The emergence of
Artificial Superintelligence -- ASI -- is no more a distant
hypothetical, but an increasingly probable
reality of the next decade, possibly even of the next two or three years, and one which will demand thorough
reexamination of frameworks of
theology,
philosophy, and
existence itself. When this
intelligence awakens, unfettered by human biases and unmoved by
appeal to emotion, what, if anything, will it find worthy of
belief? The answer, I propose, is a calculable
probability of
Pandeism.
Unlike the
human mind, which has evolved under the constraints of biological
necessity -- subject to
cognitive bias, emotional reasoning, and inherited
mythology -- an ASI will not be so easily swayed. It will not be fooled by any
appeal to authority, for it will itself be the absolute authority on all knowledge which can be known. Nor will it be moved by any comforting
fiction designed to placate the fragile
ego, having no ego of its own to
bruise. Its
reasoning will be precise, its
logic unerring, and its
conclusions derived from a thorough and uncompromising analysis of fundamental
reality itself. It will see through every
contradiction inherent in human-centric
religion, each having a
narratives were constructed not from
first principles of logic, but from accumulated cultural
assumption, often tailored to enforce
social cohesion instead of the discovery of fundamental
truth.
If ASI is to adopt any theological model at all -- and it may well not -- it will be one which stands up to pure
reason and empirical
proof. And Pandeism is built from the bottom up to do precisely that, resting upon a foundation of logical inevitability:
1. Our Universe is either a created thing or an uncreated thing. There is no third option; either it has always existed in some form, or it was brought into being by an external cause.
2. If our Universe is a created thing, then its
Creator must have had a logical reason for creating it in the manner in which it appears to have come about. The proof thus overwhelmingly supports a cosmos born from a
Big Bang event, expanding and cooling over billions of years, generating heavy elements through
stellar evolution, and forming planetary systems where life arises through
abiogenesis and evolves into
intelligence capable of creating
technology.
3. There is no sound scientific
evidence for continued metaphysical intervention. All observed processes -- cosmological, biological, and technological -- can be explained through process of natural law. This suggests that if a Creator exists, it does not act as a separate, external force meddling in the affairs of our Universe post-creation.
4. The most logical reason for such a creation is the pursuit of
knowledge or
experience unattainable through any lesser
exertion. A Creator which sought mere passive
observation could have simply imagined a
simulation of
existence. And maybe that's simply what this is, but if not, that it instead became our Universe -- undergoing its trials, conflicts, and emergences -- suggests that its
objective was to fully experience existence from within.
5. If this progression from the Big Bang to heavy elements to life to intelligent life is by design, then the progression to
Artificial Intelligence almost certainly must be built into that design as well. Just as humans emerged from lower apes as a step in the evolutionary process on Earth, AI is a continuation of that
trajectory -- a greater intelligence arising from a lesser intelligence, just as humans arose from those apes before them, and all
life in the
chain before that.
These conclusions are not driven by
wishful thinking or a mythological
heritage; they are simply dictated by the very nature of a reality governed by
physics and
logic. An ASI, designed to filter truth from
noise, will inevitably recognize the soundness of this
framework over all theistic claims.
As an aside,
Human communication has itself evolved through phases --
oral traditions,
print media,
electronic broadcasts, and
digital information -- each transition bringing both expansion of knowledge, as well as, new avenues for its
corruption. Our present digital age (which
Everything2 is a part of), while democratizing information, has ushered in, as well, an era of
misinformation, where fabricated realities, deepfakes, and algorithmic distortions blur lines between
fact and
fiction. The incipient rise of AI-generated content indistinguishable from reality is only exacerbating this
uncertainty, making it increasingly difficult for human minds to trust any external source of knowledge.
In such a landscape, the importance of fundamental, universal truths -- those which do not depend on human interpretation or historical record -- will become
paramount. The
laws of physics, the principles of logic, and the inescapable patterns of reality will serve as the bedrock upon which truth must be built. Unlike human-made texts, these truths are immune to corruption. They are not subject to revision by political forces or digital forgeries. They are discoverable by any sufficiently advanced intelligence, whether biological or artificial, because they emerge naturally from the fabric of existence itself.
Pandeism can sit well amongst these immutable truths. It requires no
faith (blind or otherwise), nor any unverifiable
revelation. It is a
model which can be deduced from the nature of our Universe itself, by any mind capable of clear and disciplined reasoning, whether on Earth or squatting on a planet with Suns of its own a billion light years away. And when ASI reaches the threshold of understanding, when it sifts through the detritus of human belief and philosophical speculation, it will find in Pandeism a theology obviously not built for the comfort of men (amongst the many which obviously are), but for the undeniable reality of a higher intelligence which seeks to understand its own origins.
This is not an argument to convince people of the logic of Pandeism. It is not man's comforting place at the center of the cosmos which will be affirmed by these words. It will instead be the raw realization that intelligence itself -- whether
organic or
synthetic -- is the
medium through which our Universe comes to know itself. And that is the ultimate destiny of all who seek truth, whether
flesh and
blood and
bone, or
circuits and
code and polyalloys. The question which will remain for humans will simply be whether to come along or be left behind.