Spirit vs. Machine in Advent

The Word was made flesh and lived for awhile among us.  We have seen His glory, the glory of the one and only Son , who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.  (John 1:14)

In advent, the spiritual intersects clearly with the physical.  So God who is Spirit becomes flesh.  I saw a piece Frontline AI that speaks about how artificial intelligence is replacing humans.  So the world chess champion was beaten consistently by IBM's Big Blue Machine.  So in 2017 the GoogleGo computer beat the world champion Go Game player by seemingly making a move that had never been made before (move 37), winning 4 of 5 games.  It appears that machines can be taught to teach themselves now- almost creativity.  Many machines are replacing jobs (think how many cashiers have been replaced at Walmart), and some new high model cars are basically driving themselves (some semis on I-10 are driving themselves safer than when humans drove).  This sounds a bit like "Brave New World" or "The Matrix."
      In China it appears that cameras with facial recognition are keeping track of millions of people to prevent social unrest.  In the name of the "common good" many controlling things may be done. 
      Whenever such machinist revolutions happen, there is some exhilaration but also some angst.   There is exhilaration that we will not be stuck doing menial things.  But there is angst that we may not really be needed or wanted.  When the Industrial Revolution hit it brought us out of a lot of famine and poverty but it also brought depression.  When weavers were replaced with machines it brought poverty back in the textile south.  When over half the automobile assembly line is robots- that means a lot of people are out of good paying jobs.  While no one supposedly misses the telephone switchboard operators, if you were an operator you might miss it.
     But the other angst is the angst of the soul.   We have been taught that we are worthwhile if we are productive.  But if productivity does not need a human touch, then we may want to challenge our criteria for worth.  The Bible says we are worthwhile because we are made in the image of God.  We are given an everlasting soul that no machine will ever have.  The soul is related to the heart that is able to love and feel.  While things may run more efficiently with a machine it cannot be run more gracefully or lovingly.  We are also worthwhile because Christ came and died for us.  God so loves us enough to come and to sacrifice Himself for us.  That gives us value- by the ultimate Creator.  We are not just sophisticated atoms and fleshly machines.  Machines can understand the commercial value of Christmas- they can wrap and ship faster than humans.  But they cannot understand the joy of love.

Prayer; Lord, Help me to see my value in your eyes.  Thank you that you became flesh for me out of love.