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:

“I just wanted to bring up something I've been thinking about and I thought if anyone would be able to find a deeper revelation to it, it would be you.” (here “anonymous is speaking to Znore, the blog’s author and moderator – Ed) “You've mentioned before about the giant baby face that was displayed at the London Olympics, and the idea that it was representing the Antichrist, or preferably, the son of perdition being born in 2012. The common belief is that Yeshua was 33 years old when He was crucified (which is not stated in the Bible and is obviously an esoteric number). Also according to popular belief, the Antichrist is supposed to be similar to Yeshua, as represented by the White Horse in Revelation (again something I don't believe, but is strongly held by a large majority of "Christians"). Anyways, 33 years after 2012 is 2045, Ray Kurzweil's sacred year of the singularity. And of course 2+4+5=11, another esoteric number. Revelation 13:15 says "And he had power to give life unto the image of the beast, that the image of the beast should both speak, and cause that as many as would not worship the image of the beast should be killed." That sounds a lot like some sort of artificial intelligence to me.”



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…


You can review our exploits concerning singularity HERE


Part 1 ~ Part 2 ~ Part 3



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