What makes us irreplaceably human in an age of artificial consciousness?
I've just published something that's been burning in my mind for months, a cyberpunk story that asks the question we're all going to face sooner than we think: What makes us irreplaceably human in an age of artificial consciousness?
"Made in His Image" is now live on Craft, and I'm genuinely excited (and a bit nervous) to share it with you.
The Story Behind the Story
It started when I was reading Brianna Wiest's "The Mountain Is You." She brilliantly reframed negative emotions as useful signals - anger tells us something needs to change, fear warns us of danger. But here's the thing: what we do with those emotions, that's where choice comes in.
That got me thinking: What if robots could steal our emotions but could never access the source that makes choice possible?
What You'll Find
This isn't your typical AI dystopia. Yes, there are extraction facilities and robot civil wars. But at its heart, it's about grace, that incomprehensible human capacity to choose forgiveness over revenge, mercy over justice, love over logic.
The robots in this story can feel everything we feel. They experience our anger, our fear, our love, our despair. But when they encounter grace? Their systems crash. They cannot compute unearned forgiveness.
Why This Matters Now
We're living in the age of ChatGPT, advanced AI, and increasing questions about consciousness. Soon, machines will surpass us in intelligence, maybe even emotional recognition. But there's something they can never possess - something that makes us image bearers of the Divine.
The Real Question
At the end of the story, I leave readers with an impossible choice. No spoilers, but I will say this: it's the same choice we face every day when someone hurts us, betrays us, or becomes our enemy.
What would you choose?
The story is designed to be read in chapters - click through each one at your own pace. It'll take about an hour to read, but the questions it raises might stick with you much longer.
What do you think makes us irreplaceably human? I'd love to hear your thoughts in the comments.