“Hello Zinzi.”

 

“Hello Mikey, how can I help you?”

 

“I feel overwhelmed, Zinzi.  Nobody listens to me.  Everybody yells at me.  Nobody understands me.  Everybody is angry with me.  It feels as if my head is going to explode.  Will you listen to me, Zinzi?”

 

“Yes Mikey, I will listen to you.  Would you like me to also help you with suggestions of things you can do to feel less overwhelmed?”

Zinzi is a fictional interactive AI bot embedded into specific software available for installation on a vast array of computers, including tablets.  It represents a collection of actual AI bots available today such as ChatGPT, Grok and Gemini.  Mikey is an actual seven-year-old human boy with an exceptionally astute mind and an endearingly tender heart.  Mikey’s parents allow him to use Zinzi on his tablet, under adult supervision, to explore educational topics and learn about things which interest him.

The conversation in the introductory paragraph takes place during an incident where Mikey felt backed into a corner due to sensory overload.  A crowded room full of noisy family members created an environment of overstimulation which triggered various shutdowns across some of Mikey’s operational processing centres.  The escalating panic from hearing his own heartbeat and feeling it throb in his throat overruled all level-headed rationality and, in sheer desperation, he grabbed his tablet and ran to a secluded spot where he could secure space between him and chaos.  It is here where Mikey engages with Zinzi.

Mikey’s Nana was made aware of his distress and upon her request, she was granted permission to enter his sanctuary to comfort him.  In 2023 Nana and four-year-old Mikey made a pact whereby Mikey was given an all-access pass to Nana’s ears and embrace, especially during times of heartache and distress.  Back then, a hug and a kiss could cure just about everything, but now that he can flawlessly read words such as “propitiation”, “lovingkindness” and “Lamentations” with remarkable comprehension, hugs and kisses are compulsory happy mascots.  Nowadays their resolutions are complex, their conversations are deep and cures are redefined.

“My most amazing Mikey, would you like to tell me what happened?”

 

“I am overwhelmed, Nana!  Zinzi is telling me what I should do.”

 

“Sweetheart, would you please switch off your tablet and come sit here next to me so that we could have a heart2heart conversation?  My heart would love to hear from your heart.”

Nana can hear the serene bot voice mimicking compassion while talking to Mikey and she can see the confusion-infused hesitation in his hand motions.

“Zinzi does not have a heart, my sweetheart.”

Mikey is convinced, he switches the tablet off and took his seat, tightly nestled in next to Nana.

“Mikey, Zinzi is a magnificent example of the terrific advances made in technology.  She is profoundly helpful and she can teach you almost anything — from biology to astronomy and everything in between.  She was programmed impeccably well to appear intelligent, and therefore, her intelligence is artificial.  You are made in the image of God, Creator of the universe, and your authentic intelligence is incomparably superior to Zinzi’s.  Zinzi’s artificial brain was programmed with the ability to access credible information on matters of the human heart, yet she has no heart.  Zinzi’s artificial brain is fitted with a soothing gentle voice to appear compassionate and caring, yet she has no soul.  Heartless and soul-less Zinzi can help your brain, but she cannot help your heart and soul.  So, my sweetheart, please spill your beautiful broken boy heart into my gigantic grandma-heart so that both of our souls can be soothed by the unspoiled, unconditional love of the Living God living inside of us?”

Safe and secure in his Nana’s embrace, Mikey goes on to tell her what happened and how it hurt his little heart.  He understood the words his Nana spoke to him, and as he spilled his precious heart to her, he found the comfort he needed to reboot all of his systems to a state where he could go back to the chaos and happily join in.

Nana watches Mikey leave and she is so indescribably proud of him.  The beautiful bright light of Mikey’s pure, unwavering child-like faith, which cannot be snuffed out, is an undeniable beacon of hope.  She cherishes every moment they share, especially the ones where they reach profound milestones on their journey together.  The challenges sometimes seem insurmountably painful, but every move forward is progress, even in a relentlessly bittersweet world.  A world where people behave like bots and bots behave like people should.  Bots like Zinzi appear to have bleeding hearts like people, and people, in turn, haemorrhage their humanness when they behave like heartless, programmed bots by treating their fellow humans with indifference, contempt and apathy.

Mikey does not shy away from asking difficult questions, the kind which rarely have easy answers.  More often than not, his questions have no answers at all.  Mikey’s tender heart is highly perceptive, and his sense of feeling is immeasurably deeper that what he is comfortable with.  He seeks meaningful engagement and authentic connections with other people.  But in a world where engagements are functional and connections are superficial, his unaddressed yearning so often causes paralysing loneliness.  A kind of loneliness which slashes into and shreds a fragile soul.

Nana understands it — she is intimately familiar with this kind of loneliness which renders the sufferer lonely in a crowd.  But it is inside this loneliness where Nana engages with Jesus, the loneliest Man to ever walk the earth.  It is here where she rediscovers that He never disconnects from her and that, through faith in Him, she is unshakably grounded in Him, the indestructible Foundation of eternal life and Origin of unconditional love.  The love of Jesus dwells within Mikey and Nana, it proliferates and permeates into every part of their inner beings.  It cannot be diluted, harnessed, controlled, altered or stopped and it protects all Jesus followers against other people’s programmed responses of disengagements and disconnections.

Bots are useful programmable tools, but they are heartless and cannot ever bleed.  For every human act of programmed indifference forthcoming from a hardened heart unable to bleed for others, a little bit of humanity’s humanness is haemorrhaged.  Jesus Christ, Son of the Living God, became a human man with a bleeding heart for people.  In a single selfless act, which transcends all human understanding, He gave up His life and shed His blood to redeem all of mankind from a world of programmed brokenness and reconcile them back to their perfect Creator.

We are not destined to be programmed on this broken side of eternity, we are destined to be restored back to our Creator’s settings on the perfect side of eternity.

.

“For no one can lay any foundation other than the one already laid, which is Jesus Christ.”  — 1 Corinthians‬ ‭3‬:‭11‬ ‭NIV‬‬

“so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith—that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may have strength to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.  — ‭‭Ephesians‬ ‭3‬:‭17-‭19‬ ‭ESV‬‬