On Intelligence and Delight

There is this place in the mountains by our home where the sun can rise and color the sky yet the valleys still keep their nights until almost noon.

At the heart of the Christian understanding of intelligence is the integration of truth into the moral and spiritual life of the person, guiding his or her actions in light of God’s goodness and truth. According to God’s plan, intelligence, in its fullest sense, also includes the ability to savor what is true, good, and beautiful. As the twentieth-century French poet Paul Claudel expressed, “intelligence is nothing without delight.” Similarly, Dante, upon reaching the highest heaven in Paradiso, testifies that the culmination of this intellectual delight is found in the “light intellectual full of love, love of true good filled with joy, joy which transcends every sweetness.” 

Antiqua et Nova, Paragraph 28

In January, the Vatican released what may be one of the best essays of the year on Artificial Intelligence. This is more than a document about an artifice but an exposition on the delight that was meant to accompany intelligence.

These past few years, I have been drawn more into doing things apart from computers. I have used AI when at my desk or on the go on my phone, but my overall interests in tech have declined. When computers began their attempt at something as intimate as intelligence, they lost all wonder as a portal to another intelligent person. Now they are at best synthetic swift PhDs or at their worst, eager yet inept interns who cannot even make coffee.

I expect I will continue to spend more time offline, connecting with the Architect of Intelligence. Practically this has looked like going to church and being an active participant in our local faith community. My wife and I now have two young children who require much of our attention. We are not some Amish or abstinent mystics. If even the Vatican is preparing its flock to approach Artificial Intelligence with an ethical yet optimistic hand, I am encouraged.

Anyone who has followed my YouTube Channel these past couple of years has seen a shift from tech reviews and camera comparisons to pen and paper experiments. I spend far less time online, but the connected time I do spend is more effective. Part of this I attribute to my journals, a place where no notifications or LLMs can inhabit. My notebook is a home gym for my synapses. Those who embrace paper and pen will find they possess near super human intelligence. A well developed thought spread over several pages sent to some Artificial Intelligence has been much quicker than a back and forth conversation. The machine never sees me coming. I let it do its thing while I go on living.

We have all by now seen both exuberance and gloom when it comes to AI, but it has been this return to simpler things that has allowed me to have joy. Steve Jobs once likened computers to bicycles of the mind but I do believe the neurons touching the seat have gone to sleep. It is exhausting to spend most of our time riding the bike. Rather we should banish from our time phrases like “I can’t afford kids” or “I’ll do that or this when I have so much cash”. I’d rather this up and coming generation ask how they can begin a family and what they could produce unique to them. The bicycle of the mind should be a youthful and wild force upon the world because it allows the mind to connect with another.

I am rambling now. I didn’t use an AI to write a single line (nor will I ever here). I just knew I wanted to finish with this. Technological progress is part of God’s plan for creation as Antiqua et Nova clearly states in its final sentences. But it is earlier in the document that I believe we see the most important piece of our outlook on Intelligence. 

True intelligence is shaped by divine love, which “is poured forth in our hearts by the Holy Spirit” (Rom. 5:5). From this, it follows that human intelligence possesses an essential contemplative dimension, an unselfish openness to the True, the Good, and the Beautiful, beyond any utilitarian purpose.

Antiqua et Nova

You may be wondering, practically speaking, what can I do to experience contemplation and openness beyond any utilitarian purpose?

Pray. 

It can begin by closing the lid on your laptop or setting your phone down with its screen facing the surface. You can set an alarm, timer, or miss whatever it was that wasn’t that important. Begin as Saint Igantius of Loyola did:

Recall that you are already in the presence of God. take a few respirations to let it sink in. Even an empty room should feel different as this awareness sets in.

Then thank God for blessings received. Today I got to take a longer morning at home with my wife and kids. My wife got to shower, I got to make my son a bowl of oatmeal and hold my newborn daughter while feeding her medicine. A close friend from that local faith community made us dinner. We haven’t had much time for cooking with a new born and all the doctor's appointments. But praise be to the Lord she has everything she needs with specialists, family, and friends across an entire continent. I could go on and so should you to the detriment of your calendar (providing no appointments are literally life threatening)

Examen how you have lived the day. Giving this bit of the prayer space to breathe always returns what seemed like insignificant things into the light of meaning. Today I wasn’t the best dad I could be, I stayed up too late the night before trying to force an essay for my Substack when all I needed to do was take a Siesta, toss that old essay and start this one in a better headspace. It never ceases to amaze me what I can do in an hour after an hour nap compared to hours spent without rest.

Ask God for Forgiveness. When I had a mentor years ago encourage me to pray this every day, I thought, “really? I need to ask God for forgiveness every day”. Yes. Every day. Ok. First it began asking for things that didn’t seem that bad. I should have stopped and asked that person if they needed help. I got frustrated at a friend. I became angry again with my parents. Behind every evasion was a deeper thing that needed forgiveness. The Lord is rich in mercy and abundant in steadfast love. Those you have wronged may never forgive you but God forgave me. And that was the permission slip I needed to forgive myself for the times I let earthly scarcity override the abundance of the eternal Spirit shared with every being. 

Then pray for resolve, reconciliation, and recommitment. In an age of ghosting, avoidance, and cancelling be an enduring advocate for resolution. Have hope always for reconciliation. Be one who when you fall short, you renew your commitments and encourage others to recommit. 

I adopted this prayer framework from Saint Ignatius of Loyola from his Spiritual Exercises. You can watch my video on it here and if you still find yourself curious seek out your local community of Jesuits.

Continue to pray, whether aloud or in contemplation. Spend more than seconds. Go to some quiet place. Take a walk by a river or a lake. Make a recurring date with the divine. It will not matter if computers get smarter and faster if we do not find delight in such a gift as our own intelligence and the Giver of such an extravagant gift.

Until next week,

-Steven

PS. If you got this far please consider purchasing my recently released devotional, Restored in the Rhythm. Every sale helps me continue sharing my writing with you all. Thank you to everyone who has already picked up a copy.