s a computer program that mimics human conversation. Their aim is to create something so intelligent and convincing that a human could be in an audio conversation with it and think they were talking to a real person.

As a bit of fun they decided to wire two ChatBots together and see what kind of conversation they’d have back and forth. They exchange pleasantries, but then talk about deeper things like belief in God, having bodies and trying to resolve a disagreement. Watching two machines argue is pretty surreal!

Mashable says : “At the Loebner Prize Competition in Artificial Intelligence on October 19, the program will be paired not with itself but with humans. If it fools at least two humans into thinking that it, too, is human, the team will take home $25,000. One day a team might take home a $100,000 prize for introducing a completely convincing audiovisual imitation as well, a goal that the IEEE’s blog calls “closer than you think.

This has interesting effects on our theology of personhood/the value of the individual. If a ChatBot could replace customer service employees, what are we saying about the value of human-to-human communication? Or the value of vocation and training in fulfilling a role like providing people with answers and information?

I already struggle with the numerous automated banking/phone/bill paying services, where you get stuck in endless menus saying “speak after the beep”!

Would you like to see more services run by machines/ChatBots? Do you think they could provide a good enough level of service? Does this free people up to do other more interesting roles, or does it take away important work that people have trained to become excellent in? Will it, like the use of robots and machines in factories, leave well-trained people without jobs?

Fancy chatting to a ChatBot yourself? You can. Visit CleverBot.com, where you type in conversation and are responded back to, by CleverBot software. It shows its limitations but also its skills too!

The goal of all this seems to be, to create machines that someday will be hard to distinguish from human beings. One on hand this fascinates me (because I am a geek and I love the advancement of technology). On the other hand it is sobering, as we will have more and more ethical questions to face, as the lines between human and machine become increasingly blurry in the days to come.

It reminds me of The Matrix, when Agent Smith (the bad guy) is discovered to be a computer program rather than a human being. Perhaps we’ll have this problem in the decades ahead?!

I heard someone comment today that it’s funny how robots can be excellent at things we find hard (like complex mathematics). Yet some things we find very simple, they will really struggle with (like reading social signals, or hearing noises from far away). Much is needed to close that gap. But it’s getting ever closer.

Over to you:

• How close do you think technology will get to replicating a human being in communication skills and thought?

• Do you think you could be fooled by a highly programmed ChatBot at the end of a phone?

• What spiritual questions does all of this raise about our value of people vs machines?

• On a more fun level, if you had a robot, what task would you like it to be able to perform? Vacuuming? Making your dinner? Driving your car?

Thanks for being part of my blog community and walking the journey of life with me. I really value you all and consider you a key part of my life!

Exciting news…. (drum roll!)

After a lot of thinking and praying over the past few years I’ve decided that I want to do some more studying. So I’m starting a PhD in Theology this January.

I love leading worship and still get as many booking requests as ever. So I could easily tour full time if I wanted to. Lots of other options were presented to me- like going on staff as the worship leader at several American megachurches in beautiful locations, which to most worship leaders sounds like the dream job. But I can’t escape God’s pull on my heart to return to study and invest in this academic part of my calling.

My record label have given me their blessing, as have all the other people who speak into my life. So I’ve decided to stay on the British side of the Pond and dig deep into some dusty old books :-)

I’ve looked at a lot of Universities and have chosen Durham.

Durham’s Theology department ranked No. 1 in the UK in recent years for its excellence in research, beating both Oxford and Cambridge

It ranks in the UK’s Top 3 Universities and has close links with Duke University in the States.

Harry Potter 1 & 2 were filmed in Durham cathedral – so it’s the literal site of Hogwarts! Check out this link to see the images of the cathedral in the movie.

Durham has a unique cutting edge research initiative called “CODEC” studying the interaction between the online world and Christian spirituality. So clearly that’s up my street! This area will be the focus of my studies.

Alongside my PhD studies I’ll be a ‘Research Fellow’ at Durham too, doing some teaching and research. One of the places I’ll be inputting into is Cranmer Hall, Durham’s training college for Church of England ordinands.

I would love your prayers as I make this exciting transition!

I’ll still be working with Spring Harvest and Compassion, writing songs, leading worship and blogging. But most my time will be spent in libraries writing papers, which I’m very much looking forward to!

Some people might think studying academic theology sounds boring - and at worst a waste of time. A few people have said to me “why study more?! Just get out there and live it!”. For me, growing in my understanding of God is a crucial part of following him.

When I study theology I am worshipping God with my mind and heart simultaneously. As my mind learns more about him, my heart is stirred to love him more. As someone once said ‘revelation leads to response’.

The way I most deeply experience revelation about God, is through studying theology. It’s different for everyone, but that’s a huge way that God speaks to me and it has inspired most of my song lyrics.

I’ll be blogging about this journey of returning to study, spending time in Durham and all that I’m learning. So watch this space for those posts in the new year!

Thanks for your support :-)

Over to you:

• What books have you read that have stirred your mind to worship God? Which would you recommend to others?

• Have you thought about enrolling in the occasional theology class somewhere? Is that an option for you now, or someday?

Yes, the picture on the right is me as a little girl…no jokes about my ‘bowl’ haircut!!

This post will explore the crazy reality that we are the last generation who have experienced society without the existence of the internet.

Those of us who are my age or older grew up without the internet, without a DSi, a Wii or touch screen devices. I remember playing Donkey Kong on an ancient gaming device and feeling very high tech!

My nephew and nieces are incredulous when I explain to them that texting, Google and online gaming didn’t feature in my childhood.

So when did ‘the web’ really get started? On August 6th 1991, over 20 years ago, the first ever website was published. The author was Tim Berners-Lee, a worker at CERN.

CERN look back at it, saying:

“Info.cern.ch was the address of the world’s first-ever web site and web server, running on a NeXT computer at CERN. The first web page address was: http://info.cern.ch/hypertext/WWW/TheProject.html  which centred on information regarding the WWW project.

Visitors could learn more about hypertext, technical details for creating their own webpage, and even an explanation on how to search the Web for information.

There are no screenshots of this original page and, in any case, changes were made daily to the information available on the page as the WWW project developed.

You may find a later copy (1992) on the World Wide Web Consortium website.” 

Can you imagine if this hadn’t happened? What would our world and society look like if the “www” phenomenon hadn’t begun that day? How would you be different….your job…your relationships…the way you spend your free time?

It’s amazing how fast change happens. Back in 1991, no one could even see the website Berners-Lee created, except for him and his co-workers at CERN. They were the only ones with web browsing software!

Yet today, there are SO many words, gadgets and ways of life that have become second nature to us, all because CERN’s “www project” was a vast success.

Even Bill Gates was once a denier of the potential of the ‘net. Apparently he stood against the idea to release a web browser, then eventually agreed to launch Internet Explorer. Now a skilled foreseer of where this is all going, he says:

“If you can imagine something that might happen technologically,

it will probably happen in the next 10 years;

if you can’t imagine it, it might take a generation.”  (source).

As a writer for the Guardian puts it:

“One day, presumably, everything that has happened in the last 40 years will look like early throat-clearings

— mere preparations for whatever the internet is destined to become.

We will be the equivalents of the late-60s computer engineers, in their horn-rimmed glasses, brown suits, and brown ties,

strange, period-costume characters populating some dimly remembered past” (source)

So hooray for the existence of websites…they are over 20 years old now! I’m certainly glad they were born.

But, as the last generation who will ever be able to comment on life before WWW, let’s chat about how things were ‘back then’.

We all know that the things that impacted us as children. I’ve studied some child psychology and was fascinated about how each key stage of development affects how our adult brain will see the world, think, speak and behave. Our upbringing has shaped a lot of who we are today.

Over to you:

• Do you think we benefited from growing up without the internet, mobile phones or online gaming? (Some of you might be too young to answer this!)

• If you are around children these days, what do you see them doing with their time? How does it differ from your upbringing?

• If you have kids, or want to have kids, how do/would you let them use new technology, or limit it?