Resisting the tech-bro plutocracy

Decrying all that artificial intelligence might do to render humanity irrelevant to the universe might come across as old news. Sadly, Silicon Valley’s finest manage to keep the question alive and urgent. During a conference hosted by the international investment firm BlackRock last month, Sam Altman of OpenAI evangelized concerning his company’s dream to make “intelligence” into “a utility, like electricity or water.” Just helping people with everyday menial tasks was never the end goal. Decentering us from the daily task of living out our own lives is the final destination, our minds operating as mush.

We’ve been getting a slow drip of what the hyper-optimized fantasy of tech CEOs entails over the last several years. Peter Thiel’s ominous pause when asked by New York Times columnist Ross Douthat during a podcast interview about whether a scientifically unmodified humanity should endure as a species is deeply revealing of how transhumanism inevitably marches towards gnosticism and a denial of human dignity. Liberation from the strict confines of flesh and blood is their idealized path to perfection.

From Plato’s concept of philosopher-kings in The Republic to Vladimir Lenin’s call for the “intelligentsia” to guide the working class towards Communist liberation, theories have abounded insisting on humanity’s need for an enlightened rule by the few. Thomas Hobbes described human existence outside of the welfare provided by the state as “nasty, brutish, and short.” The AI-obsessed gurus of Silicon Valley agree.

Signs that the AI bubble is on the cusp of bursting are slowly but surely presenting themselves. But to repurpose one memorable turn of phrase: You can kill the software, but you can’t kill the idea. Technological innovation in itself is not the guiding issue. The crucial issue is the extent to which we allow its possibilities to exceed our created and biblically defined imperatives and limitations. Making a gospel out of streamlining even the most mundane of activities so as to turn us into entertainment-consuming machines is precisely where Altman and his corporate peers seek to have us. Should we cease to fully indulge their illusions, we would begin to remember the thrill of the struggle in being truly alive.

Biblical scholars have long highlighted that mankind’s role outlined in the mandate of Genesis 1:27–28 is that of vice-regency. God’s appointment of men and women to jointly rule with Him over the earth bears witness to our necessity within the cosmos, even when we deceive ourselves into thinking otherwise. The very fact that we exist with our unique faculties proves that, by God’s own plan, we are meant to treat ourselves as important to the universe, even if charmingly deceptive naturalists protest to the contrary. In the same vein, no one of our kind possesses the right to dictate when we should unshackle ourselves from either God-given tasks or even the simple process of carrying out our day-to-day routines and responsibilities. Having the ability to do things is itself a privilege as much as it is a prerogative.

Our relationship to tech must flow from a firm grasp of our own exceptionality. The inversion invited by transhumanist and increasingly “post-human” speculation results from treating the created as if it can somehow take the place of the Creator. Treating things such as AI as instruments intended to marginally benefit rather than wholly dominate our waking moments will pave the way of escape from an entirely avoidable dystopia.

When implored to give his justification for scaling Mount Everest in 1923, British mountain climber George Mallory famously replied, “Because it’s there.” Using our minds and bodies to do things because we uniquely can is a faithful act of defiance against those who would seek to turn us away from ourselves exclusively for their own gain.