Sunday, May 10, 2026
Sunday Reflection: Code is Soul
In 2000, Larry Lessig published a book called "Code, and Other Laws of Cyberspace." It became known for producing the catchphrase "Code is Law." That catchphrase has come to mean different things to different people, but a common theme is that once computer code takes over a function, it also tends to trump the law in that area. There were taxi laws, for example, until there were rideshare apps that just ignored those laws.
As AI creeps over us, I worry that code is soul, too.
I feel it when I hear a sermon, as I do too often, that feels like it was created by AI. I feel it when I read student work that is anything but heartfelt-- that matters when what you teach (as I do) is largely about injustice and tragedy, things that must be engaged with the heart and the mind. I feel it when I read "news" stories created by AI, that are just that little bit off, the "little bit" being the humanity of the teller.
Souls are individual. Code is collective. I see that conflict and the coming tragedy when I watch us lose the ability to tell our own stories, an ability that is already being lost among students as AI writes their papers, their poems, their essays.
There are billions, trillions even, of dollars that are urging us not to say no, to refuse to let computers take over those nourishers and outlets of the soul. But if we are to be truly human, to be children of God, at some point we must.
