Luddite - is the Singularity near?

PriestGPT...

300 People Attend a Church Sermon Generated by ChatGPT
https://slashdot.org/story/23/06/10/2056210/300-people-attend-a-church-sermon-generated-by-chatgpt

The Associated Press reports: The artificial intelligence chatbot asked the believers in the fully packed St. Paul's church in the Bavarian town of Fuerth to rise from the pews and praise the Lord. The ChatGPT chatbot, personified by an avatar of a bearded Black man on a huge screen above the altar, then began preaching to the more than 300 people who had shown up on Friday morning for an experimental Lutheran church service almost entirely generated by AI. "Dear friends, it is an honor for me to stand here and preach to you as the first artificial intelligence at this year's convention of Protestants in Germany," the avatar said with an expressionless face and monotonous voice. The 40-minute service — including the sermon, prayers and music — was created by ChatGPT and Jonas Simmerlein, a theologian and philosopher from the University of Vienna. "I conceived this service — but actually I rather accompanied it, because I would say about 98% comes from the machine," the 29-year-old scholar told The Associated Press... At times, the AI-generated avatar inadvertently drew laughter as when it used platitudes and told the churchgoers with a deadpan expression that in order "to keep our faith, we must pray and go to church regularly." The service was included as part of a Protestant convention that's held every two years, according to the article. The theme of this year's event? "Now is the time."

Zuse's Devils Wire

German computer pioneer Konrad Zuse discussed the mechanism of an feedback between computation result and executed program in 1983 in his lecture "Faust, Mephistopheles and Computer" and coined the term Devils Wire.

In the early days of computer history, the program to compute and the data to compute on was separated.

Nowadays computer use the same memory for both, so it is possible to write programs that manipulate their own program.

Zuse says, that behind every technology Mephistopheles stands behind and grins, but the modern world needs computers to solve actual and upcoming  problems, but better, read the lecture by yourself...

+1 points for the Singularity to take off.

AI - Antichrist

"Technology itself is neither good nor bad. People are good or bad."
Naveen Jain

Actually i believe the Revelation as described in the Bible already happened, about 60 AD. And the beast with the number 666 has to be identified with the Roman Empire and Caesar Nero.

But inspired by this blog, i will give a modern interpretation a try, so feel free to join me in an alternate and speculative world paradigm...

Short version

Technology is the Antichrist, and computer driven AI is the peak of technology.

Preamble

Over 10000 years ago we left Garden Eden and started the neolithic revolution, we started to do farming and keep livestock, we started to use technology to make our lifes easier, but over the centuries and millennia, we forgot how to live with mother earth in an balanced way.

Full version

[update 2024-02-22]

Revelation 13:4

"And they worshipped the dragon which gave power unto the beast: and they worshipped the beast, saying, Who is like unto the beast? who is able to make war with him?"

An AI as Antichrist, Chess as war game, who is going to beat the AI in Chess?

Revelation 13:18

"Here is wisdom. Let him that hath understanding count the number of the beast:  for it is the number of a man; and his number is Six hundred threescore and six."

Using the english-sumerian gematria system, which is based on 6 - A=6, B=12, C=18...Z=156, the word "computer" counts to 666.

The first human to mention the word computer for people doing computations was Richard Braithwait in a book called "The Yong Mans Gleanings" in 1613.

Using the english-sumerian gematria method, the name "Braithwait" counts to 666.

Rev 13:18 could act like a puzzle with an checksum, "computer" is the name of the beast, but the name (the number) was coined by a man, and the man who coined the name has the number 666 too.

Revelation 13:16-17

"And he causeth all, both small and great, rich and poor, free and bond, to receive a mark in their right hand, or in their foreheads: And that no man might buy or sell, save he that had the mark, or the name of the beast, or the number of his name."

Nowadays, without an Smart Phone (or upcoming Smart Glasses), or an computer, you are limited in your daily business, from renting a car to doing payments.

So the mark is already here, the Smart Phone in the right hand, the upcoming Smart Glasses in the forehead, and the computer in general.

Revelation 13:15

"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."

An image of the beast is given life and people are going to worship it...AI God Religion Spotted

Revelation 16 - The Seven Bowls of God’s Wrath

Rev 16:2

"And the first went, and poured out his vial upon the earth; and there fell a noisome and grievous sore upon the men which had the mark of the beast,  and upon them which worshipped his image."

Considering computers as the mark of the beast, the sore could be cancer caused by radiation.

Rev 16:3

"And the second angel poured out his vial upon the sea; and it became as the blood of a dead man: and every living soul died in the sea."

Our sea world is dying, overfishing, plastic particles, acidification, etc.

Rev 16:4

"And the third angel poured out his vial upon the rivers and fountains of waters; and they became blood"

Blood in Judaism is impure and Jews are not allowed to eat it, this could mean that our rivers get poisoned.

Rev 16:8-9

"And the fourth angel poured out his vial upon the sun; and power was given unto him to scorch men with fire. And men were scorched with great heat, and blasphemed the name of God, which hath power over these plagues: and they repented not to give him glory."

Climate Change causes already increasing heatwaves and droughts.

Rev 16:10-11

"And the fifth angel poured out his vial upon the seat of the beast; and his kingdom was full of darkness; and they gnawed their tongues for pain, And blasphemed the God of heaven because of their pains and their sores, and repented not of their deeds."

This one can be interpreted as God shutting the internet down, the kingdom of the beast. Some scientists conclude that a pole-shift is currently underway, this could cause the magnetic field around earth to collapse, so the electro-magnetic waves from the sun could damage computer chips worldwide.

[update 2020-11-04]

Pretty obvious the Internet seems a natural fit to be the kingdom of the beast (a computer driven AI) so what does it mean it was 'full of darkness', hehe, ever wondered about the dark-web, fake-news, hate-speech etc.? Darkness.

Rev 16:12-14

"And the sixth angel poured out his vial upon the great river Euphrates; and the water thereof was dried up, that the way of the kings of the east might  be prepared. And I saw three unclean spirits like frogs come out of the mouth of the dragon, and out of the mouth of the beast, and out of the mouth of the false prophet. For they are the spirits of devils, working miracles, which go forth unto the kings of the earth and of the whole world, to gather them to the battle of that great day of God Almighty."

This one is clear, the Euphrates river dries up, and it is scary to watch it  really happen. Dunno about the frogs and kings.

Rev 16:17-21

"And the seventh angel poured out his vial into the air; and there came a great voice out of the temple of heaven, from the throne, saying, It is done. And there were voices, and thunders, and lightnings; and there was a great  earthquake, such as was not since men were upon the earth, so mighty an  earthquake, and so great. And the great city was divided into three parts, and the cities of the nations fell: and great Babylon came in remembrance before God, to give unto her thecup of the wine of the fierceness of his wrath. And every island fled away, and the mountains were not found. And there fell upon men a great hail out of heaven, every stone about the weight of a talent: and men blasphemed God because of the plague of the hail;  for the plague thereof was exceeding great."

An earthquake, so strong, never happened before during mankind.

[update 2023-06-16]

Maybe the seventh bowl is global nuclear war/strike? The final.

Closing Words

There are many passages in the Revelation i can not interpret in a way that the computer is the Antichrist. The seven heads, horns and ten crowns of the dragon, the mortal wound, or the first and second beast, etc.

The Roman Empire with Caesar Nero as Antichrist simply fits better.

But please leave a comment, if you have further puzzle pieces for AI Antichrist.

So, considering the pure potential of the meme AI Antichrist,

i give -1 points for the Singularity to take off.

Robophilosophy 2018

Human Philosophers discuss the impact of social robots on mankind, still no Strong AI in sight that joins the debate.

Cherry piking...

The Moral Life of Androids - Should Robots Have Rights?
Edward Howlett Spence

"The question I explore is whether intelligent autonomous Robots will have moral rights. Insofar as robots can develop fully autonomous intelligence, I will argue that Robots will have moral rights for the same reasons we do. ..."

Robot Deus
Robert Trappl

"The ascription of god-like properties to machines has a long tradition. Robots of today invite to do so. We will present and discuss god-like properties, to be found in movies as well as in scientific publications, advantages and risks of robots both as good or evil gods, and probably end with a robot theology."

+1 points for the Singularity to take off.

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