Age of the Fallen Spiritual Machines

According to Ray Kurzweil, the most important question we must ask ourselves today is “Will artificial intelligence enable the third stage of life?” According to MIT physicist and AI researcher Max Tegmark, the answer is a resounding “Yes!” Life 1.0 is represented by bacteria “… where both the hardware and software are evolved rather than designed.” (Tegmark, 2017) . Life 2.0 is “… life whose hardware is evolved, but whose software is largely designed.” (Ibid.) – in other words, human life. Humanity represents an evolutionary leap that allows us to devise the algorithms used to process sense-based data. In this phase, we are mind-evolving creatures. But there is a final upgrade that must be installed to make us perfect: Life 3.0. In this phase we design not only our software but our hardware too. With this capacity, we ascend to total mastery of our destiny, finally free from the shackles left over from non-technological evolution. This new form of life can no longer be considered huma...

One of the most widely cited prophets of the transhumanist future is Yuval Noah Harari. His works have been enthusiastically recommended by Bill Gates, Emmanuel Macron, Barack Obama, and many other leading opinion makers. In a recent article in the Guardian (Harari, 2018), Dr. Harari tells us that after a fierce struggle with his innate liberalism he has concluded that continued belief in human free will has become too dangerous to entertain any longer. In my opinion, the piece is a masterful example of manipulative framing. Its purpose is to convince the reader to surrender his will, free or otherwise, to the inevitable triumph of Artificial Super Intelligence (ASI). This article seeks to unpack Harari’s rhetorical seductions and deconstruct the truths they contain. By the end, we will see that Harari’s prophecy has less to do with technology than with an anti-human ideology which he sees as the destined successor to the dying liberalism he celebrates and eulogizes. He frame...