RE: If artificial super intelligence erases humans, will theists see this as God's plan?
December 11, 2017 at 7:06 am
The concept of the singularity is a new form of religious belief for a more educated population.
When we were living in small tribes we had shamen talking about visions and worshiping animal spirits. Then societies developed along with myths about god-like humans as the natural world was exploited. Then as civilisation developed and more of the world was explored, this required monotheism which was far harder to disprove. It didn't make sense for example to believe Mount Olympus was the home of the gods if you could easily walk up there and see for yourself. But you could still believe in something nebulous that could not be falsified that would explain the complexity you saw around you. Now monotheism is becoming less convincing the more we learn about reality and how complexity develops. If we can trace the development of the universe since the Big Bang then what gap is left to insert God? But people still want to believe in life after death and an all-knowing, all powerful being, so they are hoping for a singularity and being able to upload your consciousness to a machine or virtual reality.
When we were living in small tribes we had shamen talking about visions and worshiping animal spirits. Then societies developed along with myths about god-like humans as the natural world was exploited. Then as civilisation developed and more of the world was explored, this required monotheism which was far harder to disprove. It didn't make sense for example to believe Mount Olympus was the home of the gods if you could easily walk up there and see for yourself. But you could still believe in something nebulous that could not be falsified that would explain the complexity you saw around you. Now monotheism is becoming less convincing the more we learn about reality and how complexity develops. If we can trace the development of the universe since the Big Bang then what gap is left to insert God? But people still want to believe in life after death and an all-knowing, all powerful being, so they are hoping for a singularity and being able to upload your consciousness to a machine or virtual reality.
