It could be that Pesantrens are and will continue to be candradimuka craters that give birth to real humans, the best of humans, Insan Kamil. Thus, pesantren become the bastion of human civilization on earth so that the role and duties of humans as khalifatullah fil ardl can be carried out as well as possible.
In New York 1997, a historic moment unfolded, a chess match between the then world chess Grandmaster, Gary Kasparov, against the Deep Blue. This chess match takes place in 6 rounds. Gary Kasparov has won in the first Match by 4-2 that played in Philadelphia 1996, and this time, Deep Blue won the second Match by 3 1/2 – 2 1/2, marking as the first defeat of a reigning world chess champion by a computer under tournament conditions.
Around those years, when the Indonesian were so confused and busy with the affairs of the collapse of the New Order and the economic crisis, a special commission in Europe began to seriously discuss it from an ethical and moral point of view; Can robots with artificial intelligence really replace humans?
In 2021, the development of science and technology has entered the fifth phase, the 5G industrial revolution. This era of Big Data and Artificial Intelligence gave birth to a new “ism”, namely data centrism or info centrism, to mark and read current developments.
In the world of childhood, we see that drones can be in the form of toy helicopters that can fly up to a certain height and can be controlled by children via remote control. In the world of sports, drones can be equipped with high-precision digital cameras to record and broadcast live football matches with high-resolution image quality. Meanwhile, drones can be armed with air-to-air missiles, air-to-sea missiles, or air-to-ground missiles with extensive destructive capabilities in the military world. Today’s war in the Middle East has become the stage of the battle between humans versus intelligent robots that can fly.
In the field of medicine, intelligent robots can frequently interact with a patient to diagnose and perform treatment actions to cure the patient. However, this is still an ethical and moral debate, “Can a robot treat humans?”
In Indonesia, state and private banks are preparing to close hundreds of branch offices throughout the archipelago because smart robots can replace the functions and duties of tellers and customer service in the form of ATMs. There are many jobs that humans have worked on, will gradually be filled and replaced by intelligent robots, such as public gas stations, motor vehicle repair shops, financial analysts, manufacturing industries, and so on and so on. These people who have lost their jobs, whose number has been increasing from year to year in recent years, have become unemployed. Then how do humans maintain their life on earth?
Several years ago, when we were lucky, we could get a kind of sweet smile from the toll gate clerk when we received a change for paying tolls. Now, we have to rush to attach e-money cards to smart machines with the threat of toll booth blocks.
I have a friend and relative who memorizes the Qur’an, is pregnant with the Qur’an, which is impressive. So why not? The Qur’an, which contains the words of Allah as many as 30 chapters and 114 surahs can be memorized properly and correctly starting from juz 1 to juz 30 or vice versa from juz 30 to juz 1.
Until some time ago, there was a short message on my android smartphone that the 30 juz and 114 surahs of the Qur’an could be downloaded through a paid site. So my cellphone contains the 30 juz of the Qur’an and the 114 surahs.
Now when I hold the smartphone, I hold the Qur’an. I then tested the smartphone’s smarts by asking through a search engine: “God tests believers?” The smartphone answered in the blink of an eye by displaying successively: Surah Al-Baqarah verse 249, Ali Imran verse 166, and Al-Ma’idah verse 94. Allah says: “And what happened to you when there was a meeting (battle) between the two armies was by Allah’s permission, and that Allah might test those (true) believers.” (Ali ‘Imran verse 166).
Human civilization on earth stretches from Prophet Adam AS to Prophet Muhammad SAW until today. In 2021, the world population will be around 7,854,965,732. In a long period, perhaps hundreds of centuries, human civilization experienced ups and downs. In each prophetic period, mankind experienced different tests. In the millennial century, we, the human race, have received a fairly severe test from our creation-humans themselves, namely smart robots. It might be good to realize that there is currently a contestation between humans versus smart robots, which is summarized in a contemporary academic debate, anthropocentrism versus info centrism.
Subtly, slowly, humans are alienated from one another. In the family, fathers, mothers, and children are busy with their respective gadgets, interacting intently with something or someone or a group of people far away. Gadgets keep the near and bring the far ones closer. Man can be alienated from society, alienated from his family, alienated from himself. When humans have lost their spiritual awareness and social spirit, they are very similar to the smart robot. Thus, is it true that humans who have resembled robots can be replaced with smart robots?
In this context, it seems no exaggeration that pesantren is one, if not the only, answer key in responding to today’s challenges. In pesantren, Kiai educates and teaches students about science and etiquette, monotheism, morals, and fiqh, hopefully in the not too distant future, as well as technology.
Wa Allah a’lam bi al-Shawab.
The Red House, 14122021.