Abstract

This is a reply to comments on my paper Cog, a Humanoid Robot, and the Questions of the Image of God; one was written by Mary Gerhart and Allan Melvin Russell, and another one by Helmut Reich. I will start with the suggested analogy of the relationship between God and us and the one between us and the humanoid robot Cog and will show why this analogy is not helpful for the dialogue between theology and artificial intelligence (AI). Such a dialogue can succeed only if both our fascination for humanoids and our fear of them are equally accepted. Any avoidance of these emotions, as well as any rejection of the possibility that Cog might one day be humanlike, destroy the dialogue. The interpretation of both scientific theories and religious metaphors as stories replaces seemingly “rational” arguments with the confession of the respective commitments to a body of stories and opens up a space for exchange and friendship between AI‐researchers and theologians—an option that usually remains closed.

Keywords

K. Helmut Reich, artificial intelligence, robot, dialogue, image of God, Mary Gerhart, scientific and religious stories, Allan Melvin Russell, Cog

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