Human nature is made in the image and likeness of God meaning that a revealing aspect of this image is man's intelligence. As we understand ever more deeply the nature of things, we utilize this knowledge to build intelligent machines, that is, machines that have some aspects of logic or know how built into them. Using intelligent instructions allows a machine to perform actions which were formally done by the human intelligent hand.

Take as an example the digital camera which is an imitation of the human eye. I remember the days of manual cameras which required manual setting of the shutter speed and lens opening and had to be focused manually. Today's digital cameras calculate exposure and focus automatically and some can even recognize faces to focus upon. We have moved from chemically based film of 36 exposure rolls to electronic memory cards which can hold hundreds and even thousands of images. Such is the gift of ingenuity God has bestowed upon man.

There are those who dream that some day machines will be equal to humans but this will never come to pass because "An intelligent machine need not have asexual urges, hunger, muscles or a humanlike body. A human being is much more than an intelligent machine." (Google Book: Jeff Hawkins, Intelligence, p. 41) The intelligence of a humanoid robot will be an imitation of the functions of neurons in the human brain and the ways of sensing and interacting with the environment. Whatever world view it will have will depend on the environment it interacts with unless programmed otherwise.

The day is fast approaching of Humanoid Robotics. "Humanoid Robotics includes a rich diversity of projects where perception, processing and action are embodied in a recognizably anthropomorphic form in order to emulate some subset of the physical, cognitive and social dimensions of the human body and experience. Humanoid Robotics is not an attempt to recreate humans. The goal is not, nor should it ever be, to make machines that can be mistaken for or used interchangeably with real human beings. Rather, the goal is to create a new kind of tool, fundamentally different from any we have yet seen because it is designed to work with humans as well as for them. Humanoids will interact socially with people in typical, everyday environments. We already have robots to do tedious, repetitive labor for specialized environments and tasks. Instead, humanoids will be designed to act safely alongside humans, extending our capabilities in a wide variety of tasks and environments." (Idaho National Laboratory: Webpage,"What Is a Humanoic Robot?") For a lesson in what not to do see Steven Spielberg's film: A.I. Artificial Intelligence.

Will a Humanoid Robot ever be alive in the human sense of the word? No, because its origin is not biological but a construction of man -- made in the image of man. As such it does not face death and human destiny, that is, the promised vision of God and the resurrection of the human body.

7. Truth of Natural Moral Law