Singularity as Antichrist - Part 1
So
our old friend Technological Singularity continues to be of eschatological interest
here at tek-gnostics. It was the Godfather’s Michael Corleone who said… “keep your friends
close and your enemies closer.” Like a bad penny, singularity rears its cybernetic
head once again. We have examined singularity from the perspective of pop
culture, as well as from more esoteric points of view. From an earlier post…
Like religion, singularity inspires a
sense of foreboding among the partially informed. People read an excerpt from
Vernor Vinge discussing the end of the human era and think… oh my god…
apocalypse now!!! The concept of apocalypse has been with us as far back as
human history goes… and will continue to be part of our collective psyche as
evidenced by the singularity concept itself. The end will always be near. Once
we find our way past the singularity event horizon, we will be anticipating the
next post-singularity event, and so on, ad infinitum.
As
we had further pointed out in that post, “Riding
along-side apocalypse is the companion horseman known as Armageddon. Many
religious sects believe in a last battle between good and evil, at… or as a
result… of apocalypse. The final conflict is known as Armageddon or the
end-time.” The big three desert
religions (Judaism, Christianity & Islam) all contain very colorful
depictions of "end-times prophecy" including a final, global, redemptive
war.
In
those mythologies, the personification of good is often described as the
Messiah or savior, who, it was prophesized, would liberate the chosen few in
those end-times. The Messiah’s figurative twin, the accompanying personification
of evil, is likewise depicted as the false messiah or Antichrist.
In
an exceedingly interesting exchange of ideas, over at one of our favorite
blogs: Groupname
for Grapejuice, a comment was posted by (that rascally persona) anonymous, stating that:
Wicked,
right? So… The technological singularity camp declares that when we reach that
moment… (approx. 2045, CE) the human era ends. The emerging AI entity will
likely be a sentient network of technology, such as the World Wide Web 2.0
…So putting an eschatological spin on technological
singularity… the Messiah is considered as the archetypical man, the redeemer or
Christ figure. A sentient AI or computer network would be about as opposite as
you can get from the redeemer. This non-human intelligence thus becomes the false
messiah or Antichrist. This tech-driven prophecy certainly puts a new face on
fundamentalist Eschatology. The rise of artificial sentience as antichrist,
conjures vivid man vs machine imagery, ala the Terminator franchise.
Some
contend that messiah and antichrist are two aspects of the same phenomenon.
Light vs darkness… yin vs yang. In this regard, AI or non-human intelligence
counter-balances human or biological intelligence.
Or
is this just more of the same apocalyptic fever?
We’d
like to hear your thoughts on this most fascinating of topics. Please add your
opinion using the comments feature at the bottom of this post…
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