A Robot's Description of the Urantia Book

[Keryn]

I realize this is a very odd topic, but I can’t resist sharing.  I am attending a higher education conference at which technologies for creating new textbooks is being discussed.  The presenter described a new project at Penn State called BBookX, which is a tool that enables a robot (data analytics computing algorithm, really) to generate textbook chapters based on key words.  So, just to try it out, I decided to have it write a chapter about The Urantia Book, for a course on religion.  I am amazed by what it came up with!  The chapter is 27 pages long, and represents a surprisingly accurate interpretation of the TUB.  For example, the following was generated by the tool:

… Each​ ​person​ ​is​ ​said​ ​to​ ​receive​ ​one​ ​such​ ​fragment​ ​at​ ​the​ ​time​ ​of​ ​his​ ​or​ ​her​ ​first​ ​independent moral​ ​decision,​ ​on​ ​average​ ​around​ ​the​ ​age​ ​of​ ​five​ ​years​ ​and​ ​10​ ​months.​ ​The​ ​Adjuster​ ​then serves​ ​non-coercively​ ​as​ ​a​ ​divine​ ​partner​ ​in​ ​the​ ​mind​ ​of​ ​the​ ​individual​ ​for​ ​the​ ​rest​ ​of​ ​life,​ ​and​ ​to the​ ​extent​ ​that​ ​a​ ​person​ ​consents​ ​with​ ​their​ ​free​ ​will​ ​to​ ​want​ ​to​ ​find​ ​God,​ ​it​ ​leads​ ​the​ ​person toward​ ​more​ ​mature,​ ​spiritualized​ ​thinking.​ ​A​ ​person’s​ ​Thought​ ​Adjuster​ ​is​ ​described​ ​as​ ​distinct from​ ​either​ ​the​ ​soul​ ​or​ ​the​ ​conscience.​ ​In​ ​The​ ​Urantia​ ​Book’s​ ​teachings,​ ​the​ ​degree​ ​to​ ​which​ ​a human​ ​mind​ ​chooses​ ​to​ ​accept​ ​its​ ​Adjuster’s​ ​guidance​ ​becomes​ ​the​ ​degree​ ​to​ ​which​ ​a​ ​person’s soul​ ​”grows”​ ​and​ ​becomes​ ​a​ ​reality​ ​that​ ​can​ ​then​ ​survive​ ​death.​ ​The​ ​soul​ ​is​ ​in​ ​essence​ ​an embryonic​ ​spiritual​ ​development,​ ​one​ ​parental​ ​factor​ ​being​ ​the​ ​divine​ ​Adjuster​ ​and​ ​the​ ​other being​ ​the​ ​human​ ​will. 

The​ ​book​ ​says:​ ​”But​ ​you​ ​yourself​ ​are​ ​mostly​ ​unconscious​ ​of​ ​this​ ​inner​ ​ministry.​ ​You​ ​are​ ​quite incapable​ ​of​ ​distinguishing​ ​the​ ​product​ ​of​ ​your​ ​own​ ​material​ ​intellect​ ​from​ ​that​ ​of​ ​the​ ​conjoint activities​ ​of​ ​your​ ​soul​ ​and​ ​the​ ​Adjuster.”​ ​The​ ​book​ ​is​ ​strongly​ ​fideistic​ ​and​ ​teaches​ ​that​ ​neither science​ ​nor​ ​logic​ ​will​ ​ever​ ​be​ ​able​ ​to​ ​prove​ ​or​ ​disprove​ ​the​ ​existence​ ​of​ ​God,​ ​arguing​ ​that​ ​faith​ ​is necessary​ ​to​ ​become​ ​conscious​ ​of​ ​God’s​ ​presence​ ​in​ ​human​ ​experience,​ ​the​ ​Thought​ ​Adjuster.“

The computer-generated chapter also does a good job of explaining its status among believers:

=== Adherents ===

It is difficult to gauge how many adherents there may be as there is no central organization to census. Informal study groups “tend to sprout, ripen, then vanish or splinter” and have not been counted reliably. Readers sometimes join study groups after reading on their own for years or decades, others join them soon after developing an interest in the book, while “for most, worship remains as individual as the act of reading.” Disagreements over the legal ownership of the book, its interpretation, and the reception of new revelations have led to some splintering, though these disagreements appear to have been settled to the satisfaction of most adherents. The movement generally incorporates a nonsectarian view, contending that individuals with different religious backgrounds can receive the book’s teachings as an enrichment rather than as a contradiction of their faiths.

The small movement inspired by The Urantia Book has not developed clergy or institutions such as churches, reading rooms, or temples.

 

Pretty cool, huh?

[Mara]

It is an odd topic Keryn and thanks for sharing it with us!

[Richard E Warren]

Absolutely astonishing, Keryn! Was it done without the least editing?

Richard E Warren

[Keryn]

I did not edit it one bit.  I mean, honestly, in some ways, it explains concepts from TUB that I struggled with at first, because it uses contemporary verbiage and shortens it quite a bit.  I think it is a really useful tool that could maybe be used in the Urantia community in some way …..

In 27 pages of robot-generated text, I haven’t found anything that is starkly wrong or misrepresented.

[Keryn]

Here is another excerpt:

 

The Urantia Book teaches not only biological evolution, but that human society and spiritual understandings evolve by slow progression, subject both to periods of rapid improvement and the possibility of retrogression. Progress is said to follow a divine plan that includes periodic gifts of revelation and ministry by heavenly teachers, which eventually will lead to an ideal world status of “light and life” in the far distant future.

Although there is the ideal and divine plan of progression, it is said to be fostered and administered by various orders of celestial beings who are not always perfect. Urantia is said to be a markedly “confused and disordered” planet that is “greatly retarded in all phases of intellectual progress and spiritual attainment” compared to more typical inhabited worlds, due to an unusually severe history of rebellion and default by its spiritual supervisors.

[Bonita]

Dang, I feel like that robot stole pages right out of my notebook.  I’ve been struggling for two decades to write things that clearly.  How long did it take the robot to do it?

 

[Keryn]

I spent about 5 minutes feeding it key words and then it asked me to vet the sources, which took me another 5 minutes (since I was just playing around with the tool, my expectations were low and so my investment was low).  Then the tool generated the text within minutes and posted it to my Google Drive at my direction.

It’s truly astonishing.  To say that my experience playing around with this for the first time were significantly exceeded would be an understatement.

[Bonita]

Holy Cow!  Did you ask it anything about reflectivity?

 

[Bonita]

Is it possible for a person to procure one of these robots?  I have some legal documents which need deciphering.

[Bradly]

WOW!!  Very impressive work Keryn….a great project.  I could sure use that robot’s help on Papers 9, 17 & 29.  I was confused enough on Paper 17…then Nigel delivered me a might headache with Paper 29….thanks Nigel!  So many circuits and forces and personalities involved in this.

The whole text should be fed eventually to see how AI ‘interprets’ the text….not to rewrite or anything like that….but there are concepts that might find greater integration for the student body.

I remember hearing of a similar writing ‘stylism’ analysis years ago….it was determined there are indeed multiple authors, obvious to me but very obvious to an algorithm analysis!  The consistency of integrated concepts, complex concepts and original concepts, by multiple authors is an important issue….even more so in time to come.  Like the history and the (incomplete) cosmology of time and space creation and function, science will help determine authenticity….especially for scientists I think.

 

[Keryn]

I agree that there is much potential in the use of AI for distilling and simplifying complex texts, and I look forward to seeing its powers used for good!     However, the particular tool I am using is not designed to work like that. You cannot give it only one source of text and ask it to analyze or interpret it.  It is designed to enable students to create their own textbooks based on a set of learning outcomes.  So it goes out on the ‘net and finds all the available material on a particular subject, and creates a learning resource that describes that concept or subject from many angles, like a prism.

I have edited the following two paragraphs because I turned out to be wrong about this.  Sigh ….  

The reason I am excited about this particular experiment with regard to TUB is that the robot produces text describing TUB that is entirely free of personal bias, baggage from previous religious indoctrination, bad vibes from interactions with previous folks of any given religion, etc.  It would be nearly impossible to have a piece of writing about TUB that is untinged by baggage of a human author of a textbook or whatever.  Even if a Professor of Religion were to knock themselves out trying to be as unbiased as possible, their human biases would still color the text of their description of what the TUB is and what it is about.  So I think this is cool from that perspective.

Also, I find it amazing that the robot is able to glean nuances such as that the Thought Adjuster serves the mind of an individual “non-coercively”.  Also this phrase, “various orders of celestial beings who are not always perfect,” shows a surprising amount of nuanced analysis of what is found in TUB over many parts of the book and using many words but not the phrase ‘not always perfect’.

[Anonymous]

Keryn wrote:

So, just to try it out, I decided to have it write a chapter about The Urantia Book, for a course on religion. I am amazed by what it came up with!

Be careful Keryn regarding technology, specifically this particular tool, you can access its components by reading the following document:

https://clgiles.ist.psu.edu/pubs/AAAI2016-bbookx.pdf

Your current use of this tool accessed the following Wiki topic and copied verbatim the example you presented from the following: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Urantia_Book

As per the PDF article above the current search engine is pointed to the Wikipedia free encyclopedia, therefore, all material received through this tool is subject to accuracy of the Wiki article contributor.

 

[Keryn]

Midi

Yes, I knew that the tool uses Wikipedia as its primary source, since it cannot use copyrighted material, obviously, or that would be plagiarism.  So it can only glean from open source content found online.  Having learned about this from the academics who were responsible for the project, I do not need to be pointed to the academic paper; however, your finding that the text I posted is verbatim from Wikipedia is something I did not expect — and is disappointing.  Thanks for pointing that out.  (And yes, it is material that is subject to the accuracy of the contributor, for sure.  But such is true of any publication, really; not just Wikipedia.)

I will see the Penn State folks again tomorrow at the conference and I will try to ask them about it.  However, my optimism about the use of AI tools for making TUB teachings more accessible to new readers continues.  This project is in its infancy and, due to existing policy restrictions of copyright etc. is not yet allowed to expand to its full potential.

There could be some interesting developments with AI and new means of communicating complex concepts yet to come!  I continue to feel enthusiastic that tools like this are being researched and funded.

[Bonita]

Keryn wrote:

. . . the robot produces text describing TUB that is entirely free of personal bias, . . .

Wouldn’t it be wonderful if we could study TUB here on this forum without all the personal bias and emotional baggage?  I would love to see that quality develop in real people.

[Keryn]

If we didn’t have bias and emotional baggage we wouldn’t be human.  Actually, I wonder if celestial beings also have emotional baggage?  Will we continue to have it in the Mansion Worlds?  Hmmm ….

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