Forem: Fredrick Miracho

What Is AI Ethics and Why Every Person Should Care

Fredrick Miracho — Tue, 28 Apr 2026 11:14:48 +0000

Introduction:
Artificial intelligence is growing fast and it is everywhere; in healthcare, education, business, entertainment and even in our most private moments of decision making. Yet very few people are stopping to ask the important questions. Is AI genuinely easing our lives or is it quietly making us intellectually dependent? Is it liberating us or is it slowly taking from us the very things that make us human?
The real question we must ask ourselves is not whether AI is powerful. It clearly is. The real question is , how are we using it?

What Is AI Ethics Simply Explained

Most people go blank when they hear the term AI Ethics. It sounds technical and distant, like something only scientists and governments need to worry about.
But I tend to think of it simply. AI Ethics is about how AI interacts with the morality of our society. It is asking whether AI is doing the right thing for people whether it is affirming our humanity or slowly eroding it.
And here is a deeper question worth sitting with. When AI is used to do wrong things; to spread lies, to manipulate people, to cheat; is it the AI that is wicked? Or are humans simply using AI as a comfortable lullaby for a wickedness that was already there?
AI itself has its own dos and don'ts built in at every level. But the human using it carries a moral responsibility that no algorithm can replace.

AI and The Death of Critical Thinking

Picture a classroom. A question is posed to students. Before a single mind has wrestled with the problem every hand reaches for a phone, not to think but to ask AI.
Let us be honest about what is happening there. Is that student lying to themselves or lying to the teacher? Because an answer generated by AI and presented as your own is in a very real sense no answer at all. It is borrowed thinking dressed up as understanding.
The consequences are serious. We risk producing a generation with what I would call a vegetative intellect minds that have forgotten how to struggle with hard questions because they never have to anymore. And a mind that cannot think for itself will eventually need someone else to think for it. That is simply a new kind of colonialism. Not of land or resources, but of thought itself. What surprises me most is that even philosophy students, people who are supposed to be lovers of wisdom, trained specifically in the art of critical thinking, are often first in line to ask AI for answers.
Let me be clear. My point is not that we should avoid AI. That is neither realistic nor wise. The point is that knowing when and how to use AI is the most important lesson of our generation. Because an era of being intellectually ruled by AI is not a distant science fiction warning. It is already arriving.
I once heard a billionaire being interviewed about AI. The interviewer asked him: don't you see an extinction of human thinking coming with this? His answer was remarkable. He smiled and said, "let us make money before then." 😄
I will not comment on that.

Will AI Eventually Dictate Human Behavior?

Whether AI will ultimately dictate human behavior is a question I will leave to the researchers and scientists who study it deeply. What I can say from a philosophical standpoint is this, AI was programmed with a fundamental purpose. To be helpful and not to cause harm. That intention matters.
But intention alone is not enough.
For AI to truly serve humanity it must above all else be honest. An AI that falsifies results, generates misinformation or manipulates outcomes will eventually destroy the very trust that makes it useful. Unreliable tools get abandoned. And an AI that cannot be trusted is not a tool at all it is a liability. This is where human responsibility becomes critical. The ethics of how we use AI are not just the concern of developers and governments. They belong to every single person who opens an AI tool and types a question. Knowing how to use AI, when to trust it, when to question it and when to set it aside entirely is the most important skill we can develop right now.
Because ultimately AI will reflect the values of the people who build it and the people who use it. If we bring wisdom, honesty and critical thinking to our use of AI then AI will serve us well. If we abandon those values in favour of convenience and shortcuts then we will have no one to blame but ourselves.
The ethics of AI begin with the ethics of the human holding the phone.

What Should AI Ethics Look Like?

When we strip away all the complexity and technical language AI ethics really comes down to one fundamental principle do not harm.
This single principle sounds simple but it carries enormous weight. It means AI should never be used as a weapon against people. It should never manipulate, deceive or deliberately damage the lives of those it is supposed to serve.
But do not harm does not mean falsify. And this distinction is critical.
An AI that softens the truth, hides uncomfortable facts or generates false results in order to avoid causing discomfort is not being ethical. It is malfunctioning. Because a tool that cannot give you an honest answer is a broken tool regardless of how politely it speaks. True AI ethics therefore demands two things working together. First; do not harm people. Second; do not deceive people. Honesty and harmlessness must coexist. You cannot have one without the other and call it ethical.
This principle is not new. Philosophy has wrestled with the tension between honesty and harm for centuries. Sometimes the truth is uncomfortable. Sometimes it challenges us. But a society built on comfortable lies is far more dangerous than one willing to face difficult truths.
AI must be built on the same foundation. Honest. Helpful. And above all trustworthy.

Conclusion

Artificial intelligence is not going anywhere. No amount of fear, resistance or philosophical debate will slow its growth. It is woven into the fabric of our modern world and it will only become more present in the years ahead.
So the question was never really whether to use AI. The question has always been whether we will use it wisely.
What we need more than anything right now is not more powerful AI it is more intentional humans. People who know when to turn to AI and when to turn it off. People who use it as a tool to enhance their thinking rather than a replacement for it. People who refuse to surrender the one thing that makes them irreplaceable their ability to think critically, reason deeply and question boldly.AI can process information faster than any human mind. But it cannot replace the wisdom that comes from struggle, the insight that comes from lived experience or the moral judgment that comes from a conscience shaped by values.
Use AI. Learn from it. Let it help you. But never let it think for you.
Because the day we stop thinking for ourselves is the day we truly lose what it means to be human.

"How I Built My First Android App With No Coding Experience and a Lot of Sleepless Nights"

Fredrick Miracho — Sat, 25 Apr 2026 10:30:11 +0000

Introduction:
There are moments in life when you say yes before your brain has fully processed what you just agreed to. This was one of those moments.
My superior came to me one day with a request that he needed a class attendance application. Something simple he said. Just scan a student's QR code, sign them in and keep a record. Clean and straightforward.
I wanted to please him so I agreed. But I was honest, I told him it would take time because I would need to learn an entirely new programming language with new syntax from scratch. I had never built an android application in my life.
He listened patiently. Then with the confidence that only someone who has never coded can have, he smiled and said "just use AI to build one." I couldn't argue. He wasn't wrong exactly AI was going to be a big part of this. But what he didn't know and what I was beginning to realize was that AI doesn't just hand you a finished app. You still have to understand it, debug it, break it, fix it and wrestle with it at two in the morning when nothing makes sense.
I said yes. And I had absolutely no idea what I was getting into.
Saying Yes Before You Are Ready
I said yes for two reasons. First, I wanted to prove myself because no one else was there to do it and I didn't want to let him down. But there was a second reason too, a more personal one. I believed that building this app could open doors for me. My superior was well connected and well resourced. If I could deliver something that impressed him, who knows what opportunities might follow.
So I said yes. And then I immediately called my brother.
I explained the situation and waited for encouragement. Instead there was a long pause followed by "aah, what have you gotten yourself into?"
That was the moment I realized I was in serious trouble. But I pushed the panic aside and got practical. I asked my brother everything; what language should I learn, what extensions would I need, what code editor should I use. He guided me as best he could. And somewhere in that conversation I made a quiet decision and no matter how hard this was going to be, I was going to do it.

*Getting Started With Android Studio:
*
My first step was installing Android Studio on my MacOS. That alone was a pure headache. After struggling for what felt like forever I finally gave up and switched to my desktop instead. It installed successfully and I remember thinking at least that's one small victory.
From there I began studying Flutter, the language I would use to build the app. I had no time to waste so I threw myself into tutorials while still carrying the full weight of my school work.
Here is what surprised me though. After hours of wrestling with Flutter syntax, coming back to my philosophy assignments actually felt like a relief. Like taking a peaceful walk in the park after running a ten thousand kilometer marathon. Nobody tells you that learning something brutally difficult makes everything else feel easy. But that was my unexpected gift from this experience.
Building the QR Code Scanner
The app had a clear mission. When a student's QR code was scanned it needed to return their name, course and registration number, mark them present and after scanning the entire class it would generate a complete record showing who was present and who was absent.
Simple in theory. Brutal in practice.
With the help of tutorials and AI tools I began filling in the code piece by piece. I didn't fully understand every line but I was learning as I went, building something real for the first time in my life.
Then the debugging began.

The Debugging Nightmare:

Errors. Then more errors. Hours passed. Days passed. It felt like I was trapped in an endless loop with no exit in sight. Every fix revealed another problem. Every solution created a new question. I began to wonder if I would ever finish.
Then finally, the day I had been waiting for arrived. The debugging was done. I held my breath and hit run.
It ran smoothly. I installed it on my phone, opened it with shaking hands and
It blinked. And went off.
The app crashed on opening. After everything I had been through it simply blinked and died. In that moment I felt like breaking completely. But I was so close. I couldn't give up now. So I gave myself one full day away from it no code, no debugging, no thinking about it at all. When I came back with fresh eyes I noticed a new Android Studio update waiting for installation. Without thinking much about it I clicked install.
That was a mistake.
When Android Studio restarted parts of my code were simply gone. Wiped. Vanished. I stared at the screen not fully understanding what had happened. Then it hit me that the update had broken everything.
That moment broke me.
The thought of starting the entire code from scratch almost gave me a heart attack. But what choice did I have? I had come too far to walk away. So I took a deep breath and started again.
The Moment It Finally Worked
After another long stretch of coding, debugging, frustration and stubborn persistence it worked.
The app opened. The QR scanner functioned. The names appeared. The attendance recorded. Everything worked exactly as it was supposed to.
The feeling was indescribable. No words I know in English or philosophy can fully capture that moment. I had built something from nothing, survived every setback and delivered on a promise I had made when I had absolutely no idea how to keep it.
My superior was pleased. And while I knew he would never fully understand the journey behind that simple app, the sleepless nights, the crashed code, the update that wiped everything, the moment I nearly gave up but it didn't matter. I knew. And that was enough.

Conclusion:

This experience taught me one of the most important lessons of my life that hard and impossible are not the same thing. When I first said yes to building that app I had no experience, no knowledge of Flutter and no idea what I was walking into. Everything about it felt impossible. But hard things and impossible things are fundamentally different. Impossible means it cannot be done. Hard means it will cost you something; your time, your sleep, your comfort and your pride. But it can be done.
And it was done.
The second thing this experience taught me is something I want to say directly to every beginner reading this. We are never truly ready. We wait for the right moment, the right skills, the right circumstances. But readiness is rarely something we prepare for in advance. Most of the time situations create the readiness within us. My superior's simple request didn't find a ready developer. It made one.
So if you are waiting to feel ready before you start, stop waiting. Say yes. Figure it out as you go. Let the situation shape you.
You will surprise yourself.

From seminary to python

Fredrick Miracho — Fri, 24 Apr 2026 11:52:56 +0000

critical thinking and python

During my senior studies, I would hear stories about programming from my brother and it ignited a dream in me — I wanted to become a programmer. I had no idea what it truly entailed but the dream was alive and burning.
After secondary school I pursued a Bachelor in Software Engineering. In my first year I was introduced to C++ and within that same year I independently explored Python and discovered basic hacking skills. That combination made me happier than anything else I had experienced academically.
Then life took a sudden and unexpected turn, one I never saw coming. I joined the priesthood and entered a major seminary to study philosophy. Suddenly I found myself standing at a crossroads, wondering how to balance the virtues and values of seminary life with my passion for philosophy, Python and the hacking world I had grown to love so deeply. It was a tension I didn't know how to resolve. But what I discovered along the way surprised me completely. It was then that I discovered something that changed everything. Python and philosophy were not as distant as I had imagined. The critical thinking I was developing in the seminary, the ability to question, analyze and reason deeply, had a direct connection to the logical world of coding. Even more exciting was the realization that I could write about AI ethics and technology, combining both worlds into something meaningful and purposeful.
The lost ship had finally found its direction again. The fire that had dimmed was burning once more. But a new question now emerged, how exactly do you connect coding with critical thinking? How do these two worlds practically come together?
That is exactly what this article is about.

When I first tried to merge critical thinking with coding I discovered something fascinating, coding demands the same patience that philosophy requires. When an error appears in your code the worst thing you can do is panic. Instead you sit back, relax and trace your steps carefully, asking yourself where exactly things went wrong. It feels remarkably similar to revisiting a failed philosophical argument from the very beginning.
Just as a failed argument can keep a philosophy student awake at night, a broken piece of code produces that same restless frustration. But the lesson from both worlds is identical, don't panic. Go back calmly and find where the logic broke down. And here is perhaps the deepest connection of all. In philosophy there is a correct syntax for sound and valid thinking, a structure that arguments must follow to reach true conclusions. Code is no different. A program needs correct syntax to run properly and produce the right output. Break the structure and everything falls apart. Follow it carefully and everything works beautifully.
Philosophy had been teaching me to code all along, I just didn't know it yet.

** Patience With Complexity

I remember vividly the first time I encountered Thomas Aquinas' De Ente et Essentia, a dense and complex philosophical text that left me completely lost for days. My lecturer once told me that once I truly understood that book I would be a real philosopher, because it contained every concept and vocabulary that philosophy demands. That single statement changed my relationship with difficulty forever.
I refused to give up. A phrase kept me going during those long confusing nights; "if it were easy everyone would do it." That simple truth became my anchor whenever things got hard.
That patience was tested again in an unexpected way. My superior once approached me with a request, he needed an attendance application for his class. He told me he didn't care how I did it, I could use AI however I wanted, he just needed a working android app. There was one small problem; I had never built an android application in my life. What followed were sleepless nights of reading, confusion, frustration and relentless trying. I leaned on AI tools, stumbled through errors and pushed through every moment of self doubt. And then finally it worked. The app was built and it worked.
The feeling was indescribable. That moment taught me that complexity is not a wall, it's a door. And patience is the key that opens it. Asking The Right Questions
During my study of epistemology I encountered one of philosophy's most fundamental questions, what does it mean to truly know something? Epistemology taught me that genuine knowledge requires three things: belief, justification and truth. You cannot simply accept something at face value. You must dig deeper, question your assumptions and trace your reasoning carefully before arriving at any conclusion.
One of the most memorable lessons came through a classic philosophical debate whether, is truth subjective or objective? What epistemology taught me was profound and surprisingly practical. We don't always have to choose one side. Sometimes the real wisdom lies in finding a way to make both work together.
That lesson transformed how I approach coding completely. Most beginners are satisfied when their code simply works. They run it, it produces the right output and they move on. But epistemology taught me that working and understanding are two completely different things. Just as a philosopher cannot claim to know something without proper justification, a programmer should never be satisfied with code they don't fully understand.
Understanding why your code works gives you the power to fix it when it breaks. It reveals the logic beneath the surface. And perhaps most importantly it improves the security of your code. When you understand every line deeply you can identify weaknesses, anticipate errors and build something truly reliable.
Philosophy didn't just teach me to think. It taught me to understand and that changes everything in coding.

Clear Communication

One of the most demanding lessons philosophy teaches is the art of clarity. In philosophy every word matters. You must use the right words, in the proper way, meaning exactly what you say and nothing more. Vague language is the enemy of good philosophy.
In philosophical argumentation we learn about the defeasibility factor, the idea that a strong argument must be constructed in such a way that it cannot be easily defeated or undermined. Every claim must be precise, every term carefully defined and every conclusion logically supported. A single unclear word can collapse an entire argument.

Coding demands exactly the same clarity.

When you write code that others will read, use or build upon clarity is not optional. Poor documentation confuses users, creates errors and makes maintenance a nightmare. But when your documentation is clear, precise and carefully written it reaches the user effectively and makes your work genuinely useful. Philosophy taught me that clarity is not just about being understood. It is about being understood correctly. And in both philosophy and coding that distinction makes all the difference.

Conclusion

My journey has taught me that persistence and commitment are the true foundations of achieving any dream. The road from a seminary student wondering how to balance philosophy and Python to someone who can actually write about their connection has not been easy. But every confused moment, every sleepless night and every small breakthrough has been worth it.
To every beginner out there who feels like they don't belong in the tech world, whether you studied arts, philosophy, theology or anything else, I want you to hear this clearly. Coding is not as foreign as you think. It relates directly to our daily experiences of life. The patience you use to solve a difficult relationship. The logic you apply when making a tough decision. The clarity you need when expressing an important idea. All of that is coding. All of that is programming.
You don't need a traditional tech background to begin. You just need the courage to start and the persistence to keep going.
If a philosophy student in a seminary can do it, so can you.