6.19 Apocalyptic AI
127
will be a transcendent digital world; mere human beings will not fit in. In order
to join our mind children in life everlasting, we will upload our conscious minds
into robots and computers, which will provide us with the limitless computational power and effective immortality that Apocalyptic AI advocates believe
make robot life better than human life.
I am not interested in evaluating the moral worth of Apocalyptic AI…”
Here, we notice a number of surprising points: “apocalyptic AI” is seen as a
positive thing, as technology is imagined to make humans immortal, by uploading
our minds into a digital platform. This is apparently expected to be the final stage
of human-machine convergence and the end goal of transhumanism. However,
humans as we know them today would be extinct.
84 This reveals transhumanism
as a misanthropic technology-based ideology and, furthermore, a highly dangerous,
“apocalyptic” end time cult.
Tragically, this new technology-based religion has been promoted by high-level
politics, for example, the Obama administration.
85 To my surprise, the first time I
encountered “apocalyptic AI” was at an event in Berlin on October 28, 2018,
86 which
was apparently supported by government funds. The “ÖFIT 2018 Symposium” on
“Artificial Intelligence as a Way to Create Order” [in German: „Künstliche Intelligenz
als Ordnungsstifterin”] took place at “Silent Green”, a previous crematory. Honestly,
I was shocked and thought the place was more suited to warn us of a possible “digital
holocaust” than to make us believe in a digital God.
However, those believing in “apocalyptic AI”, among them leading AI experts,
seem to believe that “apocalyptic AI” would be able to bring us “transcendent eternal
existence” and the “golden age of peace and prosperity” promised in the Bible
Apocalypse. At Amazon, for example, the book is advertised with the words
87 :
“Apocalyptic AI, the hope that we might one day upload our minds into
machines or cyberspace and live forever, is a surprisingly wide-spread and
influential idea, affecting everything from the world view of online gamers to
84 Interview zu künstlicher Intelligenz: „Der Nebeneffekt wäre, dass die Menschheit dabei
ausgerottet würde“, watson (May 11, 2015), https://www.watson.ch/digital/wissen/533419807-kue
nstliche-intelligenz-immenses-potential-und-noch-groesseres-risiko; Looking Forward to the End
of Humanity, Wall Street Journal (June 20, 2020) https://www.wsj.com/articles/looking-forwardto-the-end-of-humanity-11592625661.
85 The Age of Transhumanist Politics Has Begun, TELEPOLIS (April 12, 2015), https://www.heise.
de/tp/features/The-Age-of-Transhumanist-Politics-Has-Begun-3371228.html (accessed on July 31,
2020).
86 #ÖFIT2018—Keynote Prof. Robert Geraci Ph.D., https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bD1haP
jC6kY.
87 https://www.amazon.com/Apocalyptic-AI-Robotics-Artificial-Intelligence/dp/0199964009
(accessed on July 31, 2020).
127
will be a transcendent digital world; mere human beings will not fit in. In order
to join our mind children in life everlasting, we will upload our conscious minds
into robots and computers, which will provide us with the limitless computational power and effective immortality that Apocalyptic AI advocates believe
make robot life better than human life.
I am not interested in evaluating the moral worth of Apocalyptic AI…”
Here, we notice a number of surprising points: “apocalyptic AI” is seen as a
positive thing, as technology is imagined to make humans immortal, by uploading
our minds into a digital platform. This is apparently expected to be the final stage
of human-machine convergence and the end goal of transhumanism. However,
humans as we know them today would be extinct.
84 This reveals transhumanism
as a misanthropic technology-based ideology and, furthermore, a highly dangerous,
“apocalyptic” end time cult.
Tragically, this new technology-based religion has been promoted by high-level
politics, for example, the Obama administration.
85 To my surprise, the first time I
encountered “apocalyptic AI” was at an event in Berlin on October 28, 2018,
86 which
was apparently supported by government funds. The “ÖFIT 2018 Symposium” on
“Artificial Intelligence as a Way to Create Order” [in German: „Künstliche Intelligenz
als Ordnungsstifterin”] took place at “Silent Green”, a previous crematory. Honestly,
I was shocked and thought the place was more suited to warn us of a possible “digital
holocaust” than to make us believe in a digital God.
However, those believing in “apocalyptic AI”, among them leading AI experts,
seem to believe that “apocalyptic AI” would be able to bring us “transcendent eternal
existence” and the “golden age of peace and prosperity” promised in the Bible
Apocalypse. At Amazon, for example, the book is advertised with the words
87 :
“Apocalyptic AI, the hope that we might one day upload our minds into
machines or cyberspace and live forever, is a surprisingly wide-spread and
influential idea, affecting everything from the world view of online gamers to
84 Interview zu künstlicher Intelligenz: „Der Nebeneffekt wäre, dass die Menschheit dabei
ausgerottet würde“, watson (May 11, 2015), https://www.watson.ch/digital/wissen/533419807-kue
nstliche-intelligenz-immenses-potential-und-noch-groesseres-risiko; Looking Forward to the End
of Humanity, Wall Street Journal (June 20, 2020) https://www.wsj.com/articles/looking-forwardto-the-end-of-humanity-11592625661.
85 The Age of Transhumanist Politics Has Begun, TELEPOLIS (April 12, 2015), https://www.heise.
de/tp/features/The-Age-of-Transhumanist-Politics-Has-Begun-3371228.html (accessed on July 31,
2020).
86 #ÖFIT2018—Keynote Prof. Robert Geraci Ph.D., https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bD1haP
jC6kY.
87 https://www.amazon.com/Apocalyptic-AI-Robotics-Artificial-Intelligence/dp/0199964009
(accessed on July 31, 2020).