When an air force general uses a term like Judeo-Christian that is worrying. The brainwashing runs high. There's no such thing as Judeo-Christian. Judaism and Christianity are vastly different religions albeit related. It's a propaganda term to create an emotional tie with the US and Israel. No one says Judeo-Islam or Judeo-Mormon because it's idiotic.
You could talk about abrahamic religions, that encompasses Judaism, Christianism, and Islamism because in theory all three worship the same God, but of course they are never grouped like that because they don't want to be related with Muslims.
The Air Force has had an evangelical problem for a long time.
This becomes clear after spending any amount of time in Colorado Springs
Can confirm.
My uncle used to fly F-15s for the Air NG, and about 10 or 15 years ago when he had to retire for medical reasons (turns out pulling G’s all the time is bad for your back), he just broke evangelical and is now a fundamentalist pastor.
I came in here to say just this. I'm a Jewish clergyman, so I deal with this kind of shit a lot. The term isn't just brainwashing; it's actively seeking to erase Judaism as part of Christianity. It's shit like this, combined with Christian Nationalism, which makes me jumpy at first when someone identifies as a Christian.
God I appreciate you and this comment so much. Thank you for acknowledging something us Jews suffer to point out constantly.
100% agreed. These people only care about Jews in so far as they are useful political props. Ask the members of the Tree of Life synagogue or the passengers of the MS St Louis how much of "Judeo-Christian" society we are.
Also 100% agreed. If anyone really wants a more inclusive term with positive vibes, i already read ''abrahamic heritage'' , to include jews, christians and muslims going for the commom ties of the mutually recognized first patriarch. It was a random french scholar though, but maybe we can gain traction. God (the abrahamic god) would be pleased.
This motherfucker drops bombs where he is told. The person you need to worry about is the guy who tells him where to drop the bombs.
you need to worry about is the guy who tells him where to drop the bombs.
Is the answer God? I feel like thats the right answer. Please lord correct me if I am wrong.
tl;dr: The headline is false; the general did not actually say that. I thought it sounded wrong, so I watched the video that the article linked to, to check. Sure enough, it was wrong. However, the reality may not be any more reassuring.
Hypothesis: Like, no, that's obviously wrong; either the headline is trash or the general made a whole tossed salad with mango sauce out of whatever the people working on it said. (stated before further investigation; stay tuned)
Updating: https://youtu.be/wn1yEovtYRM?t=3459
Okay, wow.
So the speaker is saying this at the end of the panel, in response to a question asking about the use of autonomous weapons.
They want to talk about who's trusted to make the decision of whether to employ lethal force in a combat situation: a human American soldier, who might be exhausted and not thinking clearly, or an algorithm that doesn't get tired.
And one thing they mention is that an enemy might not have ethics that would lead them them even care about that distinction. And they express that as "Judeo-Christian morality".
That doesn't sit right with me. It sounds to me, in that moment, like they're implying that people from other cultures could be less moral, and that we should be willing to be more free with our weapons towards such people. That sounds to me like the sort of bullshit that came out of the Vietnam War.
But the rest of the answer sounds like they're trying to point at the problem of making command decisions in scenarios where the opponent might deploy autonomous weapons first. If the enemy has already handed decision-making over to an algorithm, how does that affect what we should do?
And they're maybe expressing that to their expected audience — mind you, the Air Force is heavily infiltrated by far-right Christian radicals — in a way that they hope makes sense.
Conclusion: The headline is incorrect; the general did not actually say that a Pentagon AI would be more ethical for any reason; he was talking about the human ethical decision of whether to trust AI to make decisions. But what he did say is complicated and scary for different reasons, including the internal culture of the US Air Force.
Thanks for verifying the facts.
That doesn't sit right with me. It sounds to me, in that moment, like they're implying that people from other cultures could be less moral, and that we should be willing to be more free with our weapons towards such people.
This is, unfortunately, how many, many very religious people think. And it's not only insulting for everyone not following their beliefs, but also terrifying in my opinion.
People who believe their god is the only thing that makes them moral aren't really moral. Because then they never consider why it's important to, you know, not be an asshole. It's just compliance.
And the terrifying part is that since their only frame of reference regarding what "good" is would be whatever their religion dictates, it's always on the verge of breaking completely. You just need to listen to the wrong interpretation at the wrong moment in your life.
our society is a Judeo-Christian society and we have a moral compass.
And here I thought the US was a secular country. Very worrisome that some government employees are using these words.
Judeo-Christian is such a bullshit made-up term to rope in multiple gullible idiots into the fold.
It's for people that want to go full "Christians = good, other religions = bad" but know that saying "Jews = bad" won't go down well.
Not to rope gullible people into the fold, but for attempt to fight anti-semitism, after WWII.
Perhaps in the past that's how it was used. But not in this situation.
As I understand it, of the branches, the Air Force is the worst for neocon evangelicals. What a quote! It gives me shivers.
Yeah the Air force academy in Colorado is in the same city as some very influential evangelical churches, Colorado Springs, and there's been a lot of scandal about it for a while.
NPR report from around the same time
A more recent scandal where a high ranking air force officer was pushing his ministry on his command
Yeah me too. Have they even read the bible? Quite the horror story. Including the final chapter (spoiler alert: we’re told the apocalypse will have a very high body count).
is there nottheonion on Lemmy yet? because this belongs on there. jfc what a time to be alive
Well I just lost some faith in the United States Air Force. Now I'm worried if we can trust them with General Electric 2.1 megaton hydrogen bombs. The USAF has more than a few.
The US military has a wide range of generals, all the way from people who can barely stop themselves from dribbling while staring at a wall for hours as entertainment, to actual competent ones.
At least this guy is just a moron, some of them are very dangerous. For example US Army General Wesley Clark, who ordered someone to basically start WW3, which didn't go through because several officers refused to listen to him. Then he ran for president as a democrat, withdres. He later started a consulting firm and now runs a "boutique investment bank".
The British commander of the Kosovo Force, General Mike Jackson, however, refused to block the Russians through military action saying "I'm not going to start the Third World War for you."[80][81] Jackson has said he refused to take action because he did not believe it was worth the risk of a military confrontation with the Russians, instead insisting that troops led by Captain James Blunt encircle the airfield.
No way! James Blunt, of all people, appears in this story?! You couldn't make it up!
You had faith in the USAF?
For approaching eighty years, they've been pretty good at not dropping any nuclear weapons, even those bombs had a very simple launch code to arm. The rise of Christian Nationalism in the US armed forces has been a concern since the new century and the 9/11 attacks (and subsequent PATRIOT act). I'm not sure Judeo-Christian values and Artificial Intelligence is a benign mix.
Yes, because the Old Testament is all peace and love and kumbaya.
Another dipshit military lifer inserting subjective religious arrogance - whatever religion it may be - into his spiel, details at eleven.
“You see, first thing we did was teach it about the Bible and its teachings. Of course none of that Roman Catholic shit.”
We taught it the Bible*
*King James Version
No True Christian would ever activate a fully automated sentry killbot that doesn't use at least one of its compute cores to pray to the Almighty on a loop.
Yeah let's make sure AI is ethical by some religious standard before we put it in charge of the nuclear arsenal. What an ass.
Welp time to strip him of his rank, he's an idiot.
"Judeo-Christian society" has been airstriking the Middle East for years and provoking wars for a lot longer than that which is a violation of Christian beliefs ("Do to others what you would have them do to you", among others) so they can kindly shove it up their warmongering ass
Kinda sounds like they mean it follows their personal ethics and religious rules more closely than others, not that it's actually more ethical.
Ethics are entirely subjective.
I would argue that any system that follows the rules of a religious society is deeply unethical.
lmao
Can you please leave us out of this?
Sincerely, The Jews
I read the article and this is clearly a guy who watched Terminator and thought, 'Well hold on that sounds fantastic if we just programmed in a rule where it's not allowed to violate its programming or misunderstood what we want.'
"We told it to shoot bad guys. Why is it shooting at us?"
Legit 😂
So long as it follows them better than humans do. Though then again, I'm sure Christ wouldn't approve of some of the things the Pentagon will want to do with said AI... So...
Since most of the targets are Muslim, I guess it makes sense? /s
this is one of the most ridiculous statements I've ever heard.
if it's Christian ethics that guide us, we're all fucked
This is what AI would like them to believe
A lot researchers a long time ago used to say that in order to judge AI, they would have to get it to pass a Turing Test in order for us to figure out if it just as intelligent or more intelligent than us.
I always enjoyed the idea that AI will quickly fly right over our heads and our ability to identify it that it will purposely make itself appear dumb or dumber than us while it figures out how to deal with us.
This is a most excellent place for technology news and articles.
