Understanding Spiritual Intelligence: A Progress Report on an ISSR Research Project
Fraser Watts
We are just over two years into the ISSR research project on Understanding Spiritual Intelligence, funded by TWCF. I posted a blog at the start about what we intended to do. This is an update on where we have got to.
We had to do quite a bit of hard conceptual work on what we mean by “spiritual intelligence”. We do not assume that there is a “God spot” in the brain, or a module for spiritual intelligence in the cognitive architecture. We assume that when humans are operating in spiritual mode, that they are using the same mental resources as they use for everything else. We also do not assume that spiritual intelligence is concerned with understanding a completely different domain of reality from the usual one, though it may be selective in what it focuses on. Spiritual intelligence is more about ‘knowing things differently’ than about ‘knowing different things’. Nevertheless, we think it is possible to identify the marks of a spiritual mode of cognitive processing. This can be seen in relatively pure form when people are devoting themselves to spiritual practices, but it also carries over into everyday life.
We are impressed by the number of cognitive theories who have concluded that humans have two fundamentally different modes of processing. One of these is intuitive and holistic and is a slightly modified form of the central processing capacities found in other higher primates. The other is conceptual and analytical, and linked to the advanced linguistic capacities of humans. One influential version of this kind of theory comes from the neuroscientist, Iain McGilchrist in his celebrated book, The Master and his Emissary, who frames the distinction in terms of left brain and right brain modes of cognition.
In our research project we have worked particularly with the cognitive architecture of Philip Barnard, Interacting Cognitive Subsystems (ICS), which has two central subsystems: implicational (intuitive-holistic) and propositional (conceptual-analytical). We propose that spiritual practices normally bring about a rebalancing between these two central subsystems, with intuitive, holistic intelligence playing a more leading role, and conceptual intelligence being subordinate to it. In convergent research, also making use of ICS, John Teasdale has recently published a book (What Happens in Mindfulness) arguing that in detail. The distinctive mode of intention found in spiritual practices will be the subject of the 2023 Boyle lecture, to be given by Rowan Williams on “attending to attention”, with a response from John Teasdale.
Another strand of work has focused on the relationality that is an important feature of personhood. This theme has spanned both our theological and our computational work. Theologically, Marius Dorabantu has argued in favour of a relational interpretation of imago dei. So, the theological question of whether computers can be part of imago dei largely comes down to whether and how far computers have a capacity for relationality. That is a subtle matter, and is analysed in detail by Marius in various articles, and in a book that will be published shortly. Amongst other things he distinguishes between whether computers have human-like or just human-level intelligence.
On the computational side, William Clocksin has argued that spiritual intelligence is a fundamentally relational kind of intelligence. AI has so far largely treated computers as isolated devices and has not attempted to program relational forms of intelligence. Clocksin argues that this is a challenge that needs to be surmounted if there is ever to be computational modelling of spiritual intelligence. As a significant step in that direction, he has written a computational model of friendship. It focuses on friendship in various forms but, within that, it is possible to characterise in computational terms the distinctive features of spiritual friendship. We believe that his computer program is the most sophisticated computer program so far to model relationality.
In another strand of work, Yorick Wilks has built on his extensive previous research on artificial companions to explore the possibility of developing a spiritual companion with which a person could discuss spiritual issues. This may sound far-fetched, but there is research going back to the 1960s showing that computers are quite good at providing non-directive counselling. There have also been significant advances in providing the elderly with a personalised automated companion. We don’t claim that computers can, in every way, replace a human spiritual advisor, but we believe that they can be a valuable supplementary resource to help people in their spiritual development.
In the first phase of this research, we used Wizard of Oz methodology, in which people discussed spiritual issues with what appeared to be a computer, even though the computer responses were actually generated by a human being. The conclusion was that participants found interfacing with a computer to be an acceptable and helpful way of discussing spiritual issues. This has led onto research in which we have used recently developed GPT3 methods to enable the computer to generate its own contributions to a spiritual conversation. The computer has assimilated one of my own books, Living Deeply: A Psychological and Spiritual Journey, and will draw on it in framing its remarks on spiritual issues.
Harris Wiseman has drawn several strands of the project together in a beautiful set of papers, just published as a special section of Zygon. He integrates work on spiritual practices (including Japanese arts), modes of processing (especially a particular kind of slow processing), and the context of embodiment that is an important feature of spiritual cognition. One of the first books to arise from the project will be Spiritual Intelligence in Seven Steps, by Mark Vernon, to be published by John Hunt in December this year. Later books will include a team-authored book on Perspectives on Spiritual Intelligence, also a Cambridge Companion to Religion and AI to which several projects’ members have contributed chapters, and an OUP book by Yorick Wilks on Artificial Intelligence and God. In June 2023 there will be an ISSR conference on Religion an AI, at which this research project will be show-cased. Details will be made available shortly.
For more on this project, including our first project deliverable, click here.
