The New York Times, that normalizer of all things revolutionary, offers yet another example of the world’s slide into evil and uncertainty. This time, the topic is “The Age of Techno-Spiritualism.” The article begins with a poignant example.
“An older Korean man named Mr. Lee, dressed in a blazer and slacks, clutches the arms of his chair and leans toward his wife. ‘Sweetheart, it’s me,’ he says. ‘It’s been a long time.’”
“‘I never expected this would happen to me,’ she replies through tears. ‘I’m so happy right now.’
“Mr. Lee is dead. His widow is speaking to an A.I.-powered likeness of him projected onto a wall.”
An Antique Temptation
The idea is that users can possess an electronic representation of a person called a “chatbot.” In this case, it attempts to duplicate the user’s deceased loved one. According to the Times, technology makes it possible to interact with the dead. Of course, the cited user is really talking to an electronic facsimile of her loved one. The article’s author promotes it as a way to deal with the grief of losing someone dear and reconnect directly with someone dead.
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God, in His infinite wisdom, denies humanity the ability to reconnect. He has always maintained a chasm between the living and the dead despite occultist attempts to subvert this reality.
Technology Attempts the Impossible
While it is impossible to reconnect directly with those one loves, many people use objects connected to a deceased loved one to trigger memories. Such usage has occurred throughout history.
During the nineteenth century, for example, photography helped people remember the deceased. A century later, voice recordings might be cherished for decades, as would photographs, home movies, videotapes, and whatever the technologies of the day allowed.
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At the same time, even the best of these technologies only offered recollections. Their use inherently acknowledges that regular communication, such as with a living relative or friend, is impossible.
Resisting Human Limitations
However, some individuals and groups have always chaffed at God’s limits on human ability. Hence, the rise of techno-spiritualism.
Most people who promote this use of chatbots, like the author of the New York Times article, argue that they are merely ways to aid psychological well-being. Indeed, many people use the internet in multiple ways as an adjunct to piercing the limits of human mortality.
An Internet search for “techno-spiritualism” exposes several methods.
Promoters of Evil
The Chinese Internet company, Sohu, presented “Exploring Techno-Spiritualism: Communicating with the Deceased in a New Age of Technology.” They see “unique opportunities” in “the intersection of spirituality and artificial intelligence.” Curiously, the Sohu piece refers to the exact interaction between Mrs. Lee and her artificial husband in the above-mentioned New York Times article. Not only does the technology “facilitate closure,” but it creates an “ongoing connection.” That connection “provides a bridge between the past and the present, showcasing humanity’s innate desire to maintain connections with those who have left this world.” The result is “a powerful blend of technology and human emotion.”
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Of course, as the current controversy over TikTok demonstrates, the Chinese government happily exploits a seemingly harmless “app” to collect mountains of information. Doubtless, a “conversation” like the one between the bereaved and the pseudo-deceased would contain information the Chinese Communist Party would find helpful, whether Mrs. Lee was in China or elsewhere.
Dethroning God
Philip Butler’s 2022 essay, “Digital Spirituality as a Technology of Resistance,” is on a thoroughly different plane. Dr. Butler’s title is “Assistant Professor of Theology and Black Posthuman Artificial Intelligence Systems” at the Iliff School of Theology in Denver, which is affiliated with the United Methodist denomination.
A brief quotation from Dr. Butler’s article is sufficient. “[T]he maintenance of evolution of any system (including biological systems) in the midst of the variability associated with ever-changing environments is a form of resistance. Avoiding death and decay is resistance.” (Emphasis in the original.)
Presumably, given the date of the essay, Dr. Butler is talking about resistance in the sense of the Black Lives Matter movement. How could avoiding death resist any political/social system? For the virtuous, death begins the passage from this imperfect world into Paradise. In reality, Dr. Butler is resisting Genesis 3:19— “In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread till thou return to the earth, out of which thou wast taken: for dust thou art, and into dust thou shalt return.”
Homo Pretending to be Deus
Much of this discussion began with Yuval Noah Harari’s 2017 book Homo Deus: A Brief History of Tomorrow. The title proclaims the heresy that humanity can be god. According to the description on Amazon, Barack Obama, Bill Gates and other luminaries recommended this volume approvingly. It discusses, at length, an ideology called “techno-religion,” which is a close relative of techno-spiritualism. The summary of the book on Shortform is chilling. “Techno-religion is a humanist ideology in which technology—not God or other theistic concepts—is used as a means for satisfying the human quest for meaning and spiritual salvation.”
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In his review of Homo Deus, Return to Order author John Horvat elaborated.
“His central thesis is that all life can be reduced to mere chemical reactions and algorithms. He clearly states that ‘Organisms are algorithms.’ He further claims there is no soul, no free will, no unified identity and no eternal destiny. There is no God, and technology will allow us to construct our own ‘immortality, eternal bliss and divinity.’ Ye shall be as gods is the promise of our latest technological achievements.
“Here, technology not only frustrates by causing anxiety but by denying the purpose for which we are created. By recreating ourselves, we usurp God Himself.”
Will God Intervene?
Genesis 11:1-9 tells the story of man’s first recorded attempt to make himself the equal of God, the construction of the Tower of Babel. To end this proto-revolution, God found it necessary to “confound their tongue, that they may not understand one another’s speech.” Then He “scattered them from that place into all lands.”
How much more severe will God be if this new attempt to displace Him gains more traction? It could be terrible. Of course, the damage may be even greater if He leaves humanity to its own devices.
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