Religion & Ethics NewsWeekly is a production of THIRTEEN Productions LLC for WNET. Visit www.pbs.org/religionandethics for additional information. Show #1833 will be fed over PBS at 5:00 p.m. EST on April 17 (check local listings).
Creating Artificial Intelligence – Will human beings become able to make robots that are smarter than we are? Could they become able to make moral decisions, choose right from wrong? If so, whose morality, and by whom controlled? Lucky Severson reports – and engineers wonder – could androids we are creating evolve into our masters?
Church “Mass Mobs” – A growing movement across the country has adapted the pop culture idea of “flash mobs” and is using social media to encourage large numbers of Catholics to show up at a specific church for Sunday morning worship. Kim Lawton looks at the Mass Mobs’ goals of helping struggling urban churches, as well as concerns that this is not a long term solution.