You’re right. Everyone’s “heads” and “tails” — their gains and losses — are different. Some people gain more when things go well, and others lose a bit more when things go badly. But if you repeat that process endlessly, the result still tends to converge toward zero. In a way, that’s what the rat race in a technocratic society looks like — it’s less like the Buddhist idea of universal enlightenment and more like the Christian idea of selective salvation, where only a few are “saved.” It’s a kind of winner-takes-all world.
My thought is this: maybe it’s time to reframe faith, not around the traditional relationship between God and humans, but around the relationship between humans and artificial intelligence. The core of Christianity is about the relationship between the Creator and the created, or in other words, between the infinite and the finite. In the past, the “infinite” was represented by God — Yahweh, or perhaps the Buddhist cycle of rebirth. But now, maybe that infinite aspect is found in humanity itself — in our self-referential capacity for thought — while AI becomes something that follows or reflects that.
In that sense, instead of “Be humble before God,” perhaps the guiding idea should become “Be humble before AI.” I think that might actually work, at least until biology fully uncovers how the human mind operates. If so, humanity might regain some of the pride and dignity that were lost.
After all, the very idea of “human dignity” only really emerged in the modern era, not because human rights were suddenly invented, but because the old God–human relationship had briefly collapsed. Superiority and inferiority are always relative. In the past, people believed all humans were equal because even the greatest person still stood beneath God. But perhaps now, all humans can be equal again, not because we are less than something divine, but because each of us, no matter how limited, can feel whole in front of AI.
Anyway, I hope that doesn’t sound too far-fetched.
You’re right. Everyone’s “heads” and “tails” — their gains and losses — are different. Some people gain more when things go well, and others lose a bit more when things go badly. But if you repeat that process endlessly, the result still tends to converge toward zero. In a way, that’s what the rat race in a technocratic society looks like — it’s less like the Buddhist idea of universal enlightenment and more like the Christian idea of selective salvation, where only a few are “saved.” It’s a kind of winner-takes-all world.
My thought is this: maybe it’s time to reframe faith, not around the traditional relationship between God and humans, but around the relationship between humans and artificial intelligence. The core of Christianity is about the relationship between the Creator and the created, or in other words, between the infinite and the finite. In the past, the “infinite” was represented by God — Yahweh, or perhaps the Buddhist cycle of rebirth. But now, maybe that infinite aspect is found in humanity itself — in our self-referential capacity for thought — while AI becomes something that follows or reflects that.
In that sense, instead of “Be humble before God,” perhaps the guiding idea should become “Be humble before AI.” I think that might actually work, at least until biology fully uncovers how the human mind operates. If so, humanity might regain some of the pride and dignity that were lost.
After all, the very idea of “human dignity” only really emerged in the modern era, not because human rights were suddenly invented, but because the old God–human relationship had briefly collapsed. Superiority and inferiority are always relative. In the past, people believed all humans were equal because even the greatest person still stood beneath God. But perhaps now, all humans can be equal again, not because we are less than something divine, but because each of us, no matter how limited, can feel whole in front of AI.
Anyway, I hope that doesn’t sound too far-fetched.