The Looking Glass

  [Image credit:  https://pixabay.com/photos/written-art-monastery-church-4934081/ ] This essay won the inaugural WBGS Fuller Research Prize Competition in 2021 JOE MCHUGH When was Jesus born? At face value, this question seems like a simple one to answer. The day? the 25 th . The month? December. The year? Well, if the year now is AD 2021, then surely Jesus was born 2021 years ago. So, December 25 th , 2021 years ago, making that the year 0? However, the Anno Domini system of dating years we use in our calendar, the Gregorian calendar, does not include a year 0. Instead, it skips from 1BC to AD 1. The contemporary consensus on Jesus’ birth year is c.4BC. How can someone be born four years before their own birthday? This date bases itself on the historical figure in the Bible, King Herod, the Roman client King of Judea from 36-1BC. 1 In addition to ancient historians, astrological data about the presumed Star of Bethlehem in Mathew 2:1-2 also concludes c.4BC. The lunar occulta...

ETHAN STOYANOV Artificial intelligence involves trying to create intelligence using computers, aiming to electronically replicate human intelligence and ideally the human consciousness. Artificial intelligence, ‘AI’, is a rapidly growing global market with growth being forecast to grow by 16.4% year over year in 2021 to £238.5 billion. However, despite AI’s large value currently, it was only recently like this. In the 1940s the programmable digital computer was invented which was based on the abstract essence of maths. This was the building block for a number of scientists who wanted to use this device to create an electronic brain. Research into AI began in a workshop on the campus of Dartmouth College in 1956. Many of the people attending were hopeful of the future for AI, predicting a machine of human intelligence in just 30 years or so. They were funded millions of dollars by the government to help enable their vision to become a reality. However, by 1973, British and US government...