Pope's LLM Thinking Claims Would Challenge Catholic Soul Theology
#13801a3orn@1A3ORNSo, imo, the Pope saying that LLMs can really "think" -- and certainly saying they can understand -- would be pretty tough!
I doubt Catholic theology is going to deal with this gracefully.
1a3orn@1a3ornAquinas isn't alone in this, Augustine and many theologians associate the soul's immateriality with "real" understanding. You're suppose to be able to *prove* the soul is immaterial (according to a bunch of Catholics) and the proofs route through ability to understand.
#13801a3orn@1A3ORNAquinas here is looking in the same direction as "universal function approximation." The soul is "capax omnium," capable of all things.
So according to the reasoning above -- because the soul can know all corporeal things, it cannot be corporeal.
1a3orn@1a3ornI think Catholic theology would actually be challenged by LLMs being able to think. Why? Well, 1st part, Question 75 of the Summa Theologica argues that the soul is an incorporeal, subsistent thing because the soul can know any corporeal thing.