One of the subjects that will be discussed at the International Scientific Conference on Post-Humanism (PHAICON 24), which will be held in Athens from October 31 to November 3, is Orthodox pastoral care in the era of artificial intelligence.
The conference is organised by Saint Maximos the Greek Institute, in partnership with the Ecumenical Patriarchate’s office at the European Union.
The scientific committee includes two Romanian scholars: Prof. Adrian Lemeni, director of the “Dumitru Stăniloae” Doctoral School at the Faculty of Orthodox Theology in Bucharest, and Archd. Adrian Sorin Mihalache from the Faculty of Orthodox Theology in Iasi.
Jean-Claude Larchet, author of numerous works on anthropology, ethics, spirituality, dogmatics, and patrology, will be a scientific committee member.
Assuring discourse on the principal postmodern ideologies and concepts pertaining to Orthodox spirituality and pastoral care is the purpose of the conference.
Accepted were papers concerning pastoral care and Orthodox anthropology, gender ideologies, post-humanism, and theological implications of artificial intelligence.
“Modern societies recognise the need for science and ethics to make common progress. Ethics is, however, unable to keep pace with the rapid developments in bio-medical technology, the digital eco-system, cybernetics and robotics, all of which are factors which create new actualities for life and reality and which foster expectations which are ever less likely to be regarded as scenarios from science fiction.
Artificial intelligence, the latest achievement of scientific applications, has already taken over many everyday functions, meeting human needs through the digital eco-system and automation. However, the prospect that it may be linked to human nature itself and the human person poses huge questions for the fields of ethics, anthropology, science, philosophy and theology.
The deductions by modern intellectuals who link AI to the evolution of the human species have introduced new terms such as trans-human and post-human. These terms have already been the subject of extensive scientific, philosophical and theological reflection. Without doubt, they will soon come under the scrutiny of politics and the law.”
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