Zuck once said FB could replace Church. Is that his vision of AI mentors?

In case folks have forgotten, Mark Zuckerberg, Meta’s “maker,” was the one who said Facebook could take the place of church and, by inference, God, back in 2017. Here’s an excerpt from an article about his proclamation:

Facebook the ‘new church?’ Social media can never replace true community (Canada Free Press, July 6, 2017)

“The farther a person is distanced from God, the more he feels compelled to be self-reliant. Social media exploits this misconception, that it empowers independence. Not only is that wrong, but it encourages isolation and, conversely, addictive dependence.

"Community is based on personal interaction not remote intellectual exchanges. Church is community, a coming together in faith to worship God. There are organizations of folks who substitute other idols for God—in this case, technology—but it can never create a community of faith and worship. The reason is that technology is itself created and not the Creator. There is the possibility that Zuckerberg likens himself to a creator entity as the developer of Facebook, which is insinuated to be an avenue of worship.”

Zuckerberg not only hasn’t changed his thinking about a “new church” but he, like the rest of the tech oligarchs, have placed AI on a pedestal as the superintelligence that they think can replace God. His vision for the future of humanity is to rely on a “personal superintelligence” that will do one’s seeing and hearing for them, that the eyes and ears God gave them are somehow insufficient to comprehend and interpret the world around them.

Believing that mankind can engineer an intelligence greater than that of the true superintelligence that spoke the universe, macro and micro that even AI won’t be able to fully navigate, into being, is fallacious.

The plain fact is that every human already has access to the ultimate superintelligence – God. It just takes enough humility to set self-indulgence and egoism aside to allow God to work through them. Unfortunately, individuals’ hubris often creates an impassable barrier. It’s arrogance that gives Zuckerberg and his cohorts the idea they can even come close to recreating the superintelligence that belongs to the Creator.

There’s a steep price to be paid for Zuckerberg’s superintelligence. In order to benefit from an AI “friend” and mentor for everyone, as he portends, individuals will relinquish the means to reach their aspirations and potential on their own. MIT has already done a study that indicates how students lose cognitive capacity to reason, or remember their written efforts when “assisted” by chatbots to compose work product.

The other side of the cost for growing dependence on AI is the loss of access to energy that current society must have to supply needs and opportunity. The electricity necessary to run tools, appliances and gadgets people use for their art, business, and recreation is on the verge of being usurped by AI data centers.

The thousands of server farms slated to be built to enable AI “buddies” to guide lesser humans are supplied with energy by nuclear, natural gas, and coal power plants, all of which have been severely restricted over the last 15 years by myopic administrations. Unless massive numbers of power-generating plants can come online, and fast, families, entrepreneurs, and innovators will find energy for their preferred use becoming more expensive, if not unavailable.

Superintelligent “friends” may be satisfactory for virtual activities, but people thrive on personal interaction with other flesh and blood individuals. The experience is enhanced when they come together for worship, teaching, and prayer in the presence of God. AI, or “ASI” as Google CEO Eric Schmidt dubbed the coming self-generating superintelligence, can never be a suitable substitute for fellowship.

Dreams that are made possible with plentiful energy will be hijacked to empower AI that’s expected to become self-perpetuating. It will steal the human spirit to create, and replace it with a mechanical mentor, if not a “superintelligent” handler.

Making superintelligence “personal,” in the expectation of everyone having an ASI pal, fulfills what has already been accomplished with disease, by getting people to buy into government and Big Pharma healthcare. Marketing made it debilitating in the process of making it personal.

‘My Cancer,’ ‘My Migraine,’ ‘My Diabetes’ encourages individuals to take ownership of disease, accepting it as normal instead of taking God’s word that He delivers healing, not sickness. Taking possession of disease draws people into artificial solutions that solve nothing. Medical industry policies cover up symptoms, making those who are suffering dependent on drugs that alter the body, deteriorating its natural function.

Using the same rationale, ‘My ASI’ promises to create a dependence on a synthetic solution for gaining knowledge, developing friendship, and installing a godlike substitute. No matter how well packaged, ASI can’t enhance an individual’s cognition, or replace the enjoyment of human fellowship and the deep satisfaction of communing with God. It’s a lose-lose proposition.