religion

The Messiah Is The Method

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I suppose I should put this subtly, but I won’t. How many people can claim to follow some religious figure and get it so terribly wrong. OK, I’m talking Christianity in America, but you get the idea. How do you point at someone as your role model, your savior, and then be so completely different from them.

And yes, there’s the usual stuff about scams, grifters, bullshit, opportunists, and assorted motivations people have. There’s the desire to use religion to justify your biases, etc. There’s plenty of utterly evil motivations to say one thing and do so completely the opposite.

But a-holes gonna a-hole.

However I think for sincere seekers these attempts to emulate a teacher miss something – they miss that sometimes you can think too much about the person you’re emulating. The mind you use to contemplate your teacher isn’t the teacher’s mind. In many cases, it’s better to just give it a shot at being like them and seeing how it works out.

If you’ve ever done breath meditation, there’s a strange thing about it – thinking about it really doesn’t help you get better. Instead you have to do it, moment by moment, bit by bit. Somehow the doing of the action – as imperfect as it may seem – helps you get into meditative breath than thinking about it. The you that meditates and the you thinking about it are not the same- and the you thinking about it is probably kinda distractible.

In emulating teachers, it’s all well and good to contemplate and analyze, but you have to get off your butt and actually be like them as best you can. You may not “get it.” You may not get it right. You should think and analyze, yes, but the key thing is to start being a better person and see how it goes. It’s no different than a meditation in this regard.

In America I think there’s this endless amount of books, analysis, discussion, and so on that misses that if you’ve got some great teacher (OK, look I AM talking Jesus mostly) then go be like him as best you can. If you’re not sure read about him, read your Bible (or whatever), read some unincluded scripture, but give it a shot.

You’ll learn as you go.

If you’re all stuck in your head then you’ll argue endlessly – or worse, find ways to convince yourself you’re already fine. If you spend all your time thinking about what to do right, then there’s a chance you’ll delude yourself into thinking you’re right. Sometimes you take your best shot, and sometimes it’s pretty uncomfortable to realize how unlike your role model you were.

The person that’s our great example (yeah, look, again I am talking Jesus) is the one you’re following. That is personal, that following and emulating is a meditation. Just go do it.

–Xenofact

The Machine God Wants You To Eat Rocks

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Needless to say I think the current “AI” trend (in 2024) is a lot of bollocks. It’s basically either a autocomplete on steroids or a statistical visual/auditory refinement systems, driven by too much energy going into overpriced chips for software trained by underpaid labor. It doesn’t do what it says, it’s a running joke, and now that it’s shoehorned into everything, it’s going to have an awesome chance to fail repeatedly and spectacularly.

We’ve heard the jokes and the hallucinations. Eat a small rock a day. Pizza glue. Ignoring all previous instructions.

I’ve speculated on what’s next for Silicon Valley when AI crashes, but having noticed some IT types are willing to play footsie with any grifter, I think one possibility is actually religion.

We’ve seen that some Silicon Valley grifters will try anything and kiss up to anyone. History shows us crypto scams, shameless political pandering, and, well, anything. What’s a large block of people you can grift to, premade for the right pitch? Conservative “Christians” who have been shaped by various opportunists into both a political force, and one with obvious buttons to push.

I can foresee one possible scam being some AI-bro claiming some divine mandage. It might sound preposterous, but people always tried to sell computer graphic apes. Let me speculate on a recipe someone may try even if it may not work.

Let’s take some AI promoter who’s company is not doing so hot and maybe facing a few investigations. What could he do?

First, pretend to have a religious conversion. It’s certainly worked for any number of opportunists, especially ones trying to avoid their past coming after them.

Second, hook up with some religious figure who will take your money/time/publicity and is politically connected. There’s plenty and they probably have their own ideas about how to make AI sound like some divine mission.

Third, claim that AI is part of God’s plan or something similar. A gift from god, a divine plan, whatever. You might even create some “Biblical” AI fed religious stuff from the Bible to things your patrons wrote and maybe hint you’ll get divine guidance.

Fifth, exploit your political and other connections to get more donations, investment, etc. Hook up with whatever crackpot investors you can. If anyone pulls out claim they’re a religious bigot.

Sixth, possibly skip this AI thing eventually into the ministry or a new startup or something. Maybe just start a side project until you can ditch this. However, you might find a whole new audience and political influence.

Dumb? Stupid? I’d have thought so a few years ago. Sadly I see this as viable for a down-on-their-luck AI bro or someone that wants to ride the religion gravy train. It’s a simple blueprint, a path trod by many, and of course you get to combine two culty areas – tech enthusiasts and religion.

I feel sad I can imagine this. Give people some Biblical flair to AI, dress it up a bit, talk divine mission, throw in a weird chatbot, and people will probably back you. It’s like a terribly stupid take on the Adeptus Mechanicus, the machine-worshippers from Warhammer 40K.

I suppose this tells me just what a dumb time we live in that I can make this stupid speculation and feel it makes sense.

–Xenofact

So Where’s The Spirituality?

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It seems a lot of people want to tell me and my friends how to live, act, love, etc. all in the name of their “god.”

They have lists of things to do and don’t do. They have rules. These are all things we have to follow – though it seems certain people get to make exceptions. Usually those shouting the loudest about “divine” guidance seem to get to follow none of it.

They have opinions of who can do what. Often around gender, sometimes age, and in the end skin color and ethnicity. Oh they’ll deny the latter, but it’s fairly obvious their little checklists of who is exceptional is pretty small – and funny thing is all the religious shouters are in that small group.

Know what I don’t see in these religious authoritarians? Any kind of spirituality.

Where’s the soul-shattering insights that lay you humbly low? Where’s the connection of some universal truth that comes through from elsewhere into your mind and words? Where’s the depth of it all, of that great sea of being behind things? Be it god, archetype or insight, these religious checklist-wielders don’t have it.

There’s nothing because all they have is their pile of rules (that of course they don’t have to follow). It’s clear as desert-noon day that there’s nothing spiritual at all, nothing deep, in their minds. There’s just the rage-fueled clockwork click-clack chatter of their demands we conform.

Sure some of them make it up. They fake speaking in tongues, they get ghostwritten books, they have some media consultants. A few are wacked-out enough to think they’re having visions, but then you hear about portals to hell over landmarks and other recycled internet conspiracy theories.

And, in the end, there’s nothing there.

I’ve said that I don’t have to take religious fanatics seriously. I don’t believe in their religion, and as they’re obvious hypocrites I don’t have to believe them. But let me add to that, in my more esoteric moments, it’s pretty damn clear they have no claim to deep spiritual insights.

They’ve just got a checklist, and obviously an agenda. If they every encountered some moment that cracked their soul open to something bigger, they wouldn’t be such assholes, or they’d crawl away in shame.

-Xenofact