Skynet Meets Planet of the Snakes. Removing metaphysical Impediments to Rogue AI
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.12775/SetF.2025.009Keywords
Skynet, artificial intelligence, rationality, Aquinas, participation, justiceAbstract
This paper advances the view that non-rational AI could indeed constitute a significant threat to humankind and that the best way to avert this threat is ethical formation of those involved in AI development. In the light of a novel thought experiment, and by applying an understanding of rationality based on a Thomistic Metaphysics of Participation (TMP) wherein rationality and self-awareness do not emerge, this paper finds no metaphysical impediment to AI posing such a threat in the future. This approach serves to highlight the immediate need for action. The most effective safeguard against a Skynet scenario appears to be ethical formation in justice for the policy and decision makers, and AI developers.
References
Allyn B. 2023. ‘The godfather of AI’ sounds alarm about potential dangers of AI, Available at: https://www.npr.org/2023/05/28/1178673070/the-godfather-of-ai-sounds-alarm-about-potential-dangers-of-ai (accessed on 06 June 2023).
Aquinas, Exposition of the Hebdomads of Boethius (Introduction and translation by Janice L. Schultz and Edward A. Synan) https://archive.org/details/an-exposition-of-the-hebdomads-by-aquinas_202109/page/n7/mode/2up. EHB in text.
Aquinas, St. Thomas. Questiones disputatae de veritate. Edited by Joseph Kenny OP. Available at: https://isidore.co/aquinas/QDdeVer.htm. QDdV in text.
Aquinas, St. Thomas. 1955-57. The Summa Contra Gentiles, edited by Joseph Kenny OP. New York: Hanover House. Available at: https://isidore.co/aquinas/ContraGentiles.htm. SCG in text.
Aquinas, St. Thomas. 2017. The Summa Theologica, translated by Fathers of the English Dominican Province, Online edition. Available at: https://www.newadvent.org/summa/. ST in text.
Aristotle, Metaphysics, translation by W.D. Ross. Available at: http://classics.mit.edu/Aristotle/metaphysics.8.viii.html
Asimov, Isaac. 2004. I, Robot. New York, Bantam Books,
Bazán, B. C. (1997). The human soul, form and substance? Thomas Aquinas' critique of eclectic Aristotelianism. Archives d'histoire doctrinale et littéraire du Moyen Âge, 95-126.
Božić, V. 2023. The dangers of artificial intelligence. General hospital Koprivnica.
Chatila, Raja, Erwan Renaudo, Mihai Andries, Ricardo-Omar Chavez-Garcia, Pierre Luce-Vayrac, Raphael Gottstein, Rachid Alami et al. 2018. ‘Toward self-aware robots’ Frontiers in Robotics and AI 5:88.
Cheney, Dorathy L.. “Extent and Limits of Cooperation in Animals” in Strassman JE, et al., (eds). 2011. In the Light of Evolution: Volume V: Cooperation and Conflict. Washington (DC): National Academies Press. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK424864/
Darwin, Charles, 1871. The Descent of Man.
Davidson, Tom. 2023. ‘The Danger of Runaway AI’ Journal of Democracy 34:4, 132-140. https://dx.doi.org/10.1353/jod.2023.a907694.
De Haan, D. 2018. “The interaction of noetic and psychosomatic operations in a Thomist hylomorphic anthropology,” Scientia et Fides 6(2):1-29.
Dutt, N., Regazzoni, C. S., Rinner, B., & Yao, X. 2020. ‘Self-awareness for autonomous systems’ Proceedings of the IEEE 108:7, 971-975.
Fabro, Cornelio. 1966. “The transcendentality of ens-esse and the ground of metaphysics,” International Philosophical Quarterly 6(3): 389-427.
Fabro, Cornelio. 1969. “Premessa.” In Esegesi Tomistica. Roma: Libreria Editrice della Pontificia Università Lateranense, Roma, xxxiii.
Fabro, Cornelio. 1970. “Platonism, Neo-Platonism and Thomism: Convergencies and Divergencies,” Neo-Scholasticism 44: 69-100.
Fabro, C. 1974. “The Intensive hermeneutics of Thomistic philosophy: The notion of participation,” Review of Metaphysics 27: 451-457.
Feser, Edward. 2005. Philosophy of mind: A short introduction. London: Oneworld.
Fjelland, Ragnar. 2020. ‘Why general artificial intelligence will not be realized’ Humanities and Social Sciences Communications 7:1, 1-9.
Francis I. 2024. Message for the World Day of Peace https://www.vatican.va/content/francesco/en/messages/peace/documents/20231208-messaggio-57giornatamondiale-pace2024.html
Future of Life Institute. 22 March 2023. “Pause Giant AI Experiments: An Open Letter https://futureoflife.org/open-letter/pause-giant-ai-experiments/
Gazzaniga, Michael S. 2011. Who's in charge? free will and the science of the brain. New York: HarperCollins.
Gonzalez-Jimenez, H. 2018. ‘Taking the fiction out of science fiction:(Self-aware) robots and what they mean for society, retailers and marketers’ Futures 98, 49-56.
Hauser M. 2006. Moral minds. New York: Harper Collins.
Hendrycks, Dan, Mantas Mazeika, and Thomas Woodside. 2023. ‘An overview of catastrophic ai risks’ arXiv preprint arXiv 2306:12001.
Hunt, T. 2023. ‘Here’s Why AI May Be Extremely Dangerous—Whether It’s Conscious or Not.’ Scientific American 25 May.
Jaworski, William. 2016. Structure and the metaphysics of mind: How hylomorphism solves the mind-body problem. Oxford: Oxford University Press,
John Paul II. 1998. Fides et ratio. Vatican City: Polyglotta Vaticana.
Koterski, Joseph W. “The Doctrine of Participation in Thomistic Metaphysics”. In D. Hudson and D. Moran, 1992. The Future of Thomism. South Bend: University of Notre Dame.
Liu, Bai. 2023, Arguments for the Rise of Artificial Intelligence Art: Does AI Art Have Creativity, Motivation, Self-awareness and Emotion?" Arte, Individuo y Sociedad 35:3, 811.
Madden, J. 2013. Mind, Matter, and Nature: A Thomistic Proposal for the Philosophy of Mind. Washington DC: The Catholic University of America Press.
Mullins, A. 2016. “Philosophical prerequisites for a discussion of the neurobiology of virtue” Ethical Perspectives 23:4, 689-708.
Mullins, A. 2017. “Can neuroscientific studies be of personal value?” International Philosophical Quarterly 57:4.
Mullins, A. 2022a. "A Thomistic Metaphysics of Participation Accounts for Embodied Rationality" International Philosophical Quarterly 62:1, 83-98.
Mullins, A. 2022b. "Rationality and human fulfilment clarified by a Thomistic metaphysics of participation" Scientia et Fides 10:1, 177-195.
Namestiuk, S. 2023. ‘Challenging the Boundary between Self-Awareness and Self-Consciousness in AI from the Perspectives of Philosophy’ Futurity Philosophy 2:4, 43-60.
Norris Clarke, W. 1981. “The natural roots of religious experience.” Religious Studies 17(4): 511-523.
Norris Clarke, W. 1992. “Person, Being, and St. Thomas,” Communio 19(4): 616.
Norris Clarke, W. 1995. Explorations in Metaphysics. Southbend: UND Press.
Reuters. 9 June 2023. “Simulation of AI drone killing its human operator was hypothetical, Air Force says.” https://www.reuters.com/article/factcheck-ai-drone-kills/fact-check-simulation-of-ai-drone-killing-its-human-operator-was-hypothetical-air-force-says-idUSL1N38023R/
Rziha, J.M. 2009. Perfecting human actions. St Thomas Aquinas on human participation in eternal law. Washington: Catholic University of America.
Scharre, P. 2019. ‘Killer apps: The real dangers of an AI arms race’ Foreign Affairs 98, 135.
Scruton, Roger. 2014. The Soul of the World. Woodstock: Princeton University Press.
te Velde, Rudi. 2015. “Aquinas's Aristotelian science of metaphysics and its revised Platonism” Nova et Vetera 13:3,743-764.
Thais, S. 2024, ‘Misrepresented Technological Solutions in Imagined Futures: The Origins and Dangers of AI Hype in the Research Community’ In Proceedings of the AAAI/ACM Conference on AI, Ethics, and Society, 7:1455-1465.
Tredinnick, L., & Laybats, C. 2023. ‘The dangers of generative artificial intelligence’ Business Information Review, 40:2, 46-48.
Various, 2015. ‘An open letter, research priorities for robust and beneficial artificial intelligence.’ Retrieved from https://futureoflife.org/2015/10/27/ai-open-letter/
Vice: Motherboard blog. 1 June 2023 “AI controlled drone goes rogue, kills human operator in USAF simulated test” https://archive.is/2nE5i#selection-1177.0-1181.311
Walker, A. J. 2004. “Personal singularity and the communio personarum: A creative development of Thomas Aquinas’ doctrine of esse commune.” Communio: International Catholic Review 31: 457-79.
Wang, J. 2023. ‘Self-Awareness, a Singularity of AI’ Philosophy 13:2, 68-77.
Whitehead, Hal. 1997. ‘Analysing animal social structure’ Animal Behaviour 53, 1053-1067. http://whitelab.biology.dal.ca/hw/Whitehead_Analsoc.pdf
Wippel, John F. 2003. “Metaphysical foundations for Christian humanism in Thomas Aquinas,” Congresso Tomista Internazionale (21-25 September 2003), Roma: 4-18.
Wired 28 September 2023. “Six Months Ago Elon Musk Called for a Pause on AI. Instead Development Sped Up.” https://www.wired.com/story/fast-forward-elon-musk-letter-pause-ai-development/
Downloads
Published
How to Cite
Issue
Section
License
Copyright (c) 2025 Andy Mullins
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.
CC BY ND 4.0. The Creator/Contributor is the Licensor, who grants the Licensee a non-exclusive license to use the Work on the fields indicated in the License Agreement.
- The Licensor grants the Licensee a non-exclusive license to use the Work/related rights item specified in § 1 within the following fields: a) recording of Work/related rights item; b) reproduction (multiplication) of Work/related rights item in print and digital technology (e-book, audiobook); c) placing the copies of the multiplied Work/related rights item on the market; d) entering the Work/related rights item to computer memory; e) distribution of the work in electronic version in the open access form on the basis of Creative Commons license (CC BY-ND 3.0) via the digital platform of the Nicolaus Copernicus University Press and file repository of the Nicolaus Copernicus University.
- Usage of the recorded Work by the Licensee within the above fields is not restricted by time, numbers or territory.
- The Licensor grants the license for the Work/related rights item to the Licensee free of charge and for an unspecified period of time.
FULL TEXT License Agreement
Stats
Number of views and downloads: 88
Number of citations: 0
