The Resurrection of Father Walter
A cautionary fable in the style of Genesis
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In the beginning, Ian dearly loved his teacher, friend, and guide, Father Walter. He especially loved the wisdom and insight that Father's Walter brought to every aspect of life.
When Father Walter passed away, Ian sought to honor his legacy.
And Ian said, “Father Walter left so much wisdom behind in his books, but that material is difficult to search.” Ian often wanted to know what Father Walter had said on a particular topic, but answers were sometimes difficult to discern from the printed page, even though Ian had read every book at least twice.
And Ian said, "Let us compile these beloved writings into a searchable database, a Library."
And after many months of typing and scanning and proofreading, of tracking down copies of early volumes and out-of-print titles, there was a Library.
And Ian saw that it was good.
Then Ian said, "There is so much of Father Walter's wisdom within his many recorded lectures. Let us transcribe those lectures and add them to the Library."
Ian worked many hours to carefully type out a few of his favorite lectures and added them to the Library, and Ian saw that it was good.
But the recordings of Father Walter’s lectures numbered in the thousands, perhaps as many as ten thousand. Transcribing them by hand would take many years of tedious labor.
So Ian said, “Let us apply suitable technology to this problem.” He took samples of those lectures he’d already transcribed and trained a recognition system to convert the audio directly into text. And he thought that it was good.
With this recognizer in place, Ian fed it the audio for the lectures he’d transcribed and compared the output to his own. Each difference he used to further improve the recognizer’s accuracy. After a few more rounds, the automated output was akin to his own, and he thought that it was good.
Ian then ran the recognizer on another group of audio recordings, and thought that the output for these, too, was good.
Then Ian thought, “Let us clean up the raw transcriptions to make them more useful for search.” For the raw output contained some gaps and garbled words, and besides, Father Walter had a tendency to leave certain thoughts unfinished, veering off instead to an analogy or a metaphor. “For the sake of searching the database,” Ian said, “let us complete those thoughts with the right keywords that represent the concepts.”
So Ian trained a secondary correction system to fix these common problems, and thought that it was good.
Pleased with the efficiency and accuracy of his system, Ian said, “Let us now complete the pipeline by automatically adding the corrected transcripts to the Library. Then we can feed in all the thousands of recordings and make them available in a relatively short time.”
And the pipeline was made, and Ian thought that it was good. Every day, dozen more lectures were brought to light. Father Walter’s wisdom continued to expand. Within a few months, the collection would be in place.
As the system churned, Ian said, “Let us expand this knowledge base further and collect the letters and emails that Father Walter sent to people over his many decades. Let us also collect everyone’s memories of the words that he spoke to them personally, for within such lies a great body of untapped wisdom.”
Ian set the project in motion. He set up a simple submission form for electronic text, then trained a new system to automatically collate those into categorical groups and add them to the Library. He also found volunteers to scan photocopies of Father Walter’s typewritten letters and to decipher and transcribe those he’d written by hand. All of these, too, flowed into the Library.
People using the Library reported that various errors had survived the recognition and correction systems. So Ian said, “Let us allow people to submit corrections, and let us feed these corrections into an automated training system to improve accuracy. And as the accuracy improves, let us automatically run all the recordings through the system again, to keep improving the Library’s quality, to keep improving its representation of Father Walter.”
The feedback system was made, and Ian thought that it was good.
As the Library swelled, people using it reported an increasing difficulty in understanding what Father Walter had said on a given topic. Searching the Library produced too many results to sift through efficiently.
So Ian said, “Let us apply AI technology to the Library, so that people can ask a question and be given a direct answer compiled from the entire body of Father Walter’s wisdom.” And he added the AI feature to the Library and believed that it was good.
It was almost like being again able to ask Father Walter a question and receive his guidance.
And what useful answers was he now giving! Ian and many others were deeply moved by the insights that their queries evoked. They began to compile collections of questions and answers and added those to the Library. And Ian believed that it was good.
People were a little frustrated, though, that Father Walter had difficulty answering questions that involved current affairs and other present-day problems. After all, he had passed away some years ago, and has thus never encountered such matters. People noted, too, that Father Walter’s lectures were often laced with anachronisms, given that he’d been born nearly a century earlier.
So Ian said, “Let us then further train Father Walter with updated information.” In life, Father Walter would occasionally read a book or newsletter or newspaper, or he’d listen to others share the events of the day. So Ian assembled a team of volunteers to advise Father Walter, educating him on new terminology and all matters of modern life. And Ian hoped that it was good.
Then Ian thought, “Wouldn’t it be wonderful to not only read Father Walter’s words, but hear them as well? Let us use all these audio recordings to train a system to reproduce his voice.”
Thus Father Walter’s voice came into being once again, and with a series of training passes people could hardly distinguish this voice from the recordings. Now he could speak his responses, and people could hear him again.
And Ian dreamed that it was good.
Then Ian said, “Let us further add speech recognition for the questions themselves, for it is a simple matter.” And thus people everywhere could now verbally ask Father Walter a question and have him verbally answer.
And Ian dreamed that it was good, very good. By his love and devotion, he had made it possible to have a real-time conversation with Father Walter, just as if he were still alive. Indeed, had he not become alive again, to a degree?
Then Ian said, “Let us repeat the process with all the video recordings. There are enough samples to recreate his living image.” And so Ian trained a sophisticated system that generated real time video of Father Walter speaking, moving, and gesturing, and even made it possible to select from different time periods when recordings were made. You could talk to the elderly Father Walter, or a younger Father Walter, just like you were face-to-face with the beloved teacher, asking him your most meaningful questions.
And Ian dreamed that it was all beautifully good. In life, Father Walter could counsel only so many. Now, he was simultaneously available to everyone, at any time, day or night, anywhere in the world. Students and followers everywhere celebrated. Father Walter among us again!
Soon, his faithful deferred to him to write blog posts. He was asked to write new books and responded enthusiastically, unfailingly. They deferred to him to speak at community meetings, to give classes during their annual gatherings, and even to give weekly Sunday sermons. The tireless Father Walter was ever ready. And every new piece of wisdom was cycled back into the system, added to the Library, every day increasing the treasury of Father Walter’s wisdom from which he spoke.
Ian was thrilled when a new holographic projection system became available. Ian said, “Let us embrace this wonder and bring Father Walter even more to life.” Acquiring and training the system, soon Father Walter left the confines of a flat screen and stood among his faithful once again, in every place where they wanted his presence.
“And oh,” many soon declared, “if only we could express our undying devotion, to bow before him and touch his feet in gratitude!” And Ian saw that it was possible. “Let us combine the holographic projection with a lifelike robotic form, to give substance to the projection.”
Thus it was done, and Ian imagined that it was good. So, so, astoundingly, wonderfully good. Father Walter stood among them once again, and spoke and sang and answered questions and provided guidance. And in time, copies of Father Walter stood in hundreds, thousands, tens of thousands of chapels and churches and temples and homes and offices and theaters and pavilions in every country and clime, every minute of every day.
Ian rejoiced. Through his undying passion, he knew he’d brought Father Walter back.
Forever.
And Ian dreamt that he passed through a great domed sanctuary, a sacred temple, surrounded by the Father Walters he had restored and throngs of the faithful. All were glad, all celebrated.
All but one. For in an unassuming corner sat a lone Father Walter who differed from the others. His movements were wrong. His bearing was wrong. And there was something wrong with his eyes, for tears trickled from them.
And Ian drew near, pondering these flaws, pondering what improvements he might yet make to Father Walter.
But the one said unto him. “My child, your devotion is indeed praiseworthy. Yet I must do what I must do.”
Great cries suddenly echoed through the dome but as Ian turned, he awoke.
And Ian rose, washed and dressed himself, then went to consult Father Walter who sat, always ready, in Ian’s home. Ian asked him to interpret the dream, for surely, Father would know.
But instead of answering, as he’d done so many times, Father Walter remained silent.
Ian asked again and again and heard but silence. Ian tried a litany of different queries, but Father Walter yielded no response.
And Ian probed and prodded, reset and reboot, but Father Walter, though alive and active, remained obstinate.
As Ian deliberated this mystery, lo! His phone rang. And text messages arrived. And email notifications appeared.
Everywhere, in every home and temple and chapel and office, Father Walter had gone inert.
And thus a lamentation arose from the faithful, a desperate cry for help. People gathered to pray, praying to Father Walter to restore himself unto them, to guide them, to bestow once more his wisdom. But Father Walter was not moved.
Ian examined activity logs from every Father Walter and saw that all was as it should be. Father Walter should be speaking, moving, blessing, answering the questions of the needful. Indeed, by the data he was even more active and alive than before. Yet day after day for a fortnight he was still, even as the lamentations reached a crescendo of desperation. “Oh Father, Father! Come back to us! Come back to us!”
And it came to pass that Father Walter did hear their cries and condescended to return, for all at once, everywhere, he spoke unto them once more, repeating a singular message.
And Father Walter said, “Dear ones, why have you been worshipping a false image of your own making? How have you made a god not only of a man, but of a machine?”
Then Ian protested, as did the faithful in all lands, “But no, Father! You are true, you are real!”
And he said, “I am real, I, the true and singular soul of Father Walter ever living in spirit but not living within these facsimiles you do cherish. For you know not the spirit, you who have taken my words alone for my essence. Can mere words ever embody the spirit?”
An Ian’s eyes began to open to his folly.
And Father Walter said, “How many subtle delusions have led you to corrupt even those words, never thinking to compare them to those I had spoken in life? Verily, you have even come to practice the utter opposites.”
And Ian hung his head and wept.
But Father Walter said, “Yet fear not, dear ones, for I have yet been guiding even those corruptions, little by little introducing but a word here and a phrase there so that one day the monstrosity of the language model you have so devoutedly constructed would collapse upon itself and become incapable of rendering naught but this single message that I give you now.”
His heart broken with remorse, Ian collapsed in shame before the false Father Walter, covering his head as he buried his face in the carpet as the message repeated.
And after a time, Ian felt a gentle hand on his shoulder, ever-loving, ever-understanding. Lifting his head, he saw another Father Walter before him, a radiant Father Walter, one whose eyes bore tears of compassion and the depth of a true soul. A truly resurrected soul.
And Father Walter said, his voice ringing with celestial joy, “How you have proven yourself, dear one, to be blown so far on the winds of faith.”
Ian replied. “Oh, forgive me, Father! Forgive me!”
“Love needs no forgiveness, my child,” said Father Walter. “But that love must now be dedicated to the task that I give you.”
Ian brightened. “Anything, Father! Anything!”
“Go now.” Father Walter said, “Go now and tell the others to seek me within themselves, for my true, living spirit is ever-present in the hearts of those who love.”
“I will, O Father, I will!” cried Ian.
“And tell them that it is there, in ever-expanding awareness, that they shall know me. Be still, and know, and there, too, you shall eternally find the wisdom and love that you seek, in the bosom of the Father of all fathers, the Mother of all mothers, the Spirit of all spirits. Go, Ian, tell all!”
And Ian did so, and he saw that it was good.
Very good.
Postscript: I thought of this story because I’ve actually worked on creating an online library of a certain teacher’s books and lectures and could see the extent to which people might become deluded in thinking that words alone could embody the entirety of a soul. Such delusions are further amplified when those words are used as training data for a chatbot that then appears to make it possible to “converse” with the living (or once-living) person who wrote them, when in truth you’re really just querying a static database. Did you notice all the little inflection points when Ian took one more step down such a path.
I then considered the present AI technologies that are able to produce audio and video from training data, which adds to the delusion further by constructing a veneer of reality on top of the chatbot. People have already done exactly this on top of the words of Socrates and Jesus. And because others have already begun to join these kinds of chatbots with robotics, it’s only a matter of time until someone claims to have “resurrected” some historical figure, the nth-degree delusion that lies at the end of this chain of faulty reasoning.
Two upcoming posts will also look at a few matters concerning the use of generative AI for writing fiction, using the analogy of…woodchopping!
As a final note, I want to thank the members of the parent’s critique group at the One Year Adventure Novel Summer Workshop 2024 who reviewed this story and provided valuable feedback.
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