The CPX team freaks out about AI, explores stories of “efficiency” run amok, and probes our tech utopias.    --- The apocalypse will be ... boring.  Or so says Charlie Warzel, tech journalist for The Atlantic. He means that AI won’t put you out of a job or take over the world, so much as overstuff your inbox and give you more mind-numbing tasks to complete.  Other people in the know about AI are less optimistic. Geoffrey Hinton, the “godfather” of AI who resigned from Google in May, Sam Altman, the CEO of the company behind ChatGPT, and others have sounded the alarm: AI is progressing too quickly, no one knows exactly how it works, and without careful regulation it will upend life as we know it.   There are a lot of unknowns where technology is concerned. One thing we do know, though, is it makes for great TV, and stories and books.  In this edition of Seen & Heard, the CPX team debriefs on what they’ve been watching and reading.   Natasha takes us through the twists and turns of Amazon Prime’s Mrs Davis, a “bonkers” show about a nun facing off against Mrs Davis, the all-knowing algorithm against whom she has a grudge.   Simon looks at the way George Saunders’ short story “Escape from Spiderhead” (and the Spiderhead film based on it) explores how “the greater good” is used to justify all kinds of evils.   Justine looks closer at the digital utopia on offer in Grace Chan’s speculative novel Every Version of You, and finds that its promise of agelessness, no death, no suffering, and no body is basically heaven without God.     Explore:  ABC article on Replika  Every Version of You by Grace Chan  Escape From Spiderhead by George Saunders (via The New Yorker)  Mrs Davis trailer  Her and a Disembodied Future by Mark Stephens  Andy Crouch’s Richard Johnson Lecture on why technology keeps disappointing us and Q&A  Charlie Warzel: Here’s how AI will come for your job 

Jo Swinney grew up in family committed to environmental care and community. Her parents’ efforts to revitalise a small piece of land in Portugal eventually spawned an international family of organisations committed to conservation of the natural environment.          --- In this wide-ranging discussion, Jo Swinney talks to Simon Smart about growing up in a commune-type existence in Portugal where her English parents were committed to conservation and fostering biodiversity. And also community.  Jo left for boarding school in the UK when she was 13 and live a nomadic existence for many years before settling into marriage and family in England. The smells and sounds of her childhood in Portugal never left her and nor did her commitment to hospitality and creation care.   This is a conversation of touching honesty about family, friendship and the things that sustain us when tragedy strikes.  --- Explore: A Rocha Books by Jo Swinney A Place at The Table: Faith, hope and hospitality Home: The quest to belong   

Can Australia’s “dreaming beauty” – our Indigenous languages – be reclaimed? Meet some people who say a joyful yes.   ---   250 years ago, hundreds of languages were spoken across this continent; today, only about 3 percent survive.   What happened in between is a familiar and harrowing story of dispossession – of land, lives, and culture – including a story of linguicide, or the deliberate killing of language.   Is it possible to revive a language that has been long dormant – that has “gone to sleep on country”, as Charmaine Councillor, a Wardandi-Balladong woman heavily involved in the revival of the Noongar language of southwestern WA, puts it?   In this bumper episode of Life & Faith, Charmaine and her Yamatji colleague Roslyn Khan describe what their language means to them, what the process of learning or relearning it has been like, and how they go about reviving Noongar – including by translating the Bible.   “It’s like when you’re riding a bike for the first time, and you’ve got your training wheels on – then all of a sudden you’re taking off down the road and then you forget about how you’re riding the bike, you’re just riding it and enjoying it. That’s where I am at the moment, I’m getting to the part where I’m really enjoying it and start speaking it more.”  We also hear from Ghil’ad Zuckermann, Professor of Endangered Languages at the University of Adelaide, an Israeli linguist who has been using the work of a 19th-century German missionary to help the Barngarla people of South Australia reclaim their language.  “Aboriginal people who reconnect with their heritage tongue, they feel totally empowered … I would argue that language reclamation can improve the diabetes problem among Aboriginal people. We do need to change our understanding of Aboriginal culture; there are billions or if not trillions of dollars being wasted by the government on tangible things, and I think that there is a total overlook of the intangible. Language is intangible, you cannot touch it. But I think that this intangible element can have a huge benefit when it comes to tangible elements.”   ---  Explore:  The Story of Ruth in Noongar  Gospel of Luke in Noongar/English  Ghil’ad Zuckermann’s book Revivalistics: From the Genesis of Israeli to Language Reclamation in Australia and Beyond 

Nicholas Spencer insists the history of the relationship between science and religion is infinitely more interesting than the myths would have us believe.   --- Most things you ‘know’ about science and religion are myths or half–truths that grew up in the last years of the nineteenth century.  Nick Spencer takes these myths on in his comprehensive book, Magisteria: the entangled histories of science and religion. The history of science and religion is complex. It’s a story of religion at times inspiring scientific discovery and endeavour, and at other times stifling it.   And it’s a deeply human story that remains potent today as we continue to face the profoundly important question: “What is the human being?” And “Who gets to say?”   --- Explore  Nicholas Spencer, Magisteria: The entangled histories of science and faith  Nick Spencer Darwin and God  Nick Spencer Atheists: the origin of the species  Nick Spencer CPX’s Richard Johnson Lecture, “Where did I come from?: Christianity, secularism and the individual.” 

A tender conversation about the start of life, the end of life, and quality of life.  --- 1 in 10 babies in Australia are born premature, and 15% of all babies will need some form of extra care at birth.   Today on Life & Faith, we venture into a place that will be unfamiliar to many – but all too familiar to some: the neonatal intensive care unit, or NICU. Dr Annie Janvier is a neonatologist (she takes care of sick babies); she’s also a researcher and ethicist, thinking about difficult decisions doctors have to make, and trying to understand the perspective and experience of parents in the NICU.   And 17 years ago, she also became the mother of an extremely premature daughter. Violette was born at 24 weeks – and her mother discovered that knowing how a respirator works did not help her to be the mum of a baby on a respirator.   Annie shares some of the emotions that arise from being a parent in NICU; and some of the questions that arise – about life, death, disability, and meaning – for people in this situation. And we have a bonus story for you here too: Andy Crouch describes the short, vulnerable, but deeply significant life of his niece Angela.   ---  Explore:   Annie’s book Breathe, Baby, Breathe! Neonatal Intensive Care, Prematurity, and Complicated Pregnancies  Andy’s book Strong and Weak: Embracing a Life of Love, Risk and True Flourishing