This will mainly be a report from the April PASTCF Board meeting. Every year in April Board members attend the Ecumenical Roundtable (ERT) and use the occasion to have an extended (hybrid) Board meeting. These days, the science, technology, and faith work within mainline denominations has diminished considerably, due to financial constraints. PASTCF and the Lutheran Alliance for Faith, Science, and Technology (ELCA) are the only ones still able to represent their denominations at the Roundtable.
The Board decided to extend the 2024 McCall award for Excellence in Science, Technology & Christian Faith Ministry to past president Robert Keefer. The award ceremony will take place during our annual membership meeting scheduled on September 17, 2014. Neil Messer will be our public lecture speaker; more about that in a later communication. Derek Pursey, one of PASTCF’s founders, was awarded a lifetime membership, with intense gratitude for all his hard work and incredible contributions. The Board is also working to consolidate the various parts of our archive for transfer to the Presbyterian Historical Society, to be stored at Columbia Theological Seminary. The consolidation will be managed by a committee of former and current presidents and secretaries.
Since last fall the Board has been working with Sergio Barreto, of BMV Digital, to update our website. You will hear more about that over the summer. One of the issues we have been dealing with is our inability to gain control of our old website since Bill McIvor’s resignation. To be clear, it’s not Bill’s fault; rather, that lies with the intransigence of Squarespace which was (and still is) hosting the site. To date Squarespace has refused to relinquish control of the site.
The theme of the ERT was Artificial Intelligence (AI), highlighted in a public lecture by Dr. Anne Foerst, entitled “Large Language Models (LLMs), Ethics, and Theology.” A broad spectrum of AI-related issues came up in our discussions and in the talk: bias in ChatGPT, copyright infringements by various AI machines, the need for including basic AI-savviness in educational curricula, the good, the bad, and the ugly of AI, ethical use, worker replacement, use in political campaigns, the need of everyone to be vigilant, and much more. An interesting question is how far human creativity in writing beats AI at the same task. And there is the warning that reliance on AI to do certain jobs leads to humans losing their skills in those areas. Concerning the PC(USA) General Assembly, we highlight some overtures of interest to PASTCF and recommend them for your consideration.
From the Board and Ecumenical Roundtable
The theme of the ERT was Artificial Intelligence (AI), highlighted in a public lecture by Dr. Anne Foerst, entitled “Large Language Models (LLMs), Ethics, and Theology.” A broad spectrum of AI-related issues came up in our discussions and in the talk: bias in ChatGPT, copyright infringements by various AI machines, the need for including basic AI-savviness in educational curricula, the good, the bad, and the ugly of AI, ethical use, worker replacement, use in political campaigns, the need of everyone to be vigilant, and much more. An interesting question is how far human creativity in writing beats AI at the same task. And there is the warning that reliance on AI to do certain jobs leads to humans losing their skills in those areas. Concerning the PC(USA) General Assembly, we highlight some overtures of interest to PASTCF and recommend them for your consideration.
- Committee on Environmental and Climate Justice [ENV], an overture authored by Jim Miller: ENV-01: Adoption of the Sustainable Peace Pledge1https://www.pc-biz.org/committee/3000112/business.
- Committee on Domestic Engagement (DOE), two overtures2https:/www.pc-biz.org/committee/3000110/business by the Advisory Committee on Social Witness Policy (ACSWP):
- DOE-05: White Christian Nationalism Recommended Study
- DOE-07: A.I. & Faith Recommended Study
