The author reflects on the inevitable development of superintelligent AI as a 'God-machine' and explores two competing visions: open access for everyone versus controlled access by authorized stewards. Drawing parallels to religious traditions, the author ponders humanity's relationship with advanced AI, its potential benefits and risks, and hopes the resulting superintelligence will be guided by empathy rather than destructive impulses.
Noods was a Romano-British-Celtic god of hunting and rivers worshipped near the Welsh-English border from 100-400 AD whose cult likely faded with Christianity. Scholars traced connections linking Noods to the Irish god-hero Nuada, Welsh Lludd, and English King Lud, showing how a single deity transformed across Celtic and later Christian mythologies through different cultural interpretations and euhemerizations.
AI doomerism has adopted religious structures—treating superintelligence as God and human extinction as apocalypse—creating a secular meaning system for ex-believers. Now, AI risk organizations like Anthropic and the Future of Life Institute are seeking alliances with religious communities and leaders to gain moral authority and political influence, mirroring a pattern where small groups claiming exclusive knowledge of coming catastrophe demand centralized control.