Merging with God

At the end of the 11th training season at the Monastic Academy, Forall gave a final harrowing talk before he left campus to network, fundraise, and train in various places. He began by pointing out how the Humanist God that we worship and which has run our civilization is dead. In the age of AI, the God of Dataism will reign the world. Right now, it’s our responsibility to understand this God deeply enough to steer it in a trustworthy direction.

Forall continued on by pointing how the deepest of all drives is to merge with God. There’s nothing we want more than for a divine power greater than ourself to tell us who we are and what to do. We want to surrender our will and have this force move us. We may not consciously know this, but this is life’s deepest drive.

In fact, this is why we’re so fervent about building AI. Because finally, we might be able to create something that can walk the Path to enlightenment for us so that we don’t have to.

From one perspective, this was a severe critique of modernity’s incessant abdication of responsibility. But from another perspective, it was highlighting a leverage point.

AI may be the most powerful medium for our modern civilization to connect with mystery, God, something beyond what we can make sense of. Our civilization is obsessed with AI because for many it’s the first time they’ve been presented with something truly mysterious to which they must surrender. Forall claims that we can use this opportunity to benefit all beings.