"The human is still coming—not only ahead of us, but among us and in someone whose life reveals what ours may become." Yes! When ChatGPT was first released, it challenged me and most other writing instructors to ask what communicating and writing really amount to--questions that can't be adequately explored without considering who we really are and can become. Something comes before our words come, and our choice to use or not use AI to speak in our name reflects our level of responsibility to that something. As you say, "we inherit language before choosing our words; we become ourselves through others."
"Science can describe much of what we are without exhausting the meaning of who we are—or closing the question of transcendence." AI can imitate much of what we are, too, without a commensurable exhaustion or closure.
"Becoming human may depend less upon independence than upon answering for what has been given." In recent years, I've understood Paul's self-identification as a "co-laborer with Christ" as an approach not just to apostolic work but to personal formation. We don't become alone. Excellent post.
Thank you. I especially appreciate your insistence that something comes before our words—and that using AI responsibly requires answering to that prior gift rather than merely exploiting a new capacity. Your extension of the science line is exactly right: imitation may reproduce much of human expression without exhausting the mystery of the person who speaks.
And I find your reading of Paul’s “co-laborer” deeply suggestive. It holds together grace and responsibility, dependence and agency. We do not make ourselves, but neither are we merely made. Becoming human may be less a solitary achievement than a faithful participation in what has been given—and in the lives through which it reaches us.
"The human is still coming—not only ahead of us, but among us and in someone whose life reveals what ours may become." Yes! When ChatGPT was first released, it challenged me and most other writing instructors to ask what communicating and writing really amount to--questions that can't be adequately explored without considering who we really are and can become. Something comes before our words come, and our choice to use or not use AI to speak in our name reflects our level of responsibility to that something. As you say, "we inherit language before choosing our words; we become ourselves through others."
"Science can describe much of what we are without exhausting the meaning of who we are—or closing the question of transcendence." AI can imitate much of what we are, too, without a commensurable exhaustion or closure.
"Becoming human may depend less upon independence than upon answering for what has been given." In recent years, I've understood Paul's self-identification as a "co-laborer with Christ" as an approach not just to apostolic work but to personal formation. We don't become alone. Excellent post.
Thank you. I especially appreciate your insistence that something comes before our words—and that using AI responsibly requires answering to that prior gift rather than merely exploiting a new capacity. Your extension of the science line is exactly right: imitation may reproduce much of human expression without exhausting the mystery of the person who speaks.
And I find your reading of Paul’s “co-laborer” deeply suggestive. It holds together grace and responsibility, dependence and agency. We do not make ourselves, but neither are we merely made. Becoming human may be less a solitary achievement than a faithful participation in what has been given—and in the lives through which it reaches us.
Thanks again, Bryce, for your close reading.