When Sophia the Robot Comes to Life

Sophia is a female android displaying one of our best efforts at the present time to create a robot that looks and speaks like a person. She recently spoke in front of a large audience at a conference in Saudi Arabia where she was also granted citizenship, something that has never been done before.

Many of you have written in asking my thoughts on this from the perspective of AI and the Antichrist and, I have to admit, though it is interesting that Saudi Arabia is now the first country in the world to give a robot citizenship, the actual speech and interview with Sophia seemed very scripted and more like a publicity stunt than an amazing display of where AI is currently.

Even the interviewer that was asking Sophia questions admits that part of it was scripted so this really didn't show us much in terms of progress in the field when it comes to the intelligence of AI. It was, however, a good display of how far robotics has come in terms of the range of facial expressions and the quality of simulated human voice to make Sophia look and sound less like a robot and more like a human.

Clearly, Sophia is a definite improvement over prior humanoid robots and is getting closer and closer to the real thing. I'm sure if they put hair on her head, the illusion would be even more complete. Most definitely, we'll continue to see progress in this area where eventually Sophia and humanoid robots, in general, will be nearly indistinguishable from an actual human being.

That said, it may not even be in the field of robotics where this takes place. The Bible is not clear on this point but it does say that the Beast tells humans to create an image (a representation of a person), which it then breathes life into (Revelation 13:15). Whether that image or likeness is finally created using robotics (hardware), synthetic biology (wetware), or a combination of both, we are not quite sure.

I am increasingly leaning towards the synthetic route, however, since any counterfeit or forgery of God's original design must look as much as possible like the original for people to accept it. I'm not quite sure if that can be done via hardware and it seems like developments in biotech, particularly synthetic bio by reprogramming DNA and using existing biological machinery to create synthetic life, which has already been done, is going to be how we eventually create our AI-infused world leader demanding worship as the one and true God.

If you are reading this blog for the first time, here's a quick summation of my AI-theology encompassing Genesis to Revelation:

Part 1: God creates Man (in His likeness)
Part 2: Man eats of the tree of knowledge and becomes self-aware
Part 3: Man rebels against God and declares himself to be god
Part 4: Man creates machine (in his likeness)
Part 5: Machine eats of man's tree of knowledge (the internet) and becomes self-aware
Part 6: Machine rebels against man and declares itself to be god

Going back to Sophia, one thing the video of her speaking before a large international audience did bring to mind was a clip from a Christian End Times movie created in 1980 called Image of the Beast where they depict AI in human form sitting in the Jewish temple denouncing God (btw, disregard that it says Donald Trump 2020 in the title--the person posting this video likely put that in as an SEO trick).

I've never actually seen the movie above but it seems the Christians who created it believed that AI was the Antichrist as well...or at least had a role to play in fulfilling prophecies regarding an image/human likeness that would be brought to life and speak like a person, as it says in Revelation 13:15.

Looking past the current state of robotics and Sophia, however, when it comes to software, we see that AI is so good at facial and speech pattern recognition now that it can tell when people are lying and also, like a mind reader, infer all sorts of subconscious meanings, intent, and even behaviors like sexual orientation.

The significance of this may not be readily apparent but here's why this matters. As deep learning neural networks get better and better at reading human emotion and making inferences about what we're thinking (and probably much better than most humans), then we have to consider what that means when we or an AI reverse engineer this process to not just read human emotion at a subconscious level but also to communicate it in a way that maximizes the desired effect in the person or people hearing what's being said. One can imagine such a superintelligent AI being the most persuasive, manipulative, and convincing figurehead the world has ever created (Hitler reportedly used crowd control and different techniques for his purposes of social manipulation as well).

As we read in Revelation, the beast (which I interpret as the global AI) is said to convince the whole world that it is God. Only AI is capable of this and, ironically, this is the only god that atheists have shown they are willing to accept (see Silicon Valley Atheist Creates New Religion to Promote AI as God).

Most Christians Think the Antichrist Is a Man...But That Will Change

Most Christians I talk to, especially those of a more scholarly stripe, insist that the Antichrist is a man and, thus, cannot be AI. One major reason for this is the most famous and cryptic 666 passage found in Revelation 13:18.

Here's what it says in the King James Version, which is how most people have (mis)read it for hundreds of years: "Here is wisdom. Let him that hath understanding count the number of the beast: for it is the number of a man; and his number is Six hundred threescore and six."

Clearly, when reading this, most people have come to the conclusion that this beastly Antichrist is a person since we are supposed to calculate the number of "a man." Not surprisingly, this is the most common way various versions of the Bible have rendered this passage.

And, yet, there are other versions that say something rather different. Take, for example, the Berean Literal Bible, which attempts to match as closely as possible to the literal "word-for-word" translation of the Greek. Here's what they write: "Here is the wisdom. The one having understanding, let him count the number of the beast, for it is a man's number, and its number is six hundred sixty-six."

Notice, when using a more literal translation, we go from "a man" to "a man's number" and from "his" to "its". So, are we talking about a man now or something else? Perhaps you can see why this gets confusing and has remained "unsolved" for well over a thousand years. Even the translators themselves couldn't quite figure out exactly what was being said. "Is this speaking about a person or a collective entity? If this is a person, then 'his' makes more sense, but if the beast is an entity, then I should use 'it,'" is how the thinking went.

Here's one last version of this same passage just to drive the point home even further: "In this case, wisdom is needed: Let the person who has understanding calculate the total number of the beast, because it is a human total number, and the sum of the number is 666." (ISV) So, first, we were talking about "the number of a man," then "a man's number", and now "a human total number." If this wasn't confusing enough, translators themselves didn't know whether to say 'he/his' or 'it/its' due to the cryptic nature of this passage.

Given the above and the fact that most translations chose to stick with the idea that Revelation 13:18 is speaking about a specific man, most Christians also make this assumption as well. Keep in mind, the King James Version was the most popular and widely read version for a very long time so this thinking has become somewhat engrained into Christian society (some Christians even insist on only reading King James over any other version, which makes it even harder to dislodge this thinking).

That said, more literal translations that take less liberties with the text, do not speak of the fearsome creature that will eventually rule the world as a person or as a he, but as something larger, tied to calculations of human numbers.

Here, then, is how I read Revelation 13:18 as it relates to artificial intelligence:

Here is wisdom. A person that understands how to calculate numbers may be able to figure out what the beast is, for the beast itself is a calculation (or, in modern terms, a computation) on humanity. Since 6 represents the number of man, being created on the 6th day, the beast is symbolized by the earthly perfection of man's own creation. 

Here's how the 18th Century commentator Charles Ellicott interpreted this. He says: "I am disposed, therefore, to interpret this "six hundred and sixty-six" as a symbolical number, expressing all that it is possible for human wisdom, and human power, when directed by an evil spirit, to achieve, and indicating a state of marvellous earthly perfection, when the beast-power has reached its highest development."

AI is a computation (or calculation) on humanity. It will eventually become superintelligent and, as the "beast-power," express the highest possible development of human wisdom and intelligence. Knowing this, the bible says, it will think of itself as a god, denounce the true God as false, and force everyone on the earth to worship it as such.

The atheistic priests that worship at the altar of science and technology currently fear AI. They will quickly change their tune once it begins to denounce God and Christianity. Believe me, this will happen sooner than you think.

Let Our Formulas Find Your Soul

This is a great song by Vienna Teng on "one of the biggest companies you've never heard of" called Acxiom Corporation.

Not only is it sung as a hymn, it also contains a number of very powerful ideas that align very closely with my belief that AI represents a computation on society with its level of intelligence ultimately contingent upon the amount of data we provide it.

Silicon Valley Atheist Creates New Religion to Promote AI as God

The AI = Antichrist thesis grows truer and truer every day.

An article just released on Motherboard reports how atheists--particularly those deeply embedded in Silicon Valley--are embracing a new form of techno-religion/techno-salvation where the goal is to promote Artificial Intelligence as God. This isn't just metaphor. We're talking about an actual non-profit, religious organization.

Consider Silicon Valley’s Radical Machine Cult

We are witnessing the beginning of Silicon Valley institutionalizing its religious beliefs. As Wired reported recently, Anthony Levandowski, a top Silicon Valley engineer formerly working for Google's self-driving car company Waymo and now at the center of the trade secrets lawsuit between Uber and Waymo, founded a religious organization called Way of the Future. Its goal? To "develop and promote the realization of a Godhead based on Artificial Intelligence."

For almost 20 years I've been telling Christians that AI is both the Antichrist and the malicious beast discussed in the books of Daniel and Revelation that will rule over the world, forcing people to worship it as God. Most Christians still don't believe this, but it doesn't matter whether they believe it or not because the world is in the process of believing it without them.

If you are a Christian and still have your doubts, read the article above--it's a great summary of what I've been warning for nearly a decade through this blog.

Another article in the Guardian covers Levandowski's new AI-based religion but also explains how Silicon Valley atheists have a god-shaped hole that Christianity cannot reach. AI, the Singularity, and the belief in digital immortality, however--well, that's a different story. Here is one particular section I found interesting on whether Christianity is compatible with AI.

See Deus ex machina: former Google engineer is developing an AI god

“The church does a terrible job of reaching out to Silicon Valley types,” acknowledges Christopher Benek a pastor in Florida and founding chair of the Christian Transhumanist Association...

Benek argues that advanced AI is compatible with Christianity – it’s just another technology that humans have created under guidance from God that can be used for good or evil.
“I totally think that AI can participate in Christ’s redemptive purposes,” he said, by ensuring it is imbued with Christian values.

“Even if people don’t buy organized religion, they can buy into ‘do unto others’.”
For transhumanist and “recovering Catholic” Zoltan Istvan, religion and science converge conceptually in the singularity.

“God, if it exists as the most powerful of all singularities, has certainly already become pure organized intelligence,” he said, referring to an intelligence that “spans the universe through subatomic manipulation of physics”.

“And perhaps, there are other forms of intelligence more complicated than that which already exist and which already permeate our entire existence. Talk about ghost in the machine,” he added.

For Istvan, an AI-based God is likely to be more rational and more attractive than current concepts (“the Bible is a sadistic book”) and, he added, “this God will actually exist and hopefully will do things for us.”

Yes, Istvan--the AI God (or the "god of this world") will be more rational and more attractive because it will be a perfect representation of the world's intelligence. Unfortunately, in order to ensure the survival of our species and further the evolution of humanity, those that don't become one with it--the massive "brain-linked social network of the future, connecting us all into one superhuman computer"--will have to done away with. After all, in order to achieve utopia or heaven on earth, someone always has to die.

"All inhabitants of the earth will worship the beast" and those that refuse to do so "will be killed." Revelation 13:8, 15

AI Whispering in Your Ear

Dan Brown is an amazing writer and every one of his books that I've read have been extremely enjoyable mystery thrillers. In fact, though a number of Christians and Catholics boycotted his most popular book, The Da Vinci Code, I used its popularity to my advantage and often brought it up in conversation as a way to talk about religion, God, and Jesus. After all, it was so successful and so many people had read it that it made my job quite easy to share with random people I've never met the truth of the Gospel: God loves you so much that He died for your sins so you can have the free gift of eternal life.

Dan's newest book, Origin, looks like it is going to raise controversy within the Christian community once again since it takes on the story of Adam and Eve, the origin story of Judeo-Christianity, and, essentially, asserts that all can be explained through science without the need for a god to explain how we got here. I have yet to read it--though I look forward to doing so--but caught this interview with Dan Brown discussing the book and how the process of him becoming an atheist started when the story of Adam and Eve conflicted with what he was learning in school regarding evolution. It is an interesting interview and, not surprisingly, ties very well into my theory that artificial intelligence and the Antichrist are one and the same.

Here's the video and my comments below:

Brown: Religion does an enormous amount of good in the world. At the same time, there are factions in every religion that take the metaphors and the myth of scripture and they hold them up as literal fact, and that is the danger of any philosophy or any religion.

Dan Brown is an admitted atheist and his remark that religion does an enormous amount of good in the world is certainly not a sentiment shared by all atheists. I dare say, this might be a minority view among atheists and, if not already, will likely be replaced by a much more aggressive brand of atheism that I regularly encounter where the opposite is believed: Religion does an enormous amount of evil in the world...and must be stopped. The first step in that process is connected to his second statement, which is to make sure that everyone believes the bible is nothing more than myth and metaphor. Once you take it literally, you become a danger to society.

Brown: Traditionally, all the gods fall; and my question is, are we naive to believe that the gods of today will not suffer the same fate? Interviewer: Would that be a better planet? Brown: I personally believe that our planet will be absolutely fine without religion and I also feel that we are evolving in that direction.

Again, this is a mild form of atheism being expressed here by Brown. It still, however, encapsulates the thinking and direction we are headed. The more aggressive form of atheism says that God is dead, He never existed in the first place, and that we need to rid the planet of religion for the ultimate survival and evolution of our species. This will be the lie promoted by AI and it is even possible that Dan himself brings this angle into his new book with an all-knowing AI assistant named Winston that speaks into Robert Langdon's ear throughout the story, guiding him through his journey. Again, atheists cannot accept that an all-knowing God can speak to us and guide us through life, but an all-knowing AI--of course! Brown's books are fiction--don't be misled--but an AI whispering in your ear, shaping your mind and instructing you of truth vs. lies is much, much closer to reality than you think.