Instructor: Dr. Butler
Email: preed-butler@iliff.edu
Office Hours: Zoom By Appointment
Phone: (303)765-3124
Zoom ID: 818 608 7210
Course Synopsis: Artificial intelligence (AI) in the early 21st century is rapidly growing. Much like other technologies made famous by speculative fiction and sci-fi AI exists, but in nascent less fantastical modes. In a process sense AI is still more conceptual than a fully formed physical reality. So, questions arise such as “what are theological thinkers doing to meet AI where it is?” This course seeks to explore myriad perspectives on the ways AI is simultaneously being conceptualized by religious scholars and how it is subsequently reshaping theological thought.
Learning Outcomes:
After taking this class, students will be able to:
Course Requirements:
Throughout the quarter, we will have several discussions which will compose a large part of our engagement with each other in this online learning space. For these discussions to be meaningful conversation spaces, we all need to take responsibility for consistent and substantial participation. Over the course of a conversation, substantial engagement means:
Things to consider: While we learn from each other from our interactions it is important to remember you classmates are not here to teach you through the justification of their experience/existence. It is also helpful to keep in mind that we take each other's histories and backgrounds seriously--being mindful that humor around these issues can be easily misconstrued.
Each post need not do all of these things, but your overall participation in each conversation should demonstrate all of these components. You might have several short posts and a handful of longer posts in a week or you might have only a few strategic substantial posts (minimum of 2 posts per discussion). Either way, your overall participation in each conversation will be evaluated for substantial engagement. The goal of this discussion design is to encourage and reward interchange, so post often and engage each other with meaningful questions that open to other questions.
I am looking for posts that help us understand and analyze the text at hand. Application of our texts to new situations is of course the ultimate goal, but we can't do that responsibly without understanding what the author is doing first. And that can be hard!
If your first post (due Thursday) focuses on one of the assigned papers/readings, please focus your second post on a discussion about another paper/reading.
. These address student learning outcomes 1-6 .Each student will prepare 3 papers of 3 double-spaced pages each (no less than 1200 words). You will choose two readings you will write about and one background paper in the Paper Sign up assignment.
Post Papers
On a week you have signed up to write, you will submit your paper on canvas for grading. Background papers and one of your reading papers will also be shared as discussion starters for that week. So, on the week you write a background paper and on the week you have indicated that you want to share you reading paper, you will post the paper both in the paper assignment area and as an attachment to a discussion post in our discussion for that week.
Discussing Papers
All students not writing in a week will read all of the posted papers and choose one to engage substantially with a robust response by the first discussion deadline for the week. See Discussion Guidelines for more details on discussion expectations. By the second discussion deadline each week, students will need to participate substantially in the discussion at least one additional time. Late postings will not be accepted.
Paper Types
Evaluating Papers:
Papers will be graded according to the following 4 criteria:
In a short paper the claim typically appears as the last sentence of the introductory paragraph (if it is not there the writer needs clearly to mark where it is, since otherwise readers will assume that sentence is the claim). A claim states the conclusion of the argument put forward in the paper. You have a great deal of freedom here. A claim might state what is the most important idea in the reading, or what the author must assume to make his or her argument, or what the logical extension of that argument might be, or how that argument relates to other readings on our syllabus, or what the author gets right or wrong, etc. In a short paper you will likely not be able to summarize the all the points the author makes, nor should you try. Part of your task of analysis is to prioritize what is most important to lift up for discussion for our class. Your paper will likely not follow the same organization as the reading under analysis, since the logic of your argument will not be the same as the logic of the argument of the reading. If your paragraphs tend to begin “And then . . .; Next . . .” then it is probably time to go back and do at least one more draft and re-think what you are presenting and how. Papers for this class are a little closer to the summary end of the spectrum than a term paper might be, since they are the basis for our discussion. But they are still papers that make engage the text by making a point about the text.
The purpose of the papers is three-fold:
Papers will be graded on the following scale:
4 = A |
3 = B |
2 = C |
1 = D |
0 = F |
Each student will write 3 papers this term: 1 on a background topic and 2 on course readings. Please choose 2 readings from the list below, without choosing more than 1 in any single week and without choosing the same author twice. Please choose 1 background paper slot below, preferably not in a week you are writing one of your reading papers. Ideally, each student will only write one paper in a given week. For more details on the requirements for these papers, see Paper Guidelines.
Your background papers and one of the two reading papers you choose to write will be used to initiate our discussion for the week. Please indicate the reading paper you wish to use as conversation starter by BOLDING your name in that slot. On this week you will post your reading paper BOTH as an assignment to be graded and as an attachment to a discussion post in our discussion for that week. Background papers will always be posted both as an assignment and in the discussion as an attachment.
To make your selections, click Edit in the top right corner of the page and enter your name in the Sign up column for 2 readings and 1 Background. Please choose readings that do not have anyone signed up before adding your name in the second slot for a reading. Only the number of students indicated by each slot can sign up for that reading, so if a reading or background already has all spots filled, you must choose another. Once you have entered your name in 3 spots and bolded the reading paper you want to share with the class, be sure to click Save at the bottom of the page and check to make sure the saved page has your name in the slots you selected. You can always come back to this page to see the papers you chose to write.
Topic | Reading | Sign up |
Week 1 |
An Intro to AI and Religion for the Religious Studies Scholar |
|
Religious AI as an Option to the Risks of Superintelligence: A Protestant Theological Perspective |
David Dashifen Kees |
|
Background | ||
Week 2 |
Decolonization of the Digital world and practical theology |
Lyse Fedjanie Barronville |
Global AI Ethics: Review of Social Impacts and Ethical Implications of AI |
|
|
Background |
Seth Ratliff |
|
Week 3 |
Distributed, Decentralized, and Democratized AI |
Lewis Cox |
Political Theology of Entropy: A Katechon for the Cybernetic Age |
Elixah Taylor |
|
Background |
John Fiscus |
|
Week 4 |
Islam and Science in the Future |
|
Black Church as the Timeless Witness |
Lyse Fedjanie Barronville | |
Background |
David Dashifen Kees |
|
Week 5 |
Echoes of Myth and Magic in the Language of AI |
Seth Ratliff |
Info-topia: Postcolonial Cyberspace and AI in Tron and Nalo Hopkinon’s Midnight Robber |
Lewis Cox |
|
Background |
|
|
Week 6 |
“A Greater Truth than Any Other Truth You Know”: A Conversation with Professor Sylvia Wynter on Origin Stories |
|
The Impact of AI on Religion: Reconciling a New Relationship with God |
John Fiscus |
|
Background |
Elixah Taylor |
|
Week 7 |
AI and Online Spirituality |
David Dashifen Kees |
Robotics and AI in the sociology of religion: A human in imago roboticae |
|
|
Background |
Lewis Cox |
|
Week 8 |
Spirit Name and Strong AI: A Bemba Theo-Cosmology Turn |
Seth Ratliff |
Preserving the Rule of Law in the Era of AI |
John Fiscus |
|
Background |
|
|
Week 9 |
A theological Embrace of Transhuman and Posthuman Beings |
Elixah Taylor |
Decolonizing the Virtual: Future Knowledges and the Extrahuman in Africa |
|
|
Background |
Lyse Fedjanie Barronville |
section below. These address student learning outcomes 1, 2, 4-6 .Required Readings:
See Weekly Assignments and correlating Files page
**No texts to purchase**
Statement of Inclusivity:
If you have a preferred pronoun that you would like for the class to address you by please let me know so that we can honor that for you.
Date | Day | Details | |
Sep 14, 2021 | Tue | Paper Sign-up Info | due by 05:59AM |
Sep 17, 2021 | Fri | Week 1 | due by 05:59AM |
Sep 19, 2021 | Sun | Week 1 Continued | due by 05:59AM |
Sep 24, 2021 | Fri | Week 2 | due by 05:59AM |
Sep 26, 2021 | Sun | Week 2 Continued | due by 05:59AM |
Oct 01, 2021 | Fri | Week 3 | due by 05:59AM |
Oct 03, 2021 | Sun | Week 3 Continued | due by 05:59AM |
Oct 08, 2021 | Fri | Week 4 | due by 05:59AM |
Oct 10, 2021 | Sun | Week 4 Continued | due by 05:59AM |
Oct 22, 2021 | Fri | Week 6 | due by 05:59AM |
Oct 23, 2021 | Sat | Week 6 Continued | due by 02:00PM |
Oct 29, 2021 | Fri | Week 7 | due by 05:59AM |
Oct 31, 2021 | Sun | Week 7 Continued | due by 05:59AM |
Nov 05, 2021 | Fri | Week 8 | due by 05:59AM |
Nov 07, 2021 | Sun | Week 8 Continued | due by 05:59AM |
Nov 12, 2021 | Fri | Week 9 | due by 06:59AM |
Nov 14, 2021 | Sun | Week 9 Continued | due by 06:59AM |
Nov 19, 2021 | Fri | Week 10 | due by 06:59AM |
Nov 21, 2021 | Sun | Week 10 Continued | due by 06:59AM |
Nov 23, 2021 | Tue | Final Project | due by 06:59AM |
Nov 24, 2021 | Wed | Week 1 Papers | due by 06:59AM |
Nov 24, 2021 | Wed | Week 2 Papers | due by 06:59AM |
Nov 24, 2021 | Wed | Week 3 Papers | due by 06:59AM |
Nov 24, 2021 | Wed | Week 4 Papers | due by 06:59AM |
Nov 24, 2021 | Wed | Week 5 Papers | due by 06:59AM |
Nov 24, 2021 | Wed | Week 6 Papers | due by 06:59AM |
Nov 24, 2021 | Wed | Week 7 Papers | due by 06:59AM |
Nov 24, 2021 | Wed | Week 8 Papers | due by 06:59AM |
Nov 24, 2021 | Wed | Week 9 Papers | due by 06:59AM |