The Steeple and the Horizon

And the narrator could say something like: There are places on the plains where you can see the church steeple ten miles before you reach town. That steeple used to mean more than Sunday Mass. It meant there were people there. Families. A school. A cemetery. Somebody who would come when the barn caught fire. Somebody who would bring soup when your wife was sick. Somebody who knew your name. The old Catholic word for some of this is subsidiarity. It means the big thing should not swallow the small thing. The state should not do what the town can do. The town should not do what the family can do. And no institution should take from a human being a responsibility he is capable of carrying himself. But there is another half to it. When the small thing cannot carry the burden alone, the larger community is supposed to help. Not replace it. Help it stand. That is what artificial intelligence ought to do. A machine should not become the new priest, the new governor, the new foreman, or the new oracle. It should help a person understand the contract before signing it. Help a farmer understand the water rule. Help a parent understand the school policy. Help a worker understand the law. Help a citizen hear both sides before somebody asks for his vote. The purpose is not to make the machine sovereign. It is to make the person harder to fool. Catholics have another word for that person. We call him a soul. And a soul is never merely a unit in somebody else’s system. It has dignity. It has conscience. It has duties. And because it has duties, it must be given enough truth to exercise them. There will always be people who say the world has become too complicated for ordinary men and women. Maybe it has. But Christianity never taught that complexity cancels dignity. It taught something closer to the opposite. The shepherd does not own the sheep. The ruler does not own the citizen. The expert does not own the ignorant. The strong are responsible for helping the weak become stronger. That is a very different idea of power. Maybe AI can be used that way. Not to build a taller tower. But to put better tools in more hands. Not to tell people what to think. But to help them see far enough to think for themselves. Out here, the horizon is wide. The steeple is still there. And there ought to be room enough in this country for faith, intelligence, and freedom to stand together.