Is thinking something that is unique to people? Or to living beings? Is it possible for machines to think? And if they can think, can they help us think more clearly about God?
These are some of the questions raised by the advent of artificial intelligence and machine learning. By pondering them in the light of Christian Science, we can get a clearer understanding of God as divine Mind, the ultimate thinker. We can also get a better understanding of ourselves as thinkers and healers.
Mary Baker Eddy, the Discoverer of Christian Science, so thoroughly identified God as the source of all real thought that she included Mind with a capital M as a synonym for God. God is ever present and hence infinite. So Mind must be infinite—always present, always correct, and always new. As a psalm reminds us, “Many, O Lord my God, are thy wonderful works which thou hast done, and thy thoughts which are to us-ward: they cannot be reckoned up in order unto thee: if I would declare and speak of them, they are more than can be numbered” (Psalms 40:5).
