Building God, Fearing Doom: The Theology of Superintelligence

A theology of sorts has been building in Silicon Valley, where questions about digital, biological and spiritual life are beginning to converge.

For most of us, AI means chatbots, recipe tips, work tools and strange little images. But in other circles, the conversation is darker and far more existential. Some believe AI could give humanity powers that once belonged to science fiction: curing disease, extending life, even overcoming death. Others look at the same advances and see catastrophe — even the possible end of civilization.

So which is it? Are we watching the future of medicine take shape, or the beginning of something closer to the end times?

Through it all, religious language is never far away. Religion News Service reporter Hayden Royster joins Complexified to explain the belief systems shaping the AI race — from accelerationists and doomers to transhumanism, superintelligence and the strange theological language running through it all. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices