Playing God: Science, religion and the future of humanity, by Nick Spencer & Hannah Waite

Authors: Nick Spencer & Hannah Waite. Review by Simon Webb

Playing God begins with a walk in the park. The walk took place in Brussels in 1927; the walkers were Albert Einstein and the Belgian scientist Georges Lemaître. The pair discussed Lemaître’s discovery that the way galaxies move in the night sky could be explained if we accept that they are moving out from a central point. Georges’ idea ultimately fed into the Big Bang theory.

Georges Lemaître is of interest to people concerned with the interface between science and religion because he was a Roman Catholic priest. He is of special interest to Friends because he worked for a time with the Quaker physicist Arthur Eddington. But although Playing God uses Albert and Georges’ 1927 stroll to illustrate some of the issues around science and religion, there is little else about astronomy in the book.

The authors are all-too-aware that there are a lot of books about science and its uneasy relationship with religion, especially those written by that one-man science and religion publishing industry, Alister McGrath. McGrath has a doctorate in molecular biophysics, among other qualifications.

Spencer and Waite, both of whom work for the UK Christian think-tank Theos, have tried to make their book distinctive by focusing on what science and religion might have to say about ‘the question of what it means to be human’, rather than the usual battlefields of the science/religion debate. Shortish, readable chapters tackle issues such as the medical quest for immortality, the search for life on other planets, anti-vaxxers, animal rights, mental illness, gene-editing, and the current big concern, Artificial Intelligence (AI). One thing that makes the book worthwhile is its inclusion of up-to-date information about these matters of concern, though as the preface points out ‘the future has an irritating habit of not standing still’, quickly making books like this look old hat. The field of AI in particular is changing rapidly, and more and more people now have access to this controversial technology. Playing God doesn’t look in detail at the grim scenario whereby an AI entity decides to eliminate or enslave the human race. Instead it tackles the question, ‘Will AI become human?’, used here as a chapter-heading.

The authors refer to what I am tempted to call the ‘depths of the night’ episode to illuminate their answer to this question. Last year the Australian music legend Nick Cave received from a fan some song lyrics, supposedly written in his style, by an AI program. Verse one begins with the line, ‘In the depths of the night, I hear a call’. Cave condemned this ‘replication as travesty’. ‘Songs arise out of suffering’, he said, and song-writing is ‘a blood and guts business’. This is a nice summary of what Spencer and Waite say about what distinguishes people from AI. We have bodies, and are subject to pain, disease and death. The ‘life’ of a super-computer, calmly and quietly cooling itself, is a walk in the park by comparison.

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