Did Moses really part the waters of the Nile with a single wish? Was Jesus really able to heal the dying with the power of his presence?

Miracles – or Abhijñā as mentioned in Buddhist scriptures – is a technical term for extraordinary powers and knowledge. Sometimes manifested by the Buddha himself, Abhijñā could mean being able to multiply oneself, fly through the air, hear things over a long distance, read other people's minds, remember one's former lives and know how to destroy evil in the world.

AI models are entirely lacking in spiritual intelligence or the sense of intuition or embedded beliefs

In an era of machines and artificial intelligence, how would AI or computing be able to explain any of these extraordinary things, these miracles? Built off of logical cognitive intelligence, AI models are entirely lacking in spiritual intelligence or the sense of intuition or embedded beliefs.

We are also beginning to see the rise of engineers and designers who believe in the idea of sacred data and other spiritually-held beliefs and bringing these ideas into their approach. In many ways, it’s the driving force behind Hurry Up, We’re Dreaming – to create a space where we can discuss ways that the sacred and the idea of spiritual intelligence can be more integrated, with the view to inspire and breed emerging tech to be more spiritually intelligent. 

Shani Lehrer, a spiritual guide and Kabbalist, suggests that rather than fighting the space where AI and computing connects with spirituality, our intuition, our hearts and religious beliefs; that instead we consider a world where manifesting miracles is not so weird after all. Why? “Because”, she says, “Real, human intelligence can connect heart, mind and spirit.”

Speaking to Dr. Fatima Ali, a cognitive neuroscientist at UCL lent many new insights. She and I have been collaborating on an academic paper on Islamic and ethics in AI. And the question of absolute belief vs relativism in faith has been a thread of many of our discussions. She says, “AI is indeed a statistical tool, one that can readily be used to imitate human abilities, like a walking puppet or a talking parrot. It can be used as a very good fraud in appearing to know. We have to understand that how we use it also reinforces the value we assign it.” 

AI can also present the illusion of miracles

AI can also present the illusion of miracles. In many cases, AI systems greatly surpass human abilities (remembering millions of bank balances, or doing billions of sums very quickly), but those mechanical modes of “superintelligence” are neither more or less threatening to us than “superhuman” inventions like earth-moving machinery or machine guns.

Alan Blackwell tells us in Moral Codes: Designing Alternatives to AI, that such things are powerful, and might certainly be dangerous, but are not magical. Everything that computer systems do is defined by their code, just as physical machines are defined by their physical design, components and materials. So all those so-called miracles have been consistently based on the expertise of humans.

On the imagining of what a future world, or moment, could look like. Whether cars that don’t need drivers or scary-looking dog robots, these innovations have been inspired by ancient history, literature, and in many cases, by decades-old science fiction.

As Dr Fatima Ali, cognitive neuroscientist at UCL, explains: “AI is, in truth, a lot more like perceived magic (rather than miracle) as there is a hidden model in the black box that is doing the trickery and once you reveal all the computations you realise it's not understanding what it outputs (language, image, etc).”

Technological advancements have already been able to find viruses in ice, create a digital bridge from brain to paralysed limbs, and map structures of the majority of the world’s protein, the baseline of all matter. Artificial Intelligence researchers are currently developing AI models that will be able to detect illnesses — just by smelling a human's breath. Google's AI was able to create its own AI “child” — that outperformed its human-made counterparts. Artificial intelligence can even master creative processes, including making visual art, writing poetry, composing music, and taking photographs.

We know there are many forms of intelligence – embodied intelligence, spatial intelligence, emotional intelligence, plant intelligence, cognitive intelligence

AI is being developed and designed as part of a secular, capitalist worldview and values of the companies and individuals that have built modern AI systems. How can we define Spiritual Intelligence? We know there are many forms of intelligence – embodied intelligence, spatial intelligence, emotional intelligence, plant intelligence, cognitive intelligence. Would it be too far to also include spiritual intelligence and if we did what would it mean?

Do we assume that spiritual means religious? Most of us feel uncomfortable connecting religion to anything. Politics, science, technology. But the truth is that we live in a religious world. A comprehensive demographic study of more than 230 countries and territories conducted by the Pew Research Center’s Forum on Religion & Public Life estimates that there are 5.8 billion religiously affiliated adults and children around the globe, representing 84% of the 2010 world population of 6.9 billion.

What if we stopped discounting the possibilities of considering spirituality, religion, and even belief in the technologies that we are designing?

What if we stopped discounting the possibilities of considering spirituality, religion, and even belief in the technologies that we are designing? If we consider the uniqueness of what these beliefs present, while also considering the singular question many belief systems leave us with: know yourself? And what if we, believers and non-believers, considered looking inwards: the divine self, free of matter, ego, removed from the pressures of time?

The questions I am exploring in my own research in AI go beyond what has been defined as mapped input into computing systems. Some of these include: 

Do we have an “unconscious mode”? "Knowing as intuition" means understanding or having knowledge about something without needing to consciously reason or think about it, often described as a "gut feeling" or an instinctive sense of knowing, based on past experiences and unconscious pattern recognition; essentially, it's the ability to "just know" something without needing to actively analyze it.

By many accounts, up until the 1970s, the dominant assumption of cognitive psychology was that so-called higher mental processes were almost entirely under conscious control. However, as research progressed from 1980 and on, there was a far greater emphasis put on the role of unconscious processes in everyday life. What is intuition? Scientists have repeatedly demonstrated how information can register on the brain without conscious awareness and positively influence decision-making and other behaviour. Intuition is an ability in which a feeling or even a hunch is generated by our unconscious mind processing past experience, memory and cumulative knowledge.

What can’t be mapped? In the context of knowledge mapping, things that are considered "unmappable" are usually subjective experiences, emotions, tacit knowledge (deeply ingrained personal understanding), and complex, nuanced concepts that are difficult to quantify or clearly define; essentially, anything that is not easily expressed or represented visually through traditional mapping methods. How about our human calibration with rhythms? We know, for instance, that “dawn triggers basic biological changes in the waking human body. As the sun rises, so does heart rate, blood pressure and body temperature. 

The liver, the kidneys and many natural processes also begin shifting from idle into high gear. Then as daylight wanes and darkness descends, these processes likewise begin to subside, returning to their lowest levels again as we sleep.” Our biological cycles are connected to the earth’s rotation around the sun once every 24 hours. These loops of light and darkness are called circadian rhythms, from “circa diem,” Latin for “approximately a day.” These rhythms influence almost all living organisms, from bacteria to algae, insects, birds and human beings.

In spiritual belief, the idea of "knowing" is often described as a deep, intuitive understanding that transcends rational thought, often experienced through personal revelation, connection with a higher power, or profound moments of insight, which can manifest as a sense of certainty or truth beyond the reach of logic alone; it's a feeling of being "in the know" about something greater than oneself, often accompanied by emotions like awe, peace, or profound joy.

AI, sometimes called machine intelligence, is a simulation of human intelligence demonstrated by machines, particularly computer systems. It is a branch of computer science that is concerned with the creation of intelligent machines that can think and learn the way humans do. The idea is to get the machines to think for themselves and make decisions based on the data being fed. Omniscience, on the other hand, is a metaphysical concept that refers to the capacity of knowing unlimited knowledge of all things that can be known. The religious aspect suggests omniscience is an attribute of God alone.

If we could consider how to prioritise bringing new forms of spiritual, creative, and imagination-led intelligence into AI, what would we bring to the table?

When we consider the relationship between man, machine and nature, can spiritual intelligence be a possible pathway for engineering in AI? "It's not human vs. machine but human and machine,” artist & MIT Media Lab researcher Sougwen Chung, open-ended #2023 tells us. 

My perspective is that we have a proposal for the engineers, the builders of these worlds. As we consider so-called ethical frameworks for AI and emerging technologies; I’d also like to suggest we should be building a contemporary spiritual framework.

We should be building a contemporary spiritual framework

AI can make the previously impossible possible. And at a time for extraordinary advancement at a speed we’ve never known before, perhaps these are important questions to contemplate. If we could consider how to prioritise bringing new forms of spiritual, creative, and imagination-led intelligence into AI, what would we bring to the table? Works of great art and literature, stories of indigenous culture, lost languages, the creative spirit.

What if we considered introducing the idea of spiritual intelligence into our tool kit when dreaming up new models of AI? Most engineers would agree that our existing collective design tools look something like this.

Creative Design: Built off of the work of the imagination, this includes digital art architecture, spatial practice, material futures and involves both creative and technical work. The product of research and study by a designer (creative or technical) to produce an innovative, aesthetically pleasing, functional and sustainable project or outcome.

What if we considered introducing the idea of spiritual intelligence into our tool kit when dreaming up new models of AI?

Speculative Design: Speculative design is concerned with future consequences and implications of the relationship between science, technology, and humans. It problematizes this relation by proposing provocative future design scenarios where technology and design implications are accentuated.

Computational Design: Computational design is a design method that uses a combination of algorithms and parameters to solve design problems with advanced computer processing. Every step of a designer’s process is translated into coded computer language.The software program uses this information alongside project-specific parameters to create algorithms that generate design models or complete design analyses. Once the initial programming is completed, design becomes a dynamic and repeatable process.

What if we added meditation and spiritual practice into the design tool kit – shouldn’t this also be part of the equation for how we design algorithms?

And what if added meditation and spiritual practice into the design tool kit – shouldn’t this also be part of the equation for how we design algorithms? In the words of artist Henry Hudson, “The charm of AI is that it is the pursuit of what is elusive but attainable, a perpetual series of occasions for hope.”

What comes next is in our hands and hearts.