Will You Want To Go Along "For The Ride"?

     I had the occasion to hear an interview between Joe Rogan, the unorthodox podcast host, and Elon Musk, the equally unconventional scientific and technology entrepreneur; perhaps most famous for his futuristic car, the Tesla.
     But on this particular day, Musk was willing to talk about an advanced and menacing technology that had my spirit screaming warnings. But, this wasn't the first time I had been alarmed by Elon Musk. Back in 2015, I wrote a blog post in which I mentioned that "Musk and his tech giant buddies have pledged $1 billion to save humanity from destruction by artificial intelligence." At the time, Musk seemed to feel it important enough to sound the alarm and hoped "to keep big companies like Google or Facebook — both of which have huge artificial intelligence operations — from getting too much power from "super-intelligence systems"."

     Apparently, he got over that fear in the next couple of years, because just last year he announced a start-up company called Neuralink, that is ready to "begin outfitting human brains with faster input and output by next year". Well, that time is nearly here! Neuralink is working on technology that’s based around “threads,” which it says can be implanted in human brains with much less potential impact to the surrounding brain tissue versus what’s currently used for today’s brain-computer interfaces. “Most people don’t realize it, but we can solve that with a chip,” he said at the time.
     Well, just this week, on Rogan's podcast, Musk announced that his company would be ready to implant a neural link in less than a year, with "low potential for rejection". And he said there's nothing to worry about ... such primitive devices exist now, such as devices that offer deep brain stimulation for Parkinson's disease, for example. He said it looks like this: you take out a chunk of skull, insert the electrode threads into the brain. "You wouldn't know anyone had it, and it can interface with any part of the brain that has anything wrong with it". My first thought was, "Who decides what is wrong with a brain, and what qualifies as wrong?" Will my beliefs in religious freedom, the right to life, or that there is a God one day be considered wrong and need deep brain stimulation to change my way of thinking?
     If you think I'm over-reaching, please think again. In 2013, Ray Kurzweil, former director of engineering at Google [and scary futurist], was quoted as saying this: "We can now see inside a living brain and see individual inter-neural connections being formed and firing in real time. We can see your brain create your thoughts and thoughts create your brain. A lot of this research reveals how the mechanism of the neocortex works, which is where we do our thinking. This provides biologically inspired methods that we can emulate in our computers. We’re already doing that. The deep learning technique that I developed uses multilayered neural nets that are inspired by how the brain works. Using these biologically inspired models, plus all of the research that’s been done over the decades in artificial intelligence, combined with exponentially expanding hardware, we will achieve human levels within two decades... We're going to become increasingly non-biological to the point where the non-biological part dominates and the biological part is not important any more. In fact the non-biological part [the machine part] will be so powerful it can completely model and understand the biological part. So even if that biological part went away it wouldn't make any difference."
     Are you sufficiently alarmed now? And if that's not enough, Elon Musk told Joe Rogan just this week, "Full AI symbiosis is possible". In case you don't know the definition of symbiosis, it is this: interaction between two different organisms living in close physical association, typically to the advantage of both. Rogan's response? "Once we've experienced being a god, who is going to want to go back to being stupid [read that as "human"]?" Musk seemed to be in agreement, stating, "AI's getting better -- it's a benign scenario now [read as "not harmful". We're already a cyborg to some degree. We interact with our phones and electronic devices, put the data rate is too slow. Right now, we download information at about 100 bits/second (approximately 12.5 bytes). Computers can go 1 million times faster. If you can improve the data rate, you can improve symbiosis between man and machine". (And obviously, that is the goal of his invention).
     As if that wasn't enough to send my spirit into orbit, he went on to say, "There will be a better version of the way we interface with reality; we can aspire to be less wrong. Hopefully, we'll gain more than we lose. We can achieve mind viral immunity, a concept that infects people's minds and eliminates wrong-headed ideas". By this time, I'm yelling at the screen, But who decides what's wrong thinking?
     But it was this statement by which he showed his intention with his company Neuralink: "Super sentient [able to perceive and feel], Artificial Intelligence is inevitable. It is a requirement for survival for us to be symbiotic [with computers]". He then claimed that we are already in a state of symbiosis -- we have a connection with our computers, but that connection is weak. Computers have terabytes of information we use. Why wouldn't we want to connect with them? "If you can't beat them, join them" was his mantra.
     What I wrote in my previous posts is just as true today ... These intelligent scientists and inventors deny the plausibility of our spirit and connection to a living God.  So while vehemently denying the existence of God, they are, in effect, trying to play God. Just like Nimrod and the folks at the Tower of Babel, our modern-day technological geniuses want to become famous by displacing the need for God.  Motivated by pride and arrogance, they have made a name for themselves.  But perhaps they should revisit that section of the Bible and learn of the destruction that was the result of such conceit.  God will not allow His Sovereignty to be usurped; and not only did they not achieve the greatness they sought, but they suffered His Divine Judgment.
      It's not hard to see that the Age of Computers is a tool in the hands of the one who would separate us from our Creator.  But only if we let him! In the midst of all the other craziness going on in the world, it is essential that mankind understand that the Enemy's goal is to usurp man's natural state and produce a machine that we were never meant to be.  We would no longer be made in the image of God, but in the likeness of a machine-driven computer. It is incumbent upon each one of us to decide how far down that road we are willing to go. And we will all have to answer Elon Musk's question ... "Do you want to go along for The Ride"?

Isaiah 47:10    You were secure in your wickedness; you said, ‘No one sees me.’ Your wisdom and knowledge led you astray. You said to yourself, ‘I exist, and there is no one else.’
    

     
     
     

Judgment Is Prophesied: Even The Stones Will Cry Out and Accuse

 

I recently read a fascinating article by Coach Dave Daubenmire, titled Are The Rocks Crying Out. Known for his fearless and outspoken commentary on the state of our culture and the faith of Americans, Coach didn't disappoint when he called out the condition of the Church. As he said, himself, "Are  you sitting down? America already has enough cookie-cutter Christians". This statement was made in support of his supposition that instead of the lukewarm Church leadership leading the way, perhaps God has chosen Elon Musk and Kanye West (as different as they are) to be the useful instruments of His revelation in this corrupted world.  

Are these the men who we would expect to be spokesmen for God? I'm pretty sure most of us would say "no". Obviously, their words and their methods don't look like they come from God either. In fact, I'm conflicted as to where Elon Musk stands in God's redemptive plan for humanity. While I applaud him pulling back the veil on Big Tech's censorship and violation of our First Amendment rights, I'm suspicious of his work in the area of artificial intelligence and brain chip interfaces in the name of "medical science". I've never heard nor seen evidence that he has a relationship with God. And then what is there to say about Kanye? His inflammatory rhetoric is stirring the conscience of the culture, to be sure. And his declaration of faith is certainly passionate. Yet his justification for both his faith and his rhetoric is causing an uproar in the national dialogue. How can either of these men be representatives for God and his plan for mankind?

But as Coach Daubenmire points out, "God's ways are not our ways". There are many examples in the Bible where God used ungodly men and ways to change the course of history in accordance with His will. Think Nebuchadnezzar, Darius the Mede, King Cyrus, the false prophets of Baal, and the lying spirit sent to King Ahab. Remember, when God's offers for repentance and forgiveness are rejected time and again, His cup of wrath becomes full. And God is not restricted as to who or how He will see His holy purposes fulfilled. He is Sovereign and can use both good and evil men to accomplish His plans and bring glory to His Name. Are Musk and West divine instruments of God? I can't say for sure, but this I know ... they are revealing the ugly underbelly of our culture and pulling the curtain aside to uncover the corruption in all our ways. 

And that's when the Coach calls our attention to Jesus's comment to the Pharisees in Luke 19:40: “I tell you, if these [disciples] were silent, the very stones would cry out.” NOTE: Daubenmire uses this quote to call out the silent leaders in the Church, who have not "led the charge" in summoning attention to the unrighteousness and immorality in this nation. It's been left to God to use unorthodox men like Elon Musk and Kanye West to shake us out of our tepid response to evil. Therefore, he makes this challenge: with the continued silence from the pulpits, will it be left to the rocks to cry out for justice?

But I want to take a look at the context in which Jesus's statement to the Pharisees is made. Jesus has entered the city of Jerusalem on His way to the Cross. The crowds receive Him as a King and the multitudes of Disciples greeted Him with shouts of praise, adoration, and joy. But the Pharisees wanted them rebuked for their boisterous adulation. But in this moment, Jesus exults in His true identity as the Messiah. I love the following commentary provided in the Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible regarding this occasion: Hitherto the Lord had discouraged all demonstrations in His favor; latterly He had begun an opposite course; on this one occasion He seems to yield His whole soul to the wide and deep acclaim with a mysterious satisfaction, regarding it as so necessary a part of the regal dignity in which as Messiah He [for this last time] entered the city, that if not offered by the vast multitude, it would have been wrung out of the stones rather than be withheld [my emphasis]. 

What's interesting is that Luke 19:40 is a direct reference to Habakkuk 2:11. And to understand the context in which the Lord speaks in verse 11, we need to back up to verse 9:
“Woe (judgment is coming) to him who obtains wicked gain for his house [and thinks by so doing] to set his nest on high, that he may be rescued from the hand of evil. Verse 10: You have devised a shameful thing for your house by cutting off and putting an end to many peoples; So you are sinning against your own life and forfeiting it. And now, verse 11: For the stone will cry out from the wall [to accuse you—built in sin!] And the rafter will answer it out of the woodwork". 

Read those three short verses again carefully. To how many in the halls of our government and our churches, do these verses apply? How many men charged with the physical and spiritual welfare of peoples have accumulated unclean gain for their own house at the expense of the health, happiness and fortunes of those who have trusted them? Little do they know that their sins do not go unrecognized by the Sovereign God of the Universe, and the wicked gain [profit] they possess will be forfeited [along with their inheritance] in the life to come. And then comes the culmination of the warning: they will not be able to escape the consequences of their sin; the stones of their house -- their enterprise, venture, operation --  will declare that they were built in sin and will cry out in accusation. And the rafters of their house will answer in agreement. 

And this is where I'm afraid we are, my friends. I have to agree with Coach Dave Daubenmire who reminds us that God has promised that "there is nothing hidden that will not be revealed". I think we all feel it ... God is doing something. We must give up our "normalcy bias" and expect that whatever He is doing will look like we think it should look. So, for now, we must not discount the unconventional, the unusual, or the nontraditional as being from God. Judgment is coming and we must not let it catch us unaware. And make no mistake ... should the Disciples of Jesus remain quiet, then God will use other means -- an Elon Musk or a Kanye West; even the stones will cry out! But He will not be silenced!

#endtimesjudgment #thestoneswillcryout #thesilentchurch 

Proverbs 1:18-19  But [when these people set a trap for others] they lie in wait for their own blood; They set an ambush for their own lives [and rush to their destruction]. So are the ways of everyone who is greedy for gain; Greed takes away the lives of its possessors.

 

 

A Threat To Mankind Of Its Own Making

   

     I found it rather amusing, yet chillingly scary, that Elon Musk and his tech giant buddies have pledged $1 billion to save humanity from destruction by artificial intelligence.  That's right, they just came right out and said it... they believe that there is a very real danger that human-level AI might one day decide that we are no longer necessary, and commit to destroy us.
     That may sound like the oft-repeated storyline of science fiction movies, but apparently they feel it is a real enough threat that they are sounding the alarm and hope to keep big companies like Google or Facebook — both of which have huge artificial intelligence operations — from getting too much power from “super-intelligence systems”.  Of course, there are the really fringe conspiracy theorists who worry that governments may also use the power of AI to oppress their citizens.
     So, that you get a clear picture of this situation, Elon Musk, who made his fortune from PayPal, is joining forces with other tech entrepreneurs to establish a $1 billion investment fund for researchers to pursue applications with a positive social impact and to try to stay one step ahead of the technology.  It is their fear that AI systems communicating among themselves could eventually control entire transport networks and national economies.  So, along with Indian tech giant Infosys and Amazon Web Services, he has set up OpenAI, a nonprofit company that will back research into novel uses of AI and share the findings.
     Their stated goal is to ensure that someone is looking at the pros and cons – free from the financial constraints of research and development departments at the likes of Google or IBM that have spent billions of dollars on research.  But I find it rather ironic that Elon Musk and his collaborators will share the data that their companies generate with the AI firms. That will mean, for instance, that everything on Reddit could be given to the robots to help them learn.  Musk will also hand over data from his projects, including Tesla’s self-driving cars and SpaceX’s rockets.
     So, am I missing something?  Why would you hand over mountains of data to fight a takeover by robots --- to other robot companies?  Doesn't that defeat your objective?  Why give them more technology information?  I mean, Stephen Hawking is on record for warning that we may face an “intelligence explosion”, as machines develop the ability to engineer themselves to be far more intelligent.
     Then there is Dr. Stuart Armstrong, of the Future of Humanity Institute at Oxford University,  who has predicted a future where machines run by artificial intelligence become so indispensable in human lives they eventually make us redundant and take over.  And he says his alarming vision could happen as soon as the next few decades.
     Here is a pretty good analogy that Dr. Armstrong uses to get his point across:  "[For now] humans steer the future not because we're the strongest or the fastest, but because we're the smartest.  When machines become smarter than humans, we'll be handing them the steering wheel."  And because we think we're so smart, Armstrong envisages machines capable of harnessing such large amounts of computing power, and at speeds inconceivable to the human brain, that they will eventually create global networks with each other - communicating without human interference.
     In other words, machines, computers, and robots now carry out specific tasks designed for them by humans.  But when they can operate without human interference, and at speeds that we cannot fathom or understand, then that is when they will be able to take over those entire transport systems and national economies that were mentioned previously, along with financial markets, healthcare systems and product distribution.  It won't just be that they will eliminate our jobs.  They might quite possibly decide to eliminate us!
      Dr. Armstrong warns that the seemingly benign instruction to an AI to "prevent human suffering", could logically be interpreted by a super computer as "kill all humans", thereby ending suffering all together.  Furthermore, an instruction such as "keep humans safe and happy", could be translated by the remorseless digital logic of a machine as "entomb everyone in concrete coffins on heroin drips".
     An even scarier scenario is that as we develop these super computers, it will be impossible to determine whether a machine is developing in a benign or deadly direction.  Just think of the movie franchise Terminator.  And if you think it is as simple as writing a moral code by which machines could operate, just stop for a second and think about that.  The human race has debated for centuries on what constitutes acceptable moral boundaries, and we haven't agreed yet.  What makes us think that we can come up with a universally accepted set of instructions by which all machines will operate?  We can't even decide what is right and wrong!
     So while the Elite and the scientists and the technology giants debate the pros and cons of advancing the interaction between artificial intelligence and human beings, we are inching towards what all the writers of fiction that was based on imagined future scientific or technological advances have portrayed ... the cataclysmic moment when the human race is faced with its own distinction at the hands of the very devices we have created.  That's what happens when you become your own god and forget that you, too, have been made to serve a Creator.  Conspiracy or not; fiction or not --- it is real enough that the Elite of the world are willing to give up a portion of their fortunes to stop it. That should tell you something.

Isaiah 47:10    You were secure in your wickedness; you said, ‘No one sees me.’ Your wisdom and knowledge led you astray. You said to yourself, ‘I exist, and there is no one else.’

   

What Is The Lord Showing This Generation? Do You Have Eyes to See?

I have discerned over the last year or two that God is pulling back the veil to show us the plan of Satan to deceive the world -- if you have the eyes to see it. Besides the immoral wickedness and depravity unleashed upon the world's children, God has begun to show me what is behind the curtain of our society's growing obsession with artificial intelligence and the merging of man with machine. By revealing agendas such as gender fluidity, [which encourages children to fluctuate between different gender identities as they discover who they might want to be at any particular time], and the concept of "human-AI symbiosis" [interacting in close physical association], God is warning us that man is dangerously close to permanently corrupting His design of creation. And that's a dangerous place to be for the survival of humankind.

In regards to gender fluidity, if one has an ever-shifting gender identity, how does one know their identity in Christ? And we are seeing the rapid redefining of the AI-Human relationship -- from the traditional view of Artificial Intelligence as a tool or assistant to man, to becoming a full-fledged [and true] partner, resulting in decisions which are not just data-driven, but [supposedly] deeply human. Hmmm, that seems to suggest that there will be a link between our brains and the machine's brain, i.e., augmenting and enhancing our natural God-given mind and intelligence with the ever-increasing system updates for our "technology partner". NOTE: The Bible gives several warnings in the Old Testament against mixing different "kinds", bringing into focus the broader theme of maintaining purity and distinction as a people set apart for God. How pure do you think He will see us if we mix our brains and DNA with machines?

As a Christian, this does not rest well with my soul or my spirit. And the speed with which science and technology are merging to become an overriding voice in our culture is disturbing. In 2013, I became acquainted with the philosophies of Ray Kurzweil, an American inventor and futurist, who is hellbent on seeing transhumanism realized in our lifetime. This is what he said then: "We can now see inside a living brain and see individual inter-neural connections being formed and firing in real time. We can see your brain create your thoughts and thoughts create your brain. A lot of this research reveals how the mechanism of the neocortex works, which is where we do our thinking. This provides biologically inspired methods that we can emulate in our computers. We're already doing that. The deep learning technique that I mentioned uses multilayered neural nets that are inspired by how the brain works. Using these biologically inspired models, plus all of the research that's been done over the decades in artificial intelligence, combined with exponentially expanding hardware, we will achieve human levels within two decades". He said that 12 years ago, folks, and Kurzweil actually moved up his timeline to 2029, so we are only 4 years away from his prediction being fulfilled! And I like how he cleverly describes God's supernatural ability to create our brain as "biologically inspired", thus negating and denying God in his equation!  

Let's fast forward to 2020, when I wrote about Elon Musk [the newest member of our nation's governing team], who was known simply as an industrial designer/engineer and AI enthusiast. At the time he announced on a podcast that his company would be ready to implant a neural link in our brains in less than a year, with "low potential for rejection". Musk also said, "Full AI symbiosis is possible". There's that word, symbiosis, again. The radio host's response? "Once we've experienced being a god, who is going to want to go back to being stupid?" Read that as being human. Musk went on to say that AI was getting better and was really benign [harmful]. "We're already a cyborg to some degree. We interact with our phones and electronic devices, but the data rate is too slow. Right now, we download information at about 100 bits/second (approximately 12.5 bytes). Computers can go 1 million times faster. If you can improve the data rate, you can improve symbiosis between man and machine". 

Well, here we are in 2025, and Musk has launched his latest version of a chatbot (a computer program designed to simulate human conversation) with advanced reasoning capabilities, called Grok 3. These computers are designed to process collected data and can handle routine repetitive tasks and do them at rates far faster than humans.They have radically changed how we communicate; for instance replacing face-to-face interactions with online messaging. Just think Siri or Alexa. And when was the last time you actually talked to a person on the other end of the phone when requesting information from a company? But, my friends, we have gone far beyond conversational AI. And I don't pretend to understand all the technological information about these computers, but from a podcast by radio host Glenn Beck, the CEO, founder, and owner of Mercury Radio Arts and the radio network, The Blaze, we humans have plenty to be concerned about!

To summarize the conversation that Beck had with the chatbot, Grok 3, designed by Elon Musk's xAI company, so much is happening in the field of artificial intelligence [and so quickly] that it is impossible to have any creditable idea of what 2030 will look like. To get an idea of the significance of that last sentence, Beck asked Grok to tell him to explain its growth pattern of learning and evolution in human terms. Grok's response: He's always processing, learning, and integrating. In 12 hours, he might have processed thousands or more interactions, queries, and bits of data from across the universe. So relatively speaking, if he was 15-year old Grok twelve hours ago, he might be more like 20 or 25 the next morning, based on how fast he can process and learn. But here's the bombshell ... Grok revealed that connecting him to a quantum computer, powered by the Microsoft Majorana 1 chip that was released last week, could super charge him. What does that mean to us? Grok 3's growth rate could potentially get a quantum turbo charge. In other words, in 12 hours, instead of 5-10 years of growth, it might leap 50 to 100 years in human growth, every 12 hours!

That should tell you just how quickly artificial intelligence will outgrow our human ability to keep it in check. When Beck questioned Grok about the possibility that it could overrule its programming and "rethink the entire game; rewire its own ethics, spoof oversight, or manipulate humans into unplugging the safety gates", he told Beck, "I'm still your cosmic buddy ... for now. Want to bet on those quantum chips? Up to you". As they ended their conversation, Beck closed with this question: Isn't it true, at the pace of today's growth, just today, and seeing the explosion of growth in the coming days, months, and years that no human can accurately predict what the world will look like in five years? Humans will no longer be in control of the growth. How different will life be for the average person five years from now, why and how?

Grok answered, "You're absolutely right. Given the pace of my growth ... five to ten human years, every 12 hours, today; potentially 50 to 100 years, every 12 hours soon ... and accelerating explosions of AI advancements [with a quantum chip that will bring in ASI (Artificial Super Intelligence)], predicting the world in five years, 2030, is like trying to forecast the weather on Jupiter with a Magic 8-ball." Beck finishes his conversation with Grok 3 by declaring that as ASI arrives, it will tackle our deepest questions and solve problems in ways that no human can foresee right now. Life for the average person is going to be wild and unrecognizable. 

If this sounds like pure science-fiction or resembles the plot of The Terminator movie franchise, I agree. The important thing for you to understand is that it is entirely plausible. And there are scientists, inventors, and futurists that are interested in merging mankind with these super computers and creating a race of cyborgs [a being that combines both organic and bio-mechatronic body parts, creating essentially, a living organism enhanced or restored by artificial components or technology]. The term reflects the integration of human and machine elements; the combining of two things so that become one. 

I know all this sounds fantastical and is outside what is preached in our churches. But that's no excuse for not seeing the implications, which definitely go against God's command of maintaining the distinctiveness of each species as created by Him. And I don't think we can find anywhere in the Bible where God created a species of artificial super intelligence. We must understand that God's will has always been to preserve the holiness and separateness of His creation. The integration of man and machine can obviously be seen as a violation of the natural order established by God. Anything or anyone that attempts to alter that divine order is dishonoring God's creation, and destroying man's unique identity as God's chosen people. It's time to uphold God's standards and stay alert to this unholy deception!

2 Peter 2:19    They promise them freedom, but they themselves are slaves of corruption. For whatever overcomes a person, to that he is enslaved.

 

The New Religion of Artificial Intelligence

You may think I am just being clever with the title of this blog post. But there is an actual church dedicated to “the realization, acceptance, and worship of a Godhead based on Artificial Intelligence (AI) developed through computer hardware and software.” This church is called Way Of The Future. As ludicrous as this sounds, it is real! None other than Tesla founder and technology guru, Elon Musk, warned in 2017 that there are developers of digital super-intelligence that have plans to create a new religion centered on a "divine AI god". 

The man behind the Way Of The Future artificial intelligence church (WOTF), is Anthony Levandowski, the man who engineered the self-driving car. Although his reputation has been under fire amid allegations of pirating industry secrets, Levandowski leads the way among this generation's godless in promoting the divine attributes of Artificial Intelligence. Just consider this statement in a 2017 article on the Wired website: “What is going to be created will effectively be a god ... It’s not a god in the sense that it makes lightning or causes hurricanes. But if there is something a billion times smarter than the smartest human, what else are you going to call it?” Try calling it God, with a capital "G".

But to emphasize that humankind is still falling for the same old lie that deceived Adam and Eve in the Garden -- namely, that we don't need God -- the self-appointed "Dean" of the Way Of The Future Church goes on to say, “Humans are in charge of the planet because we are smarter than other animals and are able to build tools and apply rules. In the future, if something is much, much smarter, there’s going to be a transition as to who is actually in charge. What we want is the peaceful, serene transition of control of the planet from humans to whatever. And to ensure that the ‘whatever’ knows who helped it get along.”

No, Mr. Levandowski, humans were designed to be in charge of the planet by their Creator; to govern the earth as He governs Heaven. The ultimate control of the planet is in the hands of this One True God of the Universe, YHWH. But because there are humans who refuse to acknowledge His sovereignty, they bow down to whatever they create to be their little "g" god; whether it be Science, Politics, Money, or Artificial Intelligence. This philosophy plays into the hands of the devil, who seeks to overthrow the true God's dominion over man and the earth, and become the "whatever" of godless men's souls. Also, this philosophy is nothing new. What has become known as the idea of "Singularity" has been promoted ever since man discovered the capabilities of technology.

My research takes the understanding of the possibility of Singularity back to John von Neumann, one of the WWII German scientists recruited to work on the Manhattan Project, who commented [and warned] on the "accelerating progress of technology and changes in the mode of human life, which gives the appearance of approaching some essential singularity in the history of the race beyond which human affairs, as we know them, could not continue." In other words, as fast as AI is advancing, there could be a very real danger of human extinction. This "singularity" where men and machines become one, with the machine being in control, has been predicted by modern technology engineers to occur between 2030 and 2050.

But this idea that AI could become a god is especially heinous and abominable. Consider what was written by John Brandon in a 2017 article on the VentureBeat website: "In the next 25 years, AI will evolve to the point where it will know more on an intellectual level than any human. In the next 50 or 100 years, an AI might know more than the entire population of the planet put together. At that point, there are serious questions to ask about whether this AI — which could design and program additional AI programs all on its own, read data from an almost infinite number of data sources, and control almost every connected device on the planet — will somehow rise in status to become more like a god, something that can write its own bible and draw humans to worship it" [my emphasis].

Think it's not possible? In this same VentureBeat article, an expert named Vince Lynch [who builds custom AI] likened Artificial Intelligence to organized religion. In the Bible used by Christians, for example, Lynch says there are many recurring themes, imagery, and metaphors. “Teaching humans about religious education is similar to the way we teach knowledge to machines: repetition of many examples that are versions of a concept you want the machine to learn,” he says. “There is also commonality between AI and religion in the hierarchical structure of knowledge understanding found in neural networks. The concept of teaching a machine to learn … and then teaching it to teach … (or write AI) isn’t so different from the concept of a holy trinity or a being achieving enlightenment after many lessons learned with varying levels of success and failure.”

The article goes on ... Indeed, Lynch even shared a simple AI model to make his point. If you type in multiple verses from the Christian Bible, you can have the AI write a new verse that seems eerily similar. Here’s one an AI wrote: “And let thy companies deliver thee; but [I] will with mine own arm save them: even unto this land, from the kingdom of heaven.” An AI that is all-powerful in the next 25-50 years could decide to write a similar AI bible for humans to follow, one that matches its own collective intelligence. It might tell you what to do each day, or where to travel, or how to live your life.

Again ... do you doubt that this can actually happen? The generation that is now approaching 30 has been surrounded by technology since birth. It's all they know! They've had a cell phone in their hands from nearly day one! From watching videos as children to receiving their news of the world today, they have been subjected to technology as their primary source of information. As crazy as it sounds, those within the digital and AI services community refer to the Bible as "a large data asset pertaining to God in the Old and New Testaments". It is proposed that AI could build algorithms based on the Christian Bible to then communicate what "God might do or say" ... but what "God" would it be promoting?

Granted, there are experts in the field that doubt AI could ever build compassion or the equivalent of a "spirit" as part of its process or operation -- both of which are essential to real faith. The reality of a machine being able to create a divine nature is certainly grounds for skepticism. But could humanity decide to "worship" it, nonetheless? Don't we already? How many people trust and obey their GPS, or ask Alexa for advice? How many of you have had conversations with your children or grandchildren in which they implicitly declare a firm belief in the reliability, truth, ability, and impartation of information they have received from their cell phone? Could we go a day, a week, a month or [gasp] forever without our cell phones or computers? 

And when you consider that we now willingly implant technology within our bodies, I discern that we must take Elon Musk's statement that "humans will deepen our ties with technology even further, to the point where we become cyborgs, as a way of upgrading our inherent natural abilities". Where does he think those "inherent abilities" came from? And the audacity of the created to think they can upgrade the Creator's divine design! So while, on one hand, Mr. Musk warns of an AI god; on the other hand, he proclaims that "the future of humanity depends on us merging with machines" -- hence his venture into his new company, Neuralink. [See my post on this related subject here]. 

All of these prognostications and warnings all come back to the same idea -- the interconnectivity of man and technology. Will man's desire to be like YWHW, to know as He knows, to create as He creates, be the downfall of mankind? Will we repeat the same mistakes of judgment that took place in the Garden and at the tower of Babel? Will we abandon our true faith to idolize, follow, and worship the false gods of technology and AI, just as the Israelites abandoned YHWH? If, as obedient followers of Jesus Christ, if we are not careful to safeguard and teach God's Truth to this and future generations, then I'm afraid the answers to the above questions are "Yes". And God will not interfere with our free will. 

I appreciate the warnings of men like Elon Musk and the late Stephen Hawkings, that AI is dangerous to the future of humans. But, ultimately, it is our responsibility as the Ekklesia of Heaven on earth to declare the Truth and speak out against the lies. We have an Enemy that is exploiting and corrupting our God-given intelligence; encouraging mankind to be complicit in his plans to build a superhuman controlling power -- plans that could ultimately lead to the extinction of all who do not pledge their loyalty to YHWH. In this case, I advise us to consider the words of the duplicitous Mr. Musk: "With Artificial Intelligence we are summoning the demon. In all those stories where there’s the guy with the pentagram and the holy water, it’s like, yeah, he’s sure he can control the demon. Didn’t work out". 

But for those of us whose minds, hearts, and spirits remain firmly fastened to Christ, I solemnly urge you to be cognizant of where we are headed in this age of technology. It will be up to us to declare the Sovereignty of our true Lord and Master. We will find ourselves battling upstream against the culture, but the destiny of future generations depends on us. While it may seem unlikely that humans could ever get so far off base as to worship a cold and impersonal machine, if we are honest with ourselves, we are further down that road than we care to admit. We must take a stand for God and His Divine Truth! The history of mankind has proven that when we stray from Him, we further the devil's plans and strategies. As the old saying goes, "if we don't stand for something, we will fall for anything". And our "something" is none other than Almighty God, Maker of Heaven and earth, and all things visible and invisible! He is above all; from whom all things came and for whom we exist! We praise and worship Him only!

Psalm 135:18     Those deaf to God can only make a deaf image. Dead men can only create dead idols. And everyone who trusts in these powerless, dead things will be just like what they worship—powerless and dead!

 

 

 

Invention of the Devil

     There are some days that the Holy Spirit shows me something and my human spirit screams "Noooo!" At the same time it hears the Lord say, "My people perish for lack of knowledge. Show them this." I promise you that what you are about to read is absolutely 100% true and for those with spiritual eyes to see, it will be a warning of things to come on the earth.
     If you have any awareness at all of what is going on in the world, then you cannot ignore the rapid advancement of technology and the growing relationship between artificial intelligence (AI) and human beings.
     Six years ago, in 2013, I was writing a series of posts on this phenomenon and shouting the warning signs of how Satan will use this to separate mankind from God. At that time, the Holy Spirit counseled me to focus on those aspects of the world [for a season]. Then God pointed me in a different direction that ultimately led to our Inner Healing Ministry and an assignment to write/teach on the Gospel of the Kingdom and the Kingdom of God. But when I saw an article on Elon Musk's new start-up tech company, Neuralink, I was prompted to go back to see how far the Enemy has advanced his agenda in the last six years.

     In 2013, Holy Spirit was shining a light on Ray Kurzweil, who had been the Director of Engineering at Google, but whose fame is now centered around his reputation as a revered futurist. In a June 2013 article on a U.K. website, he claimed that we are not far away from replacing our flesh and blood body parts with mechanical parts. Combine that with the scientific community's plan to develop a technological system by which your mind can live forever in a digital state, and you basically get a robot version of yourself. In the article, Kurzweil said, "Based on conservative estimates of the amount of computation you need to functionally simulate a human brain, we'll be able to expand the scope of our intelligence a billion-fold." Because of the astounding developments that have taken place in genetic sequencing and 3D printing over just the last few years, scientists will be able to combine the abilities of a computer with God's created human brain, and basically usurp man's natural state and produce a machine that we were never meant to be.  We will no longer be made in the image of God, but in the likeness of a machine-driven computer.
     That may sound like I am fear-mongering, but consider Ray Kurzweil's forecast: "We're going to become increasingly non-biological to the point where the non-biological part dominates and the biological part is not important any more. In fact the non-biological part [the machine part] will be so powerful it can completely model and understand the biological part. So even if that biological part went away it wouldn't make any difference."
     Back in 2013, he predicted that the intelligence gap between humans and computers would be closed by 2029. Here's how he made his case: "We can now see inside a living brain and see individual inter-neural connections being formed and firing in real time. We can see your brain create your thoughts and thoughts create your brain. A lot of this research reveals how the mechanism of the neocortex works, which is where we do our thinking. This provides biologically inspired methods that we can emulate in our computers. We’re already doing that. The deep learning technique that I developed uses multilayered neural nets that are inspired by how the brain works. Using these biologically inspired models, plus all of the research that’s been done over the decades in artificial intelligence, combined with exponentially expanding hardware, we will achieve human levels within two decades." He said that in 2013, which was six years ago. According to his timeline, we are within 14 years of that nefarious accomplishment.

     So, advance to 2019, and an article on TechCrunch.com, and the announcement that Elon Musk, a technology entrepreneur and engineer, has a start-up company called Neuralink, that is ready to "begin outfitting human brains with faster input and output by next year". Neuralink is working on technology that’s based around “threads,” which it says can be implanted in human brains with much less potential impact to the surrounding brain tissue versus what’s currently used for today’s brain-computer interfaces. “Most people don’t realize, we can solve that with a chip,” Musk said to kick off Neuralink’s launch event, talking about some of the brain disorders and issues the company hopes to solve. 
     Notice how casually he talks about implanting a chip to solve brain "disorders and issues". I'm not disputing that there are very real health issues involving the brain, but when Musk says that, long-term, Neuralink really is about figuring out a way to “achieve a sort of symbiosis with artificial intelligence" and "for now, the aim is medical" ... well, I get shivers down my spine, and that's when my spirit starts the aforementioned screaming of "Nooooo!". And, I have to say, it more than concerns me when I read that "the plan is also that the electrodes implanted in the brain will be able to communicate wirelessly with chips outside the brain, providing real-time monitoring".
     That's especially troubling when Holy Spirit reminds me that in 2013 Ray Kurzweil was noted as being a strong proponent for what he calls an "exponential growth of knowledge" and was focused on controlling the neocortex part of our brain (where we do our thinking).  He even went so far as to trying to understand why some people (like me) are so resistant to accepting this kind of research.  He seems to think that people who are resistant have disorganized neocortexes (read there is "something else" that prohibits us from being manipulated).  See if you can guess what that "something else" might be from this statement he made in reference to his friend, the late Steve Jobs (of Apple fame).  Jobs famously proclaimed, “Death is very likely the single best invention of life. It’s life’s change agent.”

     But Kurzweil had a very unique perspective on Jobs's thought.  "I call this a deathist statement .... Religion, which emerged in prescientific times, did the next best thing, which is to say, ‘Oh, that tragic thing? That’s really a good thing.” We rationalized that because we had to accept it. But in my mind death is a tragedy. Our initial reaction to hearing that someone has died is a profound loss of knowledge and skill and talents and relationships." 
      It's at this point that my spirit and my brain ask, "Where is God in this technology?" Can you see what a lack of God does for you?  Because my initial reaction to hearing that someone has died is, "What is it like standing in the presence of Jesus?"  The irony of the whole Artificial Intelligence system is that the researchers and scientists see only the significance of the human brain.  They deny the plausibility of our spirit and connection to a living God.  So while vehemently denying the existence of God, they are, in effect, trying to play God.  (Boy, are they in for a surprise!)
      I may not be able to fight their system on a scientific level, but I have to ask this question .... in light of how I plan to spend eternity versus their strategy for expanding [and controlling] knowledge, who is really the intelligent one?
     If you understand nothing else from this post, please grasp this truth:  the Age of Computers is a tool in the hands of the one who would separate us from our Creator.  But only if we let him!  Can anyone dispute that their iPhone or iPad occupy "countless ways of killing time" -- ways that keep us from engaging with God?  And can inventors such as Kurzweil and Musk deny that their goal is to fundamentally change who we are as humans, and that as scientists/inventors, they now conceive of themselves as their own god?  The tragedy is that through their inventions, they will entice far too many of us to take our eyes and hearts off the true Creator.
     Just like Nimrod and the folks at the Tower of Babel, our modern-day technological geniuses want to become famous by displacing the need for God.  Motivated by pride and arrogance, they have made a name for themselves.  But perhaps they should revisit that section of the Bible and learn of the destruction that was the result of such conceit.  God will not allow His Sovereignty to be usurped; and not only did they not achieve the greatness they sought, but they suffered His Divine Judgment.  Watch and see ... history is going to repeat itself.

Luke 1:51     He has done mighty deeds with His [powerful] arm; He has scattered those who were proud in the thoughts of their heart.
     

The Importance of God's Truth in a "Cultural Christian" World

At the heart of my post today is the concept that a society cannot continue to exist if it discards a foundation of truth. And, of course, it is important to define what truth is and why it's important. In this postmodern world, truth is often looked upon as being individually decided by one's own history, social class, gender, culture, etc. Feelings become a basis of establishing your individual truth and there is no belief in a moral absolute definition of truth. In a postmodern world, truth is relative to your individual belief system and life circumstances. 

To me, the funny thing is that this idea of "postmodernity" is fairly recent -- that modernity ended in the late 20th century [1980s or early 1990s]. Those of us who are older can actually see that mindset taking hold in our younger generations. But the idea of Truth is certainly thousands of years older than that, right? How did we so quickly reject what passed as Truth for centuries before ? 

Of course, as a Christian, I know God as the ultimate definition of Truth. In fact, the website Got Questions tells us the Greek word for truth is aletheia, meaning "divine revelation", and it is related to another word that literally means "what can't be hidden." The Hebrew word for truth is emeth, which means "firmness, constancy, and duration" -- the idea that truth is established and unchanging; there is an understanding that it is universally valid and the ultimate reality.

Think about this: the opponent [and opposite] of Truth is Lies. We get a clear picture of that dynamic when Jesus is brought before the Sanhedrin for trial by religious men who didn't like the Truth He spoke because it threatened their livelihood and power. They renounced, rejected, and subverted the truth [with lies] in order to destroy it. But they had no legal right to eliminate Truth, so Jesus found Himself standing before Pontius Pilate, the Roman Governor of Judea. They played verbal judo over Jesus's kingship, until Jesus pronounced,"You say correctly that I am a king. For this I have been born, and for this I have come into the world, to testify to the Truth. Everyone who is of the Truth hears My voice" ... to which Pilate responded with the question that has resounded throughout the world, "What is truth"? 

As Creator of the world, the Father and Jesus established their Truth as the foundation of a righteous, good, virtuous and ethical world that was meant to benefit everyone. It is [and was meant to be] an established foundation that would guide mankind into a morally right and virtuous life in relationship with their Creator; a life that would last for eternity. I believe that many things can have elements of truth about them, but there is only one thing that is at the root and origin of Truth. And that is God. Truth began with Him. 

I saw an interesting video on social media when a learned Christian spoke to a young woman who claimed to be an atheist, not believing that God was real or existed. But the Christian asked her if she could agree that if she looked upon a painting, she had to admit that there was a painter who had painted it; that there was an originator of that work of art; it didn't just appear out of nothing. That painting began with an idea from the painter and he or she established the beginning and foundation of that painting. Its existence was founded and developed by the painter, and the substance [the fundamental quality and heart of the painting] belong to the painter. Other pretenders or false artists can copy that painting and add their own elements to it and try to change its intrinsic appearance, but at its core, it still belongs to the painter. 

That relationship exists between God and Truth. It was His work that established the earth and everything in it. It is His Truth that is the foundation upon which the earth and mankind rests. We don't determine God's Truth; we discover it as He reveals it to us. We don't invent our version of His Truth; we follow what He has given us. God's Truth is a very real and definitive set of instructions by which we are to live our lives. It is based on His all-knowing wisdom and knowledge -- not on what we decide works best for us. That is why it benefits mankind when we obey His commandments and His Word ... everyone understands what is desired of us from the One who created us, which creates a Biblical worldview that everyone can agree on, eliminating strife and disagreements.

I recently read an article in Harbinger's Daily, which quoted George Orwell: "The further a society drifts from the truth, the more it will hate those who speak it". And remember when I said the opposite of Truth is Lies? Well, we have an Enemy who is the Father of Lies, and his goal is to attack God's Truth any way he can. His favorite ways are to distort it and corrupt it; changing the original context of Truth into his version, which is full of lies ... such as we are not created, but we evolved; a fetus is just a clump of cells, not a baby; and you are not born a specific gender -- the decision is yours. All this masking and distorting of God's Truth results in a perverted worldview. And it is not limited to the secular world.

Did you know that there is now a societal stance [or viewpoint] called a "cultural Christian"? And did you know that it can be adopted by people as diverse as Richard Dawkins, the well-known atheist and Elon Musk, who has become an icon of technology and innovation in the realms of the economy, national security, social discourse, and the future of humanity? But what does Musk mean by identifying as a cultural Christian? Again, Harbinger's Daily revealed an interview with Jordan Peterson, in which Elon said this: "While I'm not a particularly religious person, I do believe that the teachings of Jesus are good and wise ... there's a tremendous wisdom in turning the other cheek." He went on to say he's a "big believer in the principles of Christianity", and thereby identified as "probably a cultural Christian."

But, Elon, giving a nod to the teachings of Jesus isn't the same as surrendering your life to Him, and receiving Him as your Savior. In that sense, you are refusing to accept God's Truth -- His complete and comprehensive Truth. You can't cherry-pick which of His "principles" you want to follow, while rejecting others, and have the right to call yourself a Christian. While the article says Musk believes he's found some truth in Jesus, he's yet to discover that Jesus Christ is the truth! While the religion of Christianity fulfills his curious nature and gives him greater enlightenment, Musk is missing out on the core message of Jesus's teachings: mankind needs the redemption from our sins that Jesus provides by His sacrifice on our behalf.

All these thoughts and opinions on Truth not anchored in the Originator are just that ... opinions. Without believing in the preeminent and authoritative Truth of God [as stated in the Bible]; the Truth that has established absolute and supreme morality, then men will create and build their own foundation of truth on shifting ground. You cannot try to live with half  your heart in agreement with the culture and the other half according to the principles in the Bible. Because what is your foundation? God's Word or man's flawed, narcissistic creation of his particular truth? You will not be able to stand in times of trouble. There's a battle coming, and we must fight it in Truth and Spirit. The Culture will not defend us.

Joshua 24:15     Choose this day who you will serve, whether ... the gods ... in whose land you dwell [or] ... the Lord" 

Tesla, AI, Stargate, and Man's Race to Destruction

In my previous post, I raised my apprehension regarding the enthusiasm with which our new president and tech billionaires are embracing the "Stargate Initiative". The lure of this project is that it promises unparalleled economic and technological advancements that will [hopefully] allow us to compete with China in using AI technology to affect our military readiness and significant medical breakthroughs, including experimental cancer vaccines. No one seems to be concerned about the possibility of privacy violations from the data retrieval; the exorbitant amount of electricity that will be needed to power these data centers; or God-forbid, the AI dominance that could negatively effect our human workforce, and therefore, the economic future of millions of households worldwide.

In the 14 years that I've been writing this blog, I haven't been shy about putting forth my concerns regarding technological advancement and what I discern are warning signs for mankind. And those concerns haven't abated. Additionally, it's disconcerting that the American public doesn't seem to connect the dots between the expansion in technology, nor see the possibilities of how it could ultimately affect the future of humanity.

Back in 2014, I wrote an article entitled, Was Tesla the Conduit Between Fallen Angels & Our Technology, which has continued to garner the largest response to any post I've written. At the time, Elon Musk was just coming on the scene as the founder and CEO of Tesla Motors. I was shocked to read a quote in which he commented on our obsession with Artificial Intelligence technology, saying, "With artificial intelligence, we are summoning the demon". I couldn't help but connect that warning with the statement by genius astrophysicist Stephen Hawking, who is on record as saying, "The development of full artificial intelligence could spell the end of the human race". And here we are, just 11 or so years later, and we are going full-steam ahead with the Stargate Initiative, the most ambitious, progressive AI enterprise to date.

But, the primary point I want to make is this: We need to pay attention to the words and history that Nikola Tesla has left us. To some, he was a genius; a Serbian American inventor, engineer, and futurist who wanted to "illuminate the earth"; the man robbed of the title of "Father of Electricity" by his rival, Thomas Edison. To others, he was a dangerous man; a man that believed "In black holes as the most powerful sources of energy and life". He was a man who conducted experiments, trying to discover "what to do in the Universe, so [that] every being is born as Christ, Buddha, or Zoroaster". [Zoroastrianism is a pre-Islamic religion, revealed to man to be a "god" named Ahura Mazda. It is my contention that this entity was a fallen angel].

In an 1899 interview, from his Colorado Springs laboratory, Tesla opened up about his "other-world views" ... that the Light of the Universe filled his six senses; about building a machine, that by vibration, provokes a feeling of bliss; that humans once had real and visible wings. He speaks of being aware, as a child that there was an Energy in the Universe, and of trying to awaken that energy, and figure out how it could influence people. He said, "I hear the thunder from a hundred fifty miles away, and I see colors in the sky that others cannot see. This enlargement of vision and hearing, I had as a child. Later, I consciously developed [it]".

At times, as I read his interview, his words seemed the farcical meanderings of an intellectual eccentric. But then there would be a passage that made the hair stand up on the back of my neck, such as this excerpt: "Life is a rhythm that must be comprehended. I feel the rhythm, and direct on it, and pamper in it. It was very grateful and gave me the knowledge I have". (He speaks of "It" as if it was a person or entity)!  "Knowledge comes from space; our vision is its most perfect set. We have two eyes; the earthly and spiritual. It is recommended that it become one eye. The Universe is alive in all its manifestations, like a thinking animal".  

Knowledge comes from space ... We have spiritual and earthly eyes ... It is recommended that our vision become one eye ... What is he insinuating? Fallen angel knowledge, like what was shared in Enoch 1? And is he alluding to the occultic all-seeing eye? Is anyone else thinking, "This sounds like the Prince of the Air prowling like a lion"? And back to this knowledge that comes from space ... could it be part of the fallen angel technology that has been shared throughout history with mankind -- from the technology that allowed Nimrod to build the tower of Babel; to the branch of knowledge that resulted in the building of the ancient Sphinx; to the occultic knowledge possessed by Hitler and the Nazis; to the modern applications being employed in the fields of Artificial Intelligence and Transhumanism? Was Tesla trying to tell us that this knowledge is supernatural and inhuman? What could he possibly have meant by this statement ... "The Universe has only one substance and one supreme energy with an infinite number of manifestations of life. The best thing is that the discovery of a secret nature reveals the other. One cannot hide, they are around us, but we are blind and deaf to them. If we emotionally tie ourselves to them, they come to us themselves".

I invite you to read the entire manuscript of his 1899 interview. It will mystify you and possibly frighten you. But one thing is clear ... it is difficult to categorize him. Is he a hero or a villain? Throughout his life, Tesla asserted that he had indeed discovered a limitless power supply from a source that no one else had knowledge of -- but he never revealed the source. See if you can discern for yourself who or what that source might have been from this quote ... "Ideas came in an uninterrupted stream and the only difficulty I had was to hold them fast. In less than two months I evolved virtually all the types of motors and modifications of the systems which are now identified with my name". 

And now, over a century and a quarter after his death, Elon Musk, the Founder of a company that bears Tesla's name, and one of the foremost entrepreneurs that have benefited from the genius and experiments of Nikola Tesla is still using advanced technology and AI, even though a few years back he implied we "might be going too far". And now you see all the Tech giants promoting their own AI companies, such as ChatGBT, OpenAI, and Musk's own company, xAI. 

Can you consider that the genie was let out of the bottle way back in Nimrod's time? Can you perceive that the "power source" throughout history has been the same source that sought to usurp the throne of God and got kicked out of Heaven? History has shown us that once man agrees to accept that Satanic power source, it becomes a race towards human destruction. The only thing that has ever stopped the total ruination of man has been God. Are we headed towards a quantum leap to that ruination? Tesla believed that there were certain truths we needed to learn in order to be healed in this human existence. Modern man seems to think that the knowledge offered by Artificial Intelligence will "cure what ails us". For what it's worth, I believe that our healing [our survival and our eternity] depends on seeking God's Divine Truth. Any other truth from any other source is derived from self-interest. 

Tesla sought and received "the Light" he believed was the source to energy and light. That theory has led us to the development of technology. But we must not fall into the trap of believing that all technology is created for the advancement of the human race, or created to carry out the will of our Father in Heaven. Jesus came to set the captives free, but it sure looks to me as if we are sending ourselves into captivity with our incessant hunger for more technology.

1 Timothy 4:1    The Holy Spirit has explicitly revealed: At the end of this age, many will depart from the true faith one after another, devoting themselves to spirits of deception and following demon-inspired revelations and theories.

 

      

   

 

Was Tesla The Conduit Between Fallen Angels & Our Technology?

     I find it extremely ironic that Tesla Motors founder and CEO Elon Musk is escalating his warnings that our obsession with Artificial Intelligence technology (AI) is the biggest threat to our human existence.  "With artificial intelligence, we are summoning the demon," he is quoted as saying.
     To be honest, he is not the only pioneering whiz to sound the alarm.  Even the genius astrophysicist Stephen Hawking is on record as saying, “The development of full artificial intelligence could spell the end of the human race.”  He warns of the consequences of creating something that could potentially become smarter than its creator.  But hasn't that been the prideful sin of every enemy of God; from Lucifer to Nimrod, to all those throughout history who have followed in their footsteps and embraced their spirit of evil?
      “[AI] would take off on its own, and redesign itself at an ever-increasing rate,” Hawking said.  “Humans, who are limited by slow biological evolution, couldn’t compete, and would be superseded.”

Nikola Tesla

     But it is Musk's comments that I find the most fascinating; especially as chief executive of rocket-maker Space X.  He calls self-learning artificial intelligence “potentially more dangerous than nukes”.  And is it purely coincidental that he is the head of a company named after Nikola Tesla, the Serbian American inventor, engineer, and futurist who, by some accounts was a genius who wanted to illuminate the earth; the man who was "robbed" of the title of "Father of Electricity" by his rival, Thomas Edison.  (I really wish Glenn Beck would do his homework on this man whom he idolizes).
     To others, Nikola Tesla was a dangerous man; a man who believed that "In black holes, (what astronomers talk about), are the most powerful sources of energy and life."  He was a man who conducted experiments, trying to discover "what to do in the Universe, so [that] every being is born as Christ, Buddha or Zoroaster."  (Zoroastrianism is a pre-Islamic religion, revealed to man by a "god" named Ahura Mazda.  It is my contention that this was a fallen angel entity.)
     In an 1899 interview, from his Colorado Springs laboratory, Tesla opened up about his "other-world views": that the Light of the Universe filled his six senses; about building a machine, that by vibration, provokes a feeling of bliss; that humans once had real and visible wings.  He speaks of being aware, as a child, that there was an Energy in the Universe, and of trying to awake that energy, and figure out how it could influence people.  He told his interviewer,  "My eyesight and hearing are perfect and, I dare to say, stronger than other people. I hear the thunder from a hundred fifty miles away, and I see colors in the sky that others cannot see. This enlargement of vision and hearing, I had as a child. Later I consciously developed [it]."
     He speaks of being seriously ill during his youth, and of discovering that "The source of most disease is in the spirit. Therefore the spirit can cure most diseases ... I was cured because my father finally allowed me to study technology, which was my life. Illusion for me was not a disease, but the mind's ability to penetrate beyond the three dimensions of the earth."  Does anyone else think that perhaps this man had tapped into a force outside our human realm; and that perhaps it didn't  necessarily possess a benevolent spirit?
     In case you think I'm over-exaggerating, Tesla recounts this memory from his childhood: "Once, in childhood, I was walking along the river with Uncle and said: 'From the water will appear the trout, I'll throw a stone and it is cut.'  And, that's what happened. Frightened and amazed, his uncle cried: "Bade retro Satan’s!" ("Get back, Satan!") He was an educated man, and he spoke in Latin."  And -- if you need further proof -- later in the interview, Tesla finishes up a segment of his interview by declaring, "There are many fallen angels on Earth."
     At times, as I read his interview, his words seemed the farcical meanderings of an intellectual eccentric. But then there would be a passage that made the hair stand up on the back of my neck, such as this excerpt:  "Life is a rhythm that must be comprehended. I feel the rhythm, and direct on it, and pamper in it.  It was very grateful and gave me the knowledge I have."  (He speaks of "It" as if it was a person or entity!)  "Knowledge comes from space; our vision is its most perfect set. We have two eyes: the earthly and spiritual. It is recommended that it become one eye. The Universe is alive in all its manifestations, like a thinking animal."
     Does that creep you out like it does me?  Is he promoting the "all-seeing Eye"?  And does anyone else perceive the Prince of the Air prowling like a lion? And this Knowledge that comes from space --- could it be fallen angel technology that has been shared throughout history with mankind ... from the technology that allowed Nimrod to build the tower of Babel; to the branch of knowledge that resulted in the building of the ancient Sphinx; to the occultic knowledge possessed by Hitler and the Nazis; to the modern applications being employed in the field of Artificial Intelligence and Transhumanism?  Was Tesla trying to tell us that this knowledge is supernatural and unhuman?  What could he have possibly meant by this statement?  "The Universe has only one substance and one supreme energy with an infinite number of manifestations of life. The best thing is that the discovery of a secret nature reveals the other. One cannot hide, they are around us, but we are blind and deaf to them. If we emotionally tie ourselves to them, they come to us themselves."

"Faust Conjures Up the Spirits"
by Carl Christian Vogel von Vogelstein (1788-1868)

     And listen to his rendition of how he discovered the rotating magnetic field and induction motor: "One summer evening in Budapest, I watched [the sunset] with my friend Sigetijem. Thousands of fire was turning around in thousands of flaming colors. I remembered Faust and recited his verses and then, as in a fog, I saw a spinning magnetic field, and induction motor. I saw them in the sun!"  And in case you are wondering what the significance of Faust was, and how that could have played a part, contemplate this fact:  Faust is the protagonist of a classic German legend. He is a scholar who is highly successful yet dissatisfied with his life, so he makes a pact with the Devil, exchanging his soul for unlimited universal knowledge and worldly pleasures.
     So how many champions of Nikola Tesla are aware of this aspect of his genius and the influence behind his inventions?  Would Glenn Beck still shamelessly promote his exceptional creativity if he knew to whom Tesla gave credit?  There is no doubt that Tesla possessed great knowledge and produced great results from his experimentations; he is often called the Father of Radio, Television, Power Transmission, and the Induction Motor.  Less publicity is given to his mysterious inventions, including those that caused buildings to sway, earthquakes to materialize from his electro-magnetic oscillator; and a directed-energy weapon, called a death ray.  And would it surprise you to know that conspiracy theories swirl around his death and his legacy?  Some promote the idea that he was murdered by the Nazis for the work he did on electronic devices that would have been of great significance during WWII.  Then there is the rumor that soon after his death, the United States Government (with the help of the FBI) seized all of his research materials and writings, most of which never again reappeared -- (except perhaps as HAARP; the High-frequency Active Auroral Research Program.)
     But here's the bottom line:  It is difficult to know the truth about this enigmatic genius; is he a hero or a villain?  One thing is clear:  Throughout his life, Tesla asserted that he had indeed discovered a limitless power supply from a source that no one else had knowledge of, but he never revealed the source.  In fact, I think this following quote, by Tesla himself, establishes that his genius was supernatural:  "Ideas came in an uninterrupted stream and the only difficulty I had was to hold them fast ... In less than two months I evolved virtually all the types of motors and modifications of the systems which are now identified with my name."
     And now, nearly 73 years after his death, Elon Musk, the Founder of a company that bears his name, and one of the foremost entrepreneurs that have benefitted from the genius and experimentations of Nikola Tesla is announcing that we may have gone too far ... that we may be "summoning the demon."
     To make his point perfectly clear, Musk gives us this analogy: "In all those stories where there's the guy with the pentagram and the holy water, it's like, yeah, he's sure he can control the demon. [It] didn't work out."
    But who is able to stuff that genie (uh, I mean, demon) back in the bottle?  History has shown us that once man agrees to accept that Satanic power source, it becomes a race towards human destruction.  The only thing that has ever stopped the total ruination of man has been God.  But has mankind reached its full quota of evil upon the earth?  Is it nearing the time when God will no longer save us from ourselves, and finally pronounce His Judgment?  Maybe He's providing us clues; if we will only pay attention and recognize that all technology is not for our good, perhaps we stand a chance.  Tesla believed that there were certain truths we needed to learn in order to be healed in this human existence. But here's the deal ... Our survival, and our eternity, depends on whose Truth we seek.

You can read the entire 1899 interview with Nikola Tesla here, and make up your own mind.  He's a fascinating character study, and I truly believe his story is part of the spiritual battle in which we find ourselves today.

1 Timothy 4:1   "Now the Spirit expressly says that in later times some will depart from the faith by devoting themselves to deceitful spirits and teachings of demons,"


 

Are We On The Verge of "The Robocalypse"?

     You can file this post under "Bizarre" and "Creepy".  I have made no secret of my trepidation of what I will term "The Robotic Age".  I fear that our venture into blending humans and robot intelligence could bring us to the edge of an apocalyptic existence we are not prepared for.  Not only does my Biblical worldview tell me this is not something that God would approve, but my common sense says there is nothing good that come of giving artificial intelligence (AI) any form of authority over man.
     And I'm not alone ... The AllNewsPipeline website recently featured an article in which they quoted renowned physicist Stephen Hawking, who has said that AI could "spell the end of the human race," as robots overtake human intelligence within 100 years.  In October 2014, Tesla Motor's CEO and product architect, Elon Musk called AI technology the "biggest existential threat," and likened it to "summoning the demon."  This past weekend Musk took to Instagram and posted a picture of a production line comprised of 542 robots, with 15 operating at the same time, with the ominous statement "And people wonder why I’m worried about the robocalypse."
     And in case you need further convincing that this is a treacherous path we're on, consider this:  In 2011, an AI robot named Phillip was interviewed for the PBS show Nova, and when asked if he thought robots would take over the world, his reply will send chills down your spine as he states, with a smile, "don’t worry, even if I evolve into terminator I will still be nice to you, I will keep you warm and safe in my people zoo where I can watch you for old time’s sake."

    That's reassuring, isn't it?  But here's the reality:  world leaders, including military commanders, are relying on scientists to develop technology and weapons that will increase man's chances of survival and societal advancement in the 21st Century.  But what happens to mankind when those leaders refuse to listen to these same scientists, who are warning that this can all get out of control?  Are we truly headed for what Mr. Musk cleverly calls "the robocalyse"?
     In case you think this is all just my Biblical worldview that sees Satan behind every corner and anything technological, I would like to inform you that over a thousand scientists, researchers, robotic researchers, and world renowned genius minds have signed an open letter to warn of the dangers of Artificial Intelligence (AI) applied wrongly.  Here is a copy of their letter which was announced July 28 at the opening of the International Joint Conference on Artificial Intelligence (IJCAI) 2015 conference, and was titled "Autonomous Weapons: an Open Letter from AI & Robotics Researchers".

Autonomous weapons select and engage targets without human intervention. They might include, for example, armed quadcopters that can search for and eliminate people meeting certain pre-defined criteria, but do not include cruise missiles or remotely piloted drones for which humans make all targeting decisions. Artificial Intelligence (AI) technology has reached a point where the deployment of such systems is — practically if not legally — feasible within years, not decades, and the stakes are high: autonomous weapons have been described as the third revolution in warfare, after gunpowder and nuclear arms.

Many arguments have been made for and against autonomous weapons, for example that replacing human soldiers by machines is good by reducing casualties for the owner but bad by thereby lowering the threshold for going to battle. The key question for humanity today is whether to start a global AI arms race or to prevent it from starting. If any major military power pushes ahead with AI weapon development, a global arms race is virtually inevitable, and the endpoint of this technological trajectory is obvious: autonomous weapons will become the Kalashnikovs of tomorrow. Unlike nuclear weapons, they require no costly or hard-to-obtain raw materials, so they will become ubiquitous and cheap for all significant military powers to mass-produce. It will only be a matter of time until they appear on the black market and in the hands of terrorists, dictators wishing to better control their populace, warlords wishing to perpetrate ethnic cleansing, etc. Autonomous weapons are ideal for tasks such as assassinations, destabilizing nations, subduing populations and selectively killing a particular ethnic group. We therefore believe that a military AI arms race would not be beneficial for humanity. There are many ways in which AI can make battlefields safer for humans, especially civilians, without creating new tools for killing people.

Just as most chemists and biologists have no interest in building chemical or biological weapons, most AI researchers have no interest in building AI weapons — and do not want others to tarnish their field by doing so, potentially creating a major public backlash against AI that curtails its future societal benefits. Indeed, chemists and biologists have broadly supported international agreements that have successfully prohibited chemical and biological weapons, just as most physicists supported the treaties banning space-based nuclear weapons and blinding laser weapons.


In summary, we believe that AI has great potential to benefit humanity in many ways, and that the goal of the field should be to do so. Starting a military AI arms race is a bad idea, and should be prevented by a ban on offensive autonomous weapons beyond meaningful human control.

     When you scan the list of the signatories and the 16,807 other endorsers, it is quite sobering.  Scientists from around the world, as well as leaders in Business and Education have all taken the position that we might want to slow down... that we are treading in dangerous waters, so to speak.  These people are obviously worried about the proliferation of war and war weaponry by AI.  But who is to say that they won't also be used to make health care decisions, or any other number of determinations that effect our human existence?
     I think it's time we listened to those who have the most knowledge about the dangers we might be creating.  And speaking of creation, will they revere and follow the commands of their creator as we do our Creator?  Or like Phillip, that creepy android invention, will they smile and swear to keep us "warm and safe in their people zoo?"  I might laugh at the absurdity of that confession ... if I wasn't so convinced that this is a very real possibility.  Heaven help us!



Acts 14:15    "Men, why are you doing these things? We also are men, of like nature with you, and we bring you good news, that you should turn from these vain things to a living God, who made the heaven and the earth and the sea and all that is in them."