At 11:20am today (5:20am EST), in the Clementine Hall at the Vatican Apostolic Palace, the Holy Father, Pope Francis received in audience those who are participating in the Plenary Assembly of the Pontifical Academy for Life, which is celebrating its 25th anniversary this year.
The theme of the meeting - which is taking place from 25 to 27 February in the New Synod Hall at the Vatican is: Robo-ethics, people, machines and health.
Dear brothers and sisters,
I cordially greet you on the occasion of your General Assembly, and I thank Archbishop Paglia for his kind words. This meeting takes place in the first Jubilee of the Academy for Life: 25 years after its birth. On this important anniversary, I sent the President last month a letter titled Humana communitas. What moved me to write this message is, first of all, the wish to thank all the Presidents who have taken the lead of the Academy and all the Members for the competent service and the generous commitment to protect and promote human life during these 25 years of activity.
We know the difficulties with which our world struggles. The fabric of family and social relations seems to wear down more and more and there is a tendency to close in on oneself and on one's own individual interests, with serious consequences regarding the great and decisive question of the unity of the human family and its future (Letter, Humana communitas, 2). A dramatic paradox is thus outlined: just when humanity possesses the scientific and technical capacities to achieve a fairly widespread well-being, according to God's delivery, we observe instead an exacerbation of conflicts and an increase in inequality. The enlightenment myth of progress declines and the accumulation of the potentialities that science and technology have provided us do not always get the desired results. In fact, on the one hand, technological development has allowed us to solve problems that were insurmountable until a few years ago, and we are grateful to the researchers who have achieved these results; on the other hand, difficulties and threats, sometimes more insidious than the previous ones, have emerged. The being able to do risks obscuring the person doing it. The technocratic system based on the criterion of efficiency does not respond to the most profound questions that man poses; and if on the one hand it is not possible to do without its resources, on the other it imposes its logic on those who use them. Yet the technique is characteristic of the human being. It should not be understood as a force that is alien and hostile to it, but as a product of its ingenuity through which it provides for the needs of living for oneself and for others. It is therefore a specifically human mode of inhabiting the world. However, today's evolution of technical capacity produces a dangerous enchantment: instead of delivering the tools that improve their care for human life, there is the risk of giving life to the logic of the devices that decide its value. This overturning is destined to produce nefarious outcomes: the machine is not limited to driving alone, but ends up guiding man. Human reason is thus reduced to an alienated rationality of effects, which cannot be considered worthy of man.
Unfortunately, we see the serious damage caused to the planet, our common home, from the indiscriminate use of technical means. This is why global bioethics is an important front on which to engage. It expresses awareness of the profound impact of environmental and social factors on health and life. This approach is very in tune with the integral ecology, described and promoted in the Encyclical Laudato si '. Moreover, in today's world, marked by a close interaction between different cultures, we need to bring the specific contribution of believers to the search for universally shared operational criteria, which are common points of reference for the choices of those who have the serious responsibility for decisions made on a national and international level. This also means engaging in dialogue regarding human rights, clearly highlighting their corresponding duties. In fact they constitute the ground for the common search for a universal ethic, on which we find many questions that tradition has dealt with by drawing on the patrimony of natural law.
The Letter Humana communitas explicitly recalls the theme of emerging and converging technologies. The possibility to intervene on living matter to orders of ever smaller size, to process ever larger volumes of information, to monitor - and manipulate - the cerebral processes of cognitive and deliberative activity, has enormous implications: it touches the very threshold of the specifically biological and spiritual differences of the human being. In this sense, I affirmed that the difference in human life is an absolute good (HC, 4).
It is important to reiterate: Artificial intelligence, robotics and other technological innovations must be used to contribute to the service of humanity and to the protection of our common home rather than to the exact opposite, as unfortunately some estimates predict ( Message to the World Economic Forum in Davos, 12 January 2018). The inherent dignity of every human being must be firmly placed at the centre of our reflection and action. In this regard, it should be noted that the designation of artificial intelligence, although certainly effective, may risk being misleading. The terms conceal the fact that - in spite of the useful fulfillment of servile tasks (this is the original meaning of the term robot), functional automatons remain qualitatively distant from the human prerogatives of knowledge and action. And therefore they can become socially dangerous. Moreover, the risk of man being technologized, rather than the humanized technique, is already real: so-called intelligent machines are hastily attributed capacities that are properly human.
We need to better understand what intelligence, conscience, emotionality, affective intentionality and the autonomy of moral action mean in this context. In fact, artificial devices that simulate human capabilities are devoid of human qualities. These must be taken into account to guide the regulation of their use, and the research itself, towards a constructive and equitable interaction between human beings and the latest versions of machines. In fact, they spread in our world and radically transform the scenario of our existence. If we can also bring these references to bear in mind, the extraordinary potential of the new discoveries can radiate their benefits on every person and on the whole of humanity.
The ongoing debate among the same specialists already shows the serious problems of the governability of algorithms that process huge amounts of data. In addition, serious ethical questions are posed by technologies involved in the manipulation of genetic makeup and brain functions. In any case, the attempt to explain the entirety of thought, sensitivity and the human psyche on the basis of the functional sum of its physical and organic parts, does not account for the emergence of the phenomena of experience and consciousness. The human phenomenon exceeds the result of the calculable assembly of the individual elements. Also in this context, the axiom according to which the whole is superior to the parts takes on new depth and meaning (cf Evangelii Gaudium, 234-237).
Precisely along this line of the complexity of the synergy of psyche and techno, on the other hand, what we learn about brain activity provides new clues about the way of understanding conscience (of self and of the world) and the human body itself: it is not possible to disregard the interweaving of multiple relationships for a deeper understanding of the integral human dimension.
Of course, from the data of the empirical sciences we can not draw metaphysical deductions. We can, however, draw from them indications that instruct anthropological reflection, even in theology, as has always happened in its history. It would indeed be decidedly contrary to our more genuine tradition to set ourselves on an anachronistic conceptual apparatus, incapable of adequately intermingling with the transformations of the concept of nature and artifice, conditioning and freedom, of means and ends, induced by the new culture of acting which are typical of the technological era. We are called to place ourselves on the path taken firmly by the Second Vatican Council, which calls for the renewal of theological disciplines and a critical reflection on the relationship between Christian faith and moral action (cf. Optatam Totius, 16).
Our commitment - both intellectual and specialist - will be a point of honour for our participation in the ethical alliance in favour of human life. This is a project that now, in a context in which increasingly sophisticated technological devices directly involve the human qualities of the body and the psyche, we must urgently share with all men and women engaged in scientific research and care work. It is a difficult task, certainly, given the fast pace of innovation. The example of the teachers of the believing intelligence, who entered with wisdom and audacity in the processes of their contemporaneity, in view of an understanding of the patrimony of the faith worthy of a man's reason, must encourage and sustain us.
I encourage you to continue your study and research, so that the work of promoting and defending life may always be increasingly effective and fruitful. May the Virgin Mother help you and may my blessing accompany you. And please, do not forget to pray for me. Thank you.
(Original text in Italian)
The theme of the meeting - which is taking place from 25 to 27 February in the New Synod Hall at the Vatican is: Robo-ethics, people, machines and health.
Greetings of His Holiness, Pope Francis
offered to the Plenary Assembly of the
Pontifical Academy for Life
Dear brothers and sisters,
I cordially greet you on the occasion of your General Assembly, and I thank Archbishop Paglia for his kind words. This meeting takes place in the first Jubilee of the Academy for Life: 25 years after its birth. On this important anniversary, I sent the President last month a letter titled Humana communitas. What moved me to write this message is, first of all, the wish to thank all the Presidents who have taken the lead of the Academy and all the Members for the competent service and the generous commitment to protect and promote human life during these 25 years of activity.
We know the difficulties with which our world struggles. The fabric of family and social relations seems to wear down more and more and there is a tendency to close in on oneself and on one's own individual interests, with serious consequences regarding the great and decisive question of the unity of the human family and its future (Letter, Humana communitas, 2). A dramatic paradox is thus outlined: just when humanity possesses the scientific and technical capacities to achieve a fairly widespread well-being, according to God's delivery, we observe instead an exacerbation of conflicts and an increase in inequality. The enlightenment myth of progress declines and the accumulation of the potentialities that science and technology have provided us do not always get the desired results. In fact, on the one hand, technological development has allowed us to solve problems that were insurmountable until a few years ago, and we are grateful to the researchers who have achieved these results; on the other hand, difficulties and threats, sometimes more insidious than the previous ones, have emerged. The being able to do risks obscuring the person doing it. The technocratic system based on the criterion of efficiency does not respond to the most profound questions that man poses; and if on the one hand it is not possible to do without its resources, on the other it imposes its logic on those who use them. Yet the technique is characteristic of the human being. It should not be understood as a force that is alien and hostile to it, but as a product of its ingenuity through which it provides for the needs of living for oneself and for others. It is therefore a specifically human mode of inhabiting the world. However, today's evolution of technical capacity produces a dangerous enchantment: instead of delivering the tools that improve their care for human life, there is the risk of giving life to the logic of the devices that decide its value. This overturning is destined to produce nefarious outcomes: the machine is not limited to driving alone, but ends up guiding man. Human reason is thus reduced to an alienated rationality of effects, which cannot be considered worthy of man.
Unfortunately, we see the serious damage caused to the planet, our common home, from the indiscriminate use of technical means. This is why global bioethics is an important front on which to engage. It expresses awareness of the profound impact of environmental and social factors on health and life. This approach is very in tune with the integral ecology, described and promoted in the Encyclical Laudato si '. Moreover, in today's world, marked by a close interaction between different cultures, we need to bring the specific contribution of believers to the search for universally shared operational criteria, which are common points of reference for the choices of those who have the serious responsibility for decisions made on a national and international level. This also means engaging in dialogue regarding human rights, clearly highlighting their corresponding duties. In fact they constitute the ground for the common search for a universal ethic, on which we find many questions that tradition has dealt with by drawing on the patrimony of natural law.
The Letter Humana communitas explicitly recalls the theme of emerging and converging technologies. The possibility to intervene on living matter to orders of ever smaller size, to process ever larger volumes of information, to monitor - and manipulate - the cerebral processes of cognitive and deliberative activity, has enormous implications: it touches the very threshold of the specifically biological and spiritual differences of the human being. In this sense, I affirmed that the difference in human life is an absolute good (HC, 4).
It is important to reiterate: Artificial intelligence, robotics and other technological innovations must be used to contribute to the service of humanity and to the protection of our common home rather than to the exact opposite, as unfortunately some estimates predict ( Message to the World Economic Forum in Davos, 12 January 2018). The inherent dignity of every human being must be firmly placed at the centre of our reflection and action. In this regard, it should be noted that the designation of artificial intelligence, although certainly effective, may risk being misleading. The terms conceal the fact that - in spite of the useful fulfillment of servile tasks (this is the original meaning of the term robot), functional automatons remain qualitatively distant from the human prerogatives of knowledge and action. And therefore they can become socially dangerous. Moreover, the risk of man being technologized, rather than the humanized technique, is already real: so-called intelligent machines are hastily attributed capacities that are properly human.
We need to better understand what intelligence, conscience, emotionality, affective intentionality and the autonomy of moral action mean in this context. In fact, artificial devices that simulate human capabilities are devoid of human qualities. These must be taken into account to guide the regulation of their use, and the research itself, towards a constructive and equitable interaction between human beings and the latest versions of machines. In fact, they spread in our world and radically transform the scenario of our existence. If we can also bring these references to bear in mind, the extraordinary potential of the new discoveries can radiate their benefits on every person and on the whole of humanity.
The ongoing debate among the same specialists already shows the serious problems of the governability of algorithms that process huge amounts of data. In addition, serious ethical questions are posed by technologies involved in the manipulation of genetic makeup and brain functions. In any case, the attempt to explain the entirety of thought, sensitivity and the human psyche on the basis of the functional sum of its physical and organic parts, does not account for the emergence of the phenomena of experience and consciousness. The human phenomenon exceeds the result of the calculable assembly of the individual elements. Also in this context, the axiom according to which the whole is superior to the parts takes on new depth and meaning (cf Evangelii Gaudium, 234-237).
Precisely along this line of the complexity of the synergy of psyche and techno, on the other hand, what we learn about brain activity provides new clues about the way of understanding conscience (of self and of the world) and the human body itself: it is not possible to disregard the interweaving of multiple relationships for a deeper understanding of the integral human dimension.
Of course, from the data of the empirical sciences we can not draw metaphysical deductions. We can, however, draw from them indications that instruct anthropological reflection, even in theology, as has always happened in its history. It would indeed be decidedly contrary to our more genuine tradition to set ourselves on an anachronistic conceptual apparatus, incapable of adequately intermingling with the transformations of the concept of nature and artifice, conditioning and freedom, of means and ends, induced by the new culture of acting which are typical of the technological era. We are called to place ourselves on the path taken firmly by the Second Vatican Council, which calls for the renewal of theological disciplines and a critical reflection on the relationship between Christian faith and moral action (cf. Optatam Totius, 16).
Our commitment - both intellectual and specialist - will be a point of honour for our participation in the ethical alliance in favour of human life. This is a project that now, in a context in which increasingly sophisticated technological devices directly involve the human qualities of the body and the psyche, we must urgently share with all men and women engaged in scientific research and care work. It is a difficult task, certainly, given the fast pace of innovation. The example of the teachers of the believing intelligence, who entered with wisdom and audacity in the processes of their contemporaneity, in view of an understanding of the patrimony of the faith worthy of a man's reason, must encourage and sustain us.
I encourage you to continue your study and research, so that the work of promoting and defending life may always be increasingly effective and fruitful. May the Virgin Mother help you and may my blessing accompany you. And please, do not forget to pray for me. Thank you.
(Original text in Italian)
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