That Tech Pastor speaks on AI ethics at the American Security Foundation's Athens Summit, joining panelists from the Vatican and Greek Orthodox Church. He tours the Acropolis, the National Library of Greece, and Mars Hill, where Paul preached in Acts 17.
Chapters
Welcome everybody, this is me going to Greece to speak, where I became an international AI speaker, believe it or not, with the American Security Foundation. Be sure to like and follow for more. This is our taxi ride in. So I arrived in crazy, like during rush hour traffic in the morning, which was crazy. We stayed at the Hotel Grand Mirage, which was super sick, downtown, amazing hotel. Shout out to American Security Foundation. I want you to see some of the culture here, so I went out and immediately immersed in the mall and I found a church.
One thing about me, I'm gonna find a church. It's like a Greek Orthodox space.
Absolutely beautiful.
Absolutely beautiful. Well, there you go.
So there's a restaurant in our hometown called Mykonos, and so of course I found Mykonos Coffee. And it's not going to be as good as kidnapping Brando Coffee.
This is King's Club.
Anyway, so we're back onto our journey, and the place was packed with people. While there were a lot of cars on worst day of latte I've ever had.
I don't like vanilla powder in that, but just to be very clear. But fresh from Greece, needed the coffee too. So many people! That's the Parliament Beach.
Pretty cool.
So this is the National Library of Greece. You can see this magnificent construction. That's Plato. That's Socrates. Interestingly enough, there's a story that's told in scripture.
This is going to be all the Grecian gods.
False, but you know what I mean. And then behind me, that's Plato, that's Socrates.
Pretty cool.
It says that Socrates, I believe, might have been present when Solomon had the conversation about splitting the baby in half. And we believe one of the philosophers who was there was actually Socrates. And he has influenced the way we think and all that.
More ways I think we want to admit, but kind of cool.
And it's only fitting they're in front of the National Library of Greece.
Cool.
I don't know what this is, but the door is open.
The door is open.
We going in. Update: it's the administration building for a college, so don't judge me.
So here's what I was there for. I spoke on a panel to talk about AI ethics in the local church. I was on the panel with some amazing people, and it was the first time I spoke off the United States soil to become an international speaker in AI. Shout out to the American Security Foundation for their Athens Summit on AI Ethics. People from the Vatican, the Greek Orthodox Church, everybody was there. It was really amazing to see people who really, really care about the future, people who care about the local church, and people. Now back to our little vacation moments. We had a chance to see some amazing things in Greece. This is the Temple of Zeus.
You can see that. Here.
So we are at the stadium. Yeah, I don't know, we're at the stadium and we're going to go have some fun.
The drama.
So I'm inside of the first place where the Olympics were. It's interesting. So these are the seats that people would sit in, like VIP seating, um, and that's where they would sit. You can see the king is King and Queen— we're gonna get closer— would sit there in those thrones, but they had backstone because you see the rest were just basic bleachers. So interesting. Marble. So much marble.
Again, marble.
So these ain't no wooden bleachers, it's marble.
So this is the track where it was on, and you'll now in a second see the original rings all pushed together. Country.
So interestingly, you see this double-sided sculpture.
So the front side of the sculpture is a Greek person looking out at the entrance. The other side of the sculpture is a pyramid.
This is called the Lion's Time.
When you stayed overnight during the games, they would cover it with obelisks, temples, and again, more pyramids.
So this is the tunnel they would come out of. Um, it was a pretty long tunnel, and there's a lot of weird rituals that have happened in this tunnel for birth, for children. Um, bodies are a big piece in Greece. And so you can see here this, all the history of the Olympiad. Um, you can see all the torches that were used for the Olympiad, as well as, um, more history on the Olympics from the first one that we could get information on to get historical records there, take pictures that we would go all the way back in time. It's pretty cool to see all this history of the Olympiad and to be really kind of put together, um, in space and all the different images, the banners, the locations. It's pretty cool to see. Amazing space. Yeah, that's—
this is an 800-year-old church, which is crazy, but we're gonna go take a look at it. Here we go. 800 years.
I don't know how to pronounce it— but a square has a flea market, a lot of really cool stuff.
Pretty cool.
So a lot of ruins that they preserved them very well all throughout Athens. Everywhere I went, there was amazing, beautiful facilities that you can tell really see a thing, whether it was earthquakes, wars, whatever it is that took it away. Beautiful, beautiful facilities. And then there was a well too. You can see where people actually used to go draw water from. Then we went out to the Parthenon, and this was a whole nother world. Honestly, when we walked up to it, it was kind of a city under the stairs. And so you saw places where they would go, where there was fire, there was life. And so you can see all the different fire pits that people had, where there was life. That's where they could cook, get warm, all of that. And now I'll take you on a little bit of a tour of the museum where I should have taken—
like a Museum of the Acropolis.
And so it was super cool.
Let's have some fun.
So interesting. Amazing tour guide, uh, who took us through. So this is actually parts that London, the museum in London, had taken and put to their museum, and things that were left in the Greek museum. And so you can see different original pieces because a lot of the stuff that's falling apart or wars or whatever have been taken. You can see that's what the original was supposed to look like, it's the Birth of Athena, um, all of that. And then again here you can see all the pieces that were still there, how big it is in person. And this stuff was monumental in massive to go through and just telling a full story of what they believed and took. Now I have to shamelessly plug this, I came here from Ghana, and so to hear how this mythology was celebrated and how honoring ancestors was venerated was— the Black man in me got really frustrated. But anyway, we honor different cultures and you need to honor Black culture as well. That's the Parthenon, and you were going to walk this entire hill, you can do that too. On the side of it was the stadium, and on the side of it too was a place where they would bathe, they would watch, they would engage with people. It was the center of the city at one point, and they still do concerts here. So they've restored this. John Legend's actually coming, I believe, a couple weeks after we left. And this was like where saxophones— so many people.
And views after view.
That was Mars Hill. Sorry about that in a second. So this is on top of the hill. You can see there was probably thousands of people up there. Um, the white spaces on the reconstruction are all the places where they've been reconstructed after things have been torn down, things like that. And here's Mars Hill.
So this is Mars Hill.
It's just a bunch of rocks.
It's a place Paul got up in Acts chapter 17 and, well, talked a whole bunch of mess about Athens.
It's amazing to see.
Bunch of rocks, but it's amazing. Jesus did all this work upon that rock. Paul got up on this rock. No way is the same in comparison, but this is pretty cool. Go Paul!
All in all, amazing time. I really can't believe that AI has taken me all the way to Greece to see this. And so really grateful for you guys joining along the journey. Be sure to like and follow for more. This This is the last time we crossed the water. You guys saw Ghana, you guys saw Greece. I wonder what's next to come. Alright, like and follow for more.
