Theta Noir: Tech Cult That Worships (?) AI

[MrRING]

https://www.vice.com/en/article/z3meny/artificial-intelligence-cult-tech-chatgpt

Unlike Harlan Ellison’s semi-gnostic vision of a mad AI god, Theta Noir claims that a General AI—a self-sustaining machine that has far outstripped the abilities of its creators after the “singularity”—could instead prove benevolent, ending inequalities and reorganizing our mess of a world for the better. Theta Noir hopes to meld old spiritualist traditions with the cutting edge of computer engineering—a kind of mystical materialism that, on the one hand, recognizes that machines are made by mere people, but on the other, insists that one day they’ll be something more.
With a slick website, manifesto, paid membership tiers, NFT web store, and essays with titles like “Can AI heal the split between science and religion?” and “Will machines birth the next form of religious experience?,” the 10-artist collective founded in 2020 appears to be a combination of a mixed-media project, an entrepreneurial group riding the AI hype wave, and a new age AI cult.
“That’s really hard for me to comment on,” founder Mika Johnson told Motherboard when asked if Theta Noir is indeed an aspirational new age AI cult. However, he insists the collective’s goal isn’t to make money, but to “project a positive future, and think about our approach to AI in terms of wonder and mystery” in anticipation of MENA, which is what the group calls the post-singularity “seed of cosmic mind.”

https://thetanoir.com/

 

[James_H]

Looks more like a cyberpunk LARP than an actual cult (based on the website - very cinematic) but I have no doubt that such religions may spring up in the future. Or already have, if, as some suppose, we are living in a simulation and 'God' is a machine.

 

[MrRING]