A Brick Layer in Babylonia
Understanding our AI Moment by Considering Innovation Moments in the Past
(Photo by Gowtham AGM on Unsplash)
I’ve never built a brick wall, but I’ve watched it done. It is part function, part art, and a whole lot of work. I’m amazed at the smooth and consistent brick walls I see everywhere, and I recognize that those walls took countless hours of backbreaking labor.
I’m thinking about brick layers today because I want to run a thought experiment designed to help us consider our actions as the AI revolution advances. Let’s put ourselves in the shoes of an imaginary person millennia ago: the brick layer in Babylonia.
The Background
The setting for our story is a plain somewhere in the Middle East called Shinar (or Babylonia). The time is unclear because Genesis chapter 11 doesn’t give us a lot of specifics. The story is one you may be familiar with. It chronicles the building of the Tower of Babel. Back in Genesis 9:1, God tells people to “Be fruitful and multiply. Fill the earth.” This command is given to Noah after the earth is flooded in response to the evil that spreads and takes over the minds and hearts of the people. Genesis tells Noah’s story of punishment, salvation and commissioning. It then maps out his genealogy and goes straight to the story of the people who try and build the city of Babel.
At first we might not think much of the people’s desire for a city. More than half of the world’s population lives in cities today. It is very normal. But in this time, the building of a city was an innovation designed to reject of God’s command, take control of their destiny, and chart their own course.
While we do not know for certain how much time lapsed between the flood that Noah survived and the tower built in Babel, the Book of Genesis couldn’t be clearer. The encroachment of evil did not stop when the flood waters receded.
The Thought Experiment
“They began saying to each other, ‘Let’s make bricks and harden them with fire.’” — Genesis 11:3
Imagine you are a brick layer in Babylonia. You’ve ended up on this plain where people begin to make the plans for the city of Babel and its crown jewel . . . a tower. You aren’t the mastermind. Others have the big plans and dreams. You’ve attended the meetings around the fire pit and heard their pitch. They describe their vision of safety, plenty, and power.
After the vision casting meeting, you went home and talked with your spouse about what you heard. Your parents were nomads, herding animals and foraging for food. They were descendants from Noah and you grew up hearing the salvation story of Noah and the ark. The command God gave when Noah’s feet were back on dry land was referred to all the time and discussed among your parents, their parents, and on and on. It was pretty clear what being “fruitful and multiplying” meant but what about the whole “Fill the earth” part?
You remember hearing reports about people who lived by the sea, others who had gone North, South, East and West. Was this requirement now complete? Was it the job of some but not others? How do you measure what it means to fill the earth? It’s such a big place! These are the fodder of late night discussions after long hard days of work.
In the meantime, you are one of the early adopters of building with brick. It started because you needed a better solution to house your animals at night. Stick fences were flimsy and the predators found ways around them. The technology of brick-making appeared as people tired of the nomadic lifestyle and wanted the stability of a home. You saw a man making bricks and your imagination was sparked. He didn’t know who first made them, but learned the basics from a neighbor. You had always been a dreamer and a builder. You saw what these bricks could build and immediately saw the potential. You are drawn into this new and exciting time of innovation and transformation.
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The possibilities are endless and that motivated you to experiment. You begin to make your own bricks, first for the animal pen and then for your own home. There are plenty of opportunity to try new techniques and experiment with how to make them as hard and durable as possible. As you build, many still have questions. “Won’t the bricks simply wash away with the first big storm?” or “How will having a pen for animals or a house for us change our way of life?”
You don’t know the answers to these questions, but the possibilities of what bricks could do drive you to keep experimenting and learning the skill. Soon, you have a reputation as a master brick layer. People stop you to ask about your latest experiments and tips for their own efforts.
Bricks start appearing everywhere. Out of the dust come walls, animal pens, homes, latrines, and community buildings. It is a building boom and everyone is captivated. Your skills are now in high demand. You give classes on brick making and laying, wealthy neighbors hire you to help them build their creation, and the community leaders take notice.
The result of all this brick laying is a settling of your community. You aren’t moving around much anymore. Instead of traveling with your animals and simply setting up your tents, you have a home base and venture out to find food and grazing lands. The whole posture of your community is changing around you and much of it has to do with the impact of these bricks.
This brings us back to the vision meetings around the fire that you attended. Your innovative work has helped spark a revolution and those in power want to take the natural next steps. They want to build a city. No, they want to build a city with a tower that will “make [them] famous and keep [them] from being scattered all over the world.” (Genesis 11:4)
You don’t care much for their grandiose plans, but you love making bricks. You love how they feel in your hand and the way they build something so solid and helpful. You are good at your craft. Now your craft has a purpose in the eyes of the leaders. They want their tower and you are the expert who can build it for them. Saying “no” is not really an option. The pressure is mounting.
(Photo by Nguyễn Vy on Unsplash)
After discussing it with family, friends and other brick layers, you decide to be a part of the project. You aren’t the only innovator in this space, so others are taking the lead. But you are one of the experts that gives the project credibility and gives the investors confidence.
At first you tell yourself, “I’m simply building another building . . . no different than the last 20 I’ve constructed.” But soon you realize that the size and scope of this building project make it something different. You wrestle with the echos of God’s command on your mind and in your heart while you oversee the work. Are you standing in the way of filling the earth? Are you simply creating an outpost of connection for others who will be called to do that work? Is your effort aligned with God’s command or contrary to it?
As you take up a brick and lay it in place, your mind continues to ask these questions. You are seeing the pride and power surge among the people as the walls rise. You question whether that motivation would honor your God or distract from worship of Him. The power plays discourage you; even as you continue to build. You love your work and you are proud of the rising walls, but what is driving them as they rise? Are you being carried along into something you cannot support or are you simply using this amazing innovation to help your community flourish?
My AI Journey
As background to the next phase of my thought experiment, I thought it would be helpful to share a few reflections on my journey with Artificial Intelligence (AI). I consider myself a thoughtful optimist. I am an innovator and have been part of helping the faith-based nonprofit world wrestle with the last few major technological disruptions. I began my career in the Dot Com Bubble, championed early digital transformation efforts, advocated for the adoption of social media, helped imagine the potential of mobile technology in ministry, and oversaw the building of early AI tools in the Bible translation space.
At the same time, I recognized from early on that AI is fundamentally different in scope and scale from the other technology disruptions that I helped nonprofits navigate. You can read through my thought journey on this curated page of all my writing, speaking and interviews on the topic of AI.
While my concerns continue to grow as I watch how AI is being developed and used, I am still an optimist. Why? I am an optimist because I believe something about the Tower of Babel that most people don’t consider. From my years working at SIL Global, a nonprofit focused on helping everyone flourish with the languages they value most, I was introduced to another way to view the Tower of Babel Story. Dr. Gary Simons, a friend and mentor, says it this way in his 2020 presentation at the God and Language Forum: “‘Confusing’ the language at Babel was a means of restoring the original blessing after the people had rebelled by building a city to avoid scattering over all the earth.”
His point is this, “What if we have been misunderstanding the Tower of Babel story this whole time?” Instead of seeing the breaking up of people’s languages as a punishment, what if it was God’s way of reseting things (like He did in the Great Flood) to be aligned with His will and ways? It may have been one more example of God’s continued love and kindness to correct His children so that they would, for a time, be free from the oppression of pride, power and empire.
As I consider this story, I take comfort that the prideful and selfish intentions of a fallen world are no match for a God who is in the process of bringing in a new Kingdom. And in that new Kingdom, God is on the throne. So whatever form pride, power and empire take in our world today, they are only temporary. And God is actively co-creating His new Kingdom with those of us who are loyal to Him. He will use whatever a fallen world constructs as part of His ultimate plan of redemption. Nothing is wasted in God’s Kingdom!
The Thought Experiment Continued . . .
I see myself in Babel’s brick layer, but I didn’t set out to make bricks. I’m a communications major who graduated from Judson University with a passion to communicate things that matter to God in ways that would move the world. But after several internships at magazines, newspapers and marketing firms, my wife and I were hungry to use our skills in a more proactive way. We ended up at One Hope, an organization that wants to bring God’s Word to every child in the world. They asked us to come and develop one of the early interactive youth Internet evangelism programs (in 1998!). Answering that call, set me on a path to a life of Kingdom innovation.
Starting with the early days of the Internet and move forward into the many different cycles of disruption and innovation, I find myself continually in the middle of making sense of these new tools and helping others to navigate what it means to apply them to their mission. I didn’t invent anything. Instead, my job is to imagine how these tools might be used.
Like the brick layer, I love the innovation, the possibilities, and the creativity of something new. But as a follower of God and as a co-creator in His Kingdom, at His invitation, I look at each new innovation through His lens. I see how it might be of help and I see the potential for harm.
I sit around the fire hearing the great visions of others who want to use this new innovation for this purpose or that. I’m asked to leverage my experience and skill set to help different leaders harness the power of what is new to accomplish their vision for the future.
As I build, I spend one moment crafting and the next critiquing. My heart is for Kingdom impact but the allure of the innovation can be overpowering. Some days I’m carried away by the opportunities and potential. Other days my heart is full of dread at what we are creating and how it might cause great harm. On both of those days I fail to keep my priorities straight. I lose sight of the real narrative; the big picture.
Your Turn
Now it’s your turn. In your excitement for the latest innovation, are you helping build the next Tower of Babel? Imagine yourself as the master brick layer tasked with building the Tower of Babel.
What are your motivations?
Where are your allegiances?
Why did you get involved?
What is God asking you to do with your passion and skill?
How is your mastery of brick laying being used?
What influence are you having on the way this innovation is being implemented?
Are you able to live a life fully surrendered to God as you do your work?
Are you making decisions with the innovation based on your values and beliefs?
When the investors and leaders make a request that goes against those values and beliefs, what is your response?
If you realize in the middle of the project that what you thought was being done for good is being developed for evil, what would you do next?
How would you care for and help those struggling to adapt to a world full of bricks and buildings?
Are you seeking ways to use the new innovation to co-create with God as He ushers in His forever Kingdom?
Alternate Ending
Currently the narratives around the AI Revolution entertain two potential endings. The optimistic one imagines a world of plenty where the super intelligence we create makes it possible for us to live our best lives. In this scenario we solve the world’s greatest problems and manage to keep control of our creation.
(Photo by Emmanuel Appiah on Unsplash)
The pessimistic one imagines a world where things don’t go as planned. We lose control of our creation in our rush to innovate. Imbued with all our faults and none of our God-given discernment, it refuses to hold back from doing as it pleases.
(Photo by RM Photography on Unsplash)
But does the Tower of Babel and our brick layer thought experiment point to another potential ending? What if our development of AI only rises as far as the walls of Babel’s Tower did? Does God have other plans for humanities’ next steps that will redirect us towards His ultimate Kingdom aims?
It is important that we ask a follow-up question to ourselves.
“When God created multiple languages after Babel, what did the brick layer do?”
Did he give up brick laying? Did he practice his new trade with the group he shared a language with? Did he stay faithful to God? Did he stop believing in everything after being let down by his leaders and redirected by his God?
How we answer that question in our thought experiment should inform how we approach the AI revolution that is ultimately directed by God. If we agree that the powers of this world are building a super intelligence driven by pride, power and aspiration of empire, then as God’s people, how can we use the very same super intelligence? Is the core innovation flawed or simply its application? Are there redemptive uses of the innovation that simply require alignment with God’s purposes? Would we be willing to turn away from a certain tool, feature or advance in the innovation if we found that it was harmful to us or others? Would we be willing to advocate for those who are being harmed by selfish and misguided uses of the innovation? Are we allowing ourselves to be held accountable as we innovate and explore?
Thank you for joining me in this thought experiment. As with any experiment, you don’t know where you will end up when you start. This one was no different. I appreciate your grace as my exploration unfolded. I hope you will find the time and courage to go on your own thought experiment.
Remember . . .
“Not all who wander are lost.” J.R.R. Tolkien
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