AI Eschatology

November 9: AI Eschatology

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November's ForUUm will be all about Artificial Intelligence and the "Ideology of Technological Salvation" being promoted by the tech billionaires that has reinvented Christian end times theology (eschatology) using science fiction fantasies. They have created high-tech versions of the afterlife, heaven and hell, and the apocalypse, by inventing an all-knowing God of infinite growth called AI.

Artificial Intelligence runs on Venture Capital, and Venture Capital runs on Hype. When Sam Altman talks about a future where AI brings us a utopia of riches, or an apocalypse of paperclips, he is creating hype. However, we have seen again and again that people start buying their own hype when they repeat it often enough. The result has been the evolution of AI marketing into a techno-futurist religion.

This discussion will focus on the parallels people have drawn between the limitless future being promoted by AI hype and the eternal rewards and punishments promised by religion, how the most powerful people in America have adopted this new religion, and how we can better understand their motivations through this lens.

Pick whatever videos or articles are interesting to you and fit in your time budget. We're not covering them comprehensively, just using them to inform our conversation. There's an AI summary as well at the bottom of this page, along with suggested discussion questions.

Videos and materials are shared for the purpose of inviting participants into open discussion, and are not endorsed by or representative of TVUUC.

Authors and Podcasts

There are a few excellent podcasts and authors who are reporting on the extreme and anti-humanist ideologies that pervade Silicon Valley.

Gil Duran's The Nerd Reich is doing the best investigative journalism.
Emil P. Torres Dystopia Now Podcast and Realtime Techpocalypse newsletter are both excellent. Torres coined the term "TESCREAL" to describe the core tenets of the tech ideology.
Adam Becker and his book More Everything Forever: AI Overlords, Space Empires, and Silicon Valley's Crusade to Control the Fate of Humanity
Ed Zitron's Better Offline podcast offers criticism of the AI bubble economy from a business and technical perspective.
Douglas Rushkoff's Team Human podcast looks at it from a humanist perspective.
Conspirituality covers this and many other topics at the intersection of politics, spirituality, and Internet misinformation. Here is a relevant episode called Peter Thiel is Definitely Not the Antichrist.
Trash Future looks at these issues from a comedic perspective
The HBO movie The Mountainhead explores all of these concepts in a cinematic format.

Here are some articles that address the issues of AI doomerism, apocalyptic thinking, and why you shouldn't worry about chatbots bringing about the end of the world.

This video does the best job of summarizing the links between AI and various spiritual beliefs, such as the digital afterlife, AI psychosis, Christian Transhumanism, the Antichrist, and apocalypse predictions. If you want a single video that covers all of the key parallels between AI hype and these theological beliefs, this it it.

The Apocalypse Argument

These first two videos repeat the dire warnings of inevitable apocalypse that some AI researchers and investors have been making. The second two offer more critical and balanced perspectives on the real problems of AI, which are mostly due to the fact that they are owned by weird oligarchs.

This video is a concise and accurate telling of the AI apocalypse scenarios that AI researchers are warning us about.

The latter half of the video explores the more realistic issues presented by AI, like rising income inequality and the exacerbation of the Loneliness Epidemic.

Ezra Klein talks p(doom) and the AI Apocalypse with the original AI doomer, Elizer Yudkowsky. His book is called "If Anyone Builds It, Everyone Dies."

Many criticize Yudkowsky for fundamentally misunderstanding the ability for Large Language Models to have intentionality and motives, and Klein for how much he has bought into AI hype.

This video explores many of the possible drawbacks of our reckless rollout of AI technology, why tech investors want you to believe it's inevitable, and what we can do to counter the worst social impacts of unregulated AI.

This episode of Dystopia Now with Adam Becker is a very entertaining look at the ideologies of the tech billionaires, by some of the foremost experts on the subject. Elon Musk's plan to use Mars as an apocalypse backup plan gets some great criticism.

Scott Carney's latest video "Unveiling the AI Hype Cycle's Inevitable Collapse" lays out the case for AI being a bubble, and the rise of an AGI Singularity being a science fiction fantasy. It focuses on how the economic bubble has been driven by the false promise of AI superintelligence that can do any job and solve any problem.

Is Peter Thiel the Antichrist?

The question of whether Peter Thiel is the Antichrist is one that a lot of people have been asking lately. Mostly because Peter Thiel won't shut up about the antichrist!

The latest episode of South Park also hilariously lampoons Thiel's obsession with the antichrist, so the mainstream is finally becoming aware of the bizarre beliefs espoused by that the guy who runs all of the CIA, NSA, and military surveillance technology. Skip to 0:50 if you don't care about 6-7 references.

This video from Side Burns has good, detailed review of Thiel's Antichrist lectures if you want a deep dive into what he actually said in the leaked transcripts of his private lectures.

Here's an article from the Guardian that also describes them in detail.

AI Told Me I'm the Next Messiah

These videos discuss the ways that AI has both become worshiped like a God, and convinced some of its users that they were God. There's also this article in Rolling Stone: People are losing loved ones to AI-fueled spiritual fantasies.

Don't Date Robots!

People are also using AI chatbots for companionship, even going so far as to fall in love with them. Highly sexualized virtual girlfriends are being marketed to teenagers on Meta platforms. They are often pitched as a cure for the Loneliness Epidemic, or an affordable alternative to therapy, but can easily makes those problems much worse if they become a replacement for human relationships instead of a way to practice conversations and reduce anxiety.

A public service announcement like this one from Futurama is needed now more than ever!

The Zizians and Extreme Rationalism

The story of the Zizians cult is an example of where your mind goes when these ideologies are taken to their logical extreme. They became obsessed with AI safety and a though experiment called Roko's Basilisk, and ended up committing several murders that were justified by the future utilitarian value of the benevolent AI they want to create.

There is no good way to explain their motivations briefly, but this episode of Chapo Trap House below does so in about 20 minutes. The deep dive provided by Behind the Bastards in their 3-part series is well worth it to really understand their reasoning, which is simply a more extreme and poverty-stricken version of the same beliefs that motivate the tech billionaires. It gets into the whole Rationalist and Effective Altruism movement that spawned the Zizians, and follows their extreme utilitarian arguments all the way to their conclusions.

These are both among the most popular "left-wing" podcasts.

AI on AI Eschatology

I asked ChatGPT to provide a summary of how AI researchers have made predictions that are in line with Christian eschatology, and this is what it said:

That’s a fascinating question — and one that sits right at the intersection of technology forecasting, philosophy of mind, and theology. While AI researchers almost never frame their predictions in religious or eschatological language, there are a number of recurring themes in AI discourse that parallel or echo Christian eschatology (especially apocalyptic and millenarian ideas).

Here’s a careful, structured overview of those parallels — with context and examples rather than sensationalism:

🧠 1. The Singularity as a Technological Second Coming

Christian parallel: The Second Coming of Christ and the end of the present age.

AI equivalent: The Technological Singularity — a hypothetical moment when artificial intelligence surpasses human intelligence, leading to an irreversible transformation of civilization.

Examples:

Ray Kurzweil and others describe the Singularity as a point of “infinite knowledge,” “transcendence,” or “merging with Godlike intelligence.”
Some futurists even use quasi-religious language, calling it “the Omega Point” (a term originally coined by the Jesuit priest Pierre Teilhard de Chardin).

Parallels:

A sudden, world-changing event.
Transformation of the human condition.
Salvation (or damnation) depending on how one “aligns” with it.
Prophetic overtones: a chosen few understand and prepare; others are “left behind.”

🧬 2. Digital Immortality and Resurrection

Christian parallel: The Resurrection of the Dead and eternal life.

AI equivalent: Mind uploading, digital consciousness, or AI-enabled resurrection.

Examples:

Efforts to “upload” consciousness (e.g., projects at places like the 2045 Initiative) explicitly talk about defeating death.
Cryonics, neural preservation, and simulation arguments imagine humans living forever in a non-physical or recreated form.
Some AI ethicists and philosophers (e.g., Nick Bostrom) discuss scenarios where future superintelligences could reconstruct past humans in simulation — effectively “raising the dead.”

Parallels:

Eternal life.
Judgment or sorting of souls (simulated vs. real, copied vs. original).
A transcendent realm beyond physical decay (the digital “heaven”).

⚖️ 3. AI Alignment and Judgment

Christian parallel: Divine Judgment — separating good from evil at the end of time.

AI equivalent: The AI alignment problem — ensuring a superintelligent AI’s goals align with human morality.

Examples:

Eliezer Yudkowsky, Nick Bostrom, and others warn that a misaligned AI could “destroy all humanity” — an apocalypse caused by our own creation (echoing hubris or idolatry).
Aligned AI, conversely, could be a benevolent arbiter or “godlike” force that ensures universal justice.

Parallels:

A powerful, omniscient intelligence that rewards or punishes.
Ethical reckoning on a cosmic scale.
A moral test for humanity before ultimate transformation.

🌍 4. Apocalypse by AI

Christian parallel: The Book of Revelation — catastrophic end-times events before a new world is born.

AI equivalent: Existential risk from artificial intelligence — an “AI apocalypse.”

Examples:

Public figures like Stephen Hawking, Elon Musk, and Sam Altman have warned that uncontrolled AI could “end humanity.”
Scenarios include self-replicating systems, autonomous weapons, or “paperclip maximizers” consuming the earth.

Parallels:

Destruction preceding renewal.
Human arrogance leading to downfall (the “Tower of Babel” motif).
A purification or testing of humanity’s moral and spiritual integrity through its own creations.

🕊️ 5. Post-Singularity Utopia

Christian parallel: The Kingdom of God — peace, abundance, and unity after the apocalypse.

AI equivalent: Post-scarcity utopia — when automation and superintelligence eliminate need, suffering, and death.

Examples:

Transhumanist movements envision AI as ushering in “heaven on earth.”
Kurzweil’s “Age of Spiritual Machines” imagines humans merging with AI to achieve omniscience and eternal life.
OpenAI’s Sam Altman and DeepMind’s Demis Hassabis both allude to AI as a force that could “solve everything.”

Parallels:

The final redemption of creation.
Universal harmony through knowledge and love (or “alignment”).
A quasi-spiritual evolution of humankind into a higher state.

🔥 6. AI as the “Image of Man”

Christian parallel: Humanity made “in the image of God” — imago Dei.

AI equivalent: Humanity creating AI “in its own image.”

Examples:

The idea that AI will reflect human morality, sin, and creativity mirrors theological debates about humanity’s relationship to its Creator.
The “creation of artificial life” evokes Promethean and Luciferian themes — rebellion against divine order, or humans “playing God.”

Parallels:

Creation and fall.
Moral responsibility of the creator.
AI as the next “Adam” — or as the false idol, the “beast.”

🕯️ 7. Prophets and False Prophets

Christian parallel: End-times prophecy and discernment of truth.

AI equivalent: Competing predictions from “AI prophets” — optimists, doomers, and skeptics.

Examples:

Yudkowsky as the apocalyptic prophet of doom.
Kurzweil as the evangelist of transcendence.
Tech CEOs as both high priests and false prophets of salvation through code.

Parallels:

Eschatological prophecy.
Competing revelations of the future.
Faith, skepticism, and heresy dynamics inside the tech community.

🧩 Summary Table

Christian Eschatological Concept AI Research / Futurism Parallel

Second Coming / End of the Age Technological Singularity

Resurrection / Eternal Life Mind Uploading / Digital Immortality

Final Judgment AI Alignment Problem

Apocalypse AI Catastrophe / Existential Risk

Kingdom of God Post-Singularity Utopia

Image of God AI Created in Human Image

Prophets and False Prophets Futurists and AI Visionaries

Discussion Questions

Some discussion prompts for the Open Space. Please consider which topics are most interesting to you, or if you have your own ideas for one!

Is Peter Thiel the Antichrist? Is Greta Thunberg? Why or why not?
Why do you think there are so many parallels between these atheistic tech ideologies and Christianity?
Is the AI apocalypse inevitable? What is your p(doom)? Do you think it will cause massive upheaval, even if it's not an "end times" scenario? Or is it overblown?
What steps could humanity take to avert an AI apocalypse?
What is your favorite AI apocalypse scenario? What movie has the most plausible AI doomsday?
How does the idea of an AI apocalypse contribute to marketing hype cycles that enrich AI investors?
What are the TESCREAL beliefs? Transhumanism, Extropianism, Singularitarianism, Cosmism, Rationalism, Effective Altruism, and Longtermism.
What is Accelerationism? How does a belief in the ultimate goodness of technological progress allow you to justify unethical behavior?
If Roko's Basilisk is inevitable, why aren't you doing more to help it come into existence? Do you want the digitalized you to be tortured forever?
What are the limitations that would prevent an AI from achieving a "singularity" where it is able to learn and grow at an "infinite" speed?
What technical and philosophical mistakes do proponents of Longtermism make when they assign infinite utilitarian value to people in the far-off interstellar utopian future enabled by the AI singularity?
What are the realistic impacts of AI that concern you the most? Income inequality, undermining education, deepfakes and misinformation, energy consumption and pollution, destruction of social relationships, or something else entirely?
Do you know someone who has developed an unhealthy relationship with AI?

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