emilygorcenskiDo you want to read almost 9,000 words on AI, manifest destiny, millenarian cults, evangelical christianity, the singularity, and how we have stopped trying to play God and now are trying to build God? Well here's your chance.
Jan 
@emilygorcenski Wow, this is incredible, Emily!✨ 9,000 words!? I can't even see my scrollbar anymore.😄
I haven't read the whole thing yet, but from what I've read it looks like a beautiful arc from past to present to future on the topics you've mentioned. ➰
Thank you for this. I love it, when people are so dedicated/passionate about something! ❤️
Jared White (ResistanceNet ✊)@emilygorcenski Oh wow. 😲 Bookmarked for later reading!
Vanquesse@emilygorcenski thank you. I enjoyed the longform dive into the bottom of the pool.
Wil Macaulay@emilygorcenski this is a must-read. Thank you
cchelberg
nelson@emilygorcenski technologist/futurists most certainly are sympathetic to fascism, I mean Filippo Tommaso Emilio Marinetti authored the futurist manifesto and coauthored the fascist manifesto. The political party he founded ended up merging with mussolini..... Fascist definitely project their "god" making cognitive structure onto tech.
Paulo Ribeiro@emilygorcenski Very thought-provoking essay! Congratulations.
Jack Coates 🐀@emilygorcenski not often that I see Earl Cox mentioned, you dug deep!
Ivan Andriollo 
@emilygorcenski that was a looong read, but worth it.
Just a question about the last paragraph and specifically “The earth contains only so many rare earth elements”: does it? AFAIK the naming of those is a misnomer, and they are in fact abundant, with large deposits all over the globe, just not yet commercially exploited. Certainly finite supply, but not scarce enough be an issue any time soon.
Just a question about the last paragraph and specifically “The earth contains only so many rare earth elements”: does it? AFAIK the naming of those is a misnomer, and they are in fact abundant, with large deposits all over the globe, just not yet commercially exploited. Certainly finite supply, but not scarce enough be an issue any time soon.
jack the nonabrasive@emilygorcenski I liked the post. A useful resource may be Gebru & Torres’s work. I know you mentioned Gebru’s firing, but she and others have done significant work on the TESCREAL bundle—transhumanism, extropianism, singularitarianism, cosmism, rationalism, effective altruism, longtermism—at the Distributed AI Research Institute since then.
Also recommend the podcast, Mystery AI Hype Theater 3000 with Emily Bender, Alex Hanna, and guests. (dair.org)
SaTML 2023 - Timnit Gebru - Eugenics and the Promise of Utopia through AGI
Homa@emilygorcenski Fantastic read, I remember questioning the religion I was raised in as a teen and being told that was satan trying to tempt me away. I left finally when I imagined having someone tell a someday child of mine the same things. Cults over and over again, just in different clothing.
Dan Segars (he/him)@emilygorcenski just finished. I’m still digesting but this was such a great read! I’ve been having similar convos with a couple of friends about these very topics, but you have placed more current historical context around some of my thoughts. I also learned new stuff! Thanks, Emily.
Jack Wellborn@emilygorcenski @lunarobverse I played this JRPG!
Andrew Wippler@emilygorcenski I have to respectfully interject at the correlation of manifest destiny and American Christian Fundamentalism. The roots of Christian fundamentalism were not solely focused in North America, but overlapped in England through revivals known as "The Great Awakening." Modern missionary endeavors and practices are also attributed to William Carey, who is from England.
Your correlation between cultism and AI is not too far off. American Christianity has folded into cultism since the 1920s, and the deceptive marketing tactics of AI share the same trends. The problem I see is that none view the reality of self - we are humans and prone to making errors. Math appears to solve this deficiency, but it ultimately fails since it is compiled by inefficient humans.
TRNottommy
jz.tuskWow, gonna have to switch to something beefier then my phone to read this. Brava!
Alan@emilygorcenski Such a great read, thanks for taking the time to write it all down! I particularly appreciated connecting the dots on some things I only have a passing knowledge of - feeling encouraged to learn more.
Anthony Dardis@emilygorcenski thanks for this! My "Philosophy of AI" class is planning to talk about it on our last day next week.
ash 
@emilygorcenski that was a very long and dense read but genuinely very much worth it. It honestly made me think back (in a good way) to a seminar I took years ago, to fill a required cross-subject credit (basically designed to make you touch at least a little of the humanities, honestly something I believe more universities ought to have in their computer science degree programs) that did a reasonably deep dive into both the social impact of and the ideological bedrock underlying the current version of the (western) tech sector.
Luke Channings@emilygorcenski I just got around to reading this - I'm glad I did. It's thought provoking and very well written.
@emilygorcenski
"This allows them to distract from and marginalize the real concerns about AI safety: mass unemployment, educational impairment, encoded social injustice, misinformation, and so forth. Singularity theorists get to have it both ways: they can keep moving towards their promised land without interference from those equipped to stop them."
Very well said. AI doesn't need to be an existential threat to humanity in order to be an economic threat to humanity.
David Chasteen@emilygorcenski Just wanted to say that as a (tertiary, ecumenical) Franciscan Novice, and CISO, I really enjoyed this synthesis. I think you're right on the money.
Everyone's always trying to Immanentize the eschaton.
David O'BrienI certainly did, and I certainly found it a worthwhile use of 30mins of my life.
A hugely thoughtful, wide-ranging and persuasive argument. Thank you for writing it.
And h/t @Miniver for alerting me to it.
floydgump
Eric Prenen
Steve Williams@emilygorcenski
Yes I do. (Did) And thoroughly enjoyed it. You write brilliantly. Thank you so much for sharing your thoughts.
Yes I do. (Did) And thoroughly enjoyed it. You write brilliantly. Thank you so much for sharing your thoughts.