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There are many religions in which "the gods" are neither omnipotent nor omniscient, but rather just more powerful beings than humans and still subject to the me
by krapp 6d ago
There are many religions in which "the gods" are neither omnipotent nor omniscient, but rather just more powerful beings than humans and still subject to the metaphysical laws of the universe, if not entirely to its physical laws.
Although clearly the model people are working with when they describe AI as a religion or they invoke AGI or the Singularity is based on the Abrahamic faiths rather than paganism or animism. I assume a lot of people with such beliefs also believe in some sort of simulated universe (as proxy for a metaphysical/supernatural realm) and that a sufficiently intelligent AI would simply be able to take root on reality... somehow. That direct analogy between technology, raw intellect and Godlike omnipotence has been a staple of science fiction for decades. Two early examples I can think of offhand being "the Jesus Incident" and Asimov's "The Final Question." And of course it's all over pre-LLM AI accelerationist stuff written by the likes of Ray Kurzweil and Rudy Rucker, Charles Stross' Accelerando, Vernor Vinge's Fire upon the Deep, the Culture series, etc.