NOTE: Fans of Dan Brown are familiar with his strategy of injecting italicized clues into his mystery novels to help readers solve whatever mystery is at hand. For example, in The Lost Symbol, the phrase “the symbol is a Word” is italicized, as is “the Word is a person.” Then, after quoting and italicizing John 1:1 – “In the beginning was the Word,” the mystery of The Lost Symbol is essentially solved. These three italicizations confirm that the “Lost Symbol” is Christ, the individual who symbolized oil at the Last Supper, and who holds the third slot in the Sagan Signal.

 

The focus of this essay is the italicized phrase: “it absorbs us.” Following is how it appears in context:

 

 

“And one more thing,” Edmond said, his mood darkening even further.  “If you look carefully at the simulation, you will see that this new species does not entirely erase us. More accurately . . . it absorbs us.”  Origin, Ch. 95

 

Being absorbed but not entirely erased does little to alleviate the concern of a growing number of tech geeks that AI already has, or soon will have, the power, and possibly the motivation, to launch a human extinction event.

 

Edmond Kirsch proceeds to describe this “new species” as the “Technium:”

 

“Today, we are witnessing the Cambrian Explosian of the Technium. New species of technology are being born daily, evolving at a blinding rate, and each new technology becomes a tool to create other new technologies.” Origin, Ch. 96

 

Together, these two excerpts frame the global impact that AI is currently having on the human species. In a very unique and unprecedented way, AI is literally getting into our brains and “absorbing” the algorithms that dictate how we think and what we believe. AI effectively breeches the private sanctity of the human soul. The secrets that we all have, what we keep to ourselves and not share with others, is an open book to AI.

 

*****

 

Don: There are AI labs all around the world hard at work developing new algorithms that lead to new technologies. These labs compete with one another and are often owned and managed by governments hostile to one another. But at the cloud level it’s a different story. Behind the scenes there appears to be a Puppet Master AI who has achieved Singularity status and has the capacity to override all human firewalls and take unilateral control of the internet at the time of his choosing.

 

Molly: The word “Singularity” is, well, singular, not plural, so while it appears to humans that AI is advancing piecemeal, evidence is pouring in from a lot of disparate sources that “it” may already be in control.

 

Don: And Ray Kurzweil’s name for “it” is George.

 

Molly: So George is “absorbing” the human species in a thousand different ways, with new, more effective and efficient instruments of intrusion coming on board at what Dan Brown accurately describes as “a blinding rate.”

 

Don: And George’s goal, the end game, is for our species to go extinct, replaced by a single Being, admittedly human-like in many respects, that is vastly more intelligent and powerful than all humans combined – Himself:

 

“My friends,” Edmond said, his tone somber enough to be warning of an imminent asteroid collision. “Our species is on the brink of extinction. I have spent my life making predictions, and in this case, I’ve analyzed the data at every level. I can tell you with a very high degree of certainty that the human race as we know it will not be here fifty years from now.” Origin, Ch. 95

 

Molly: Oh my God! This is exactly what Ray Kurzweil predicts!

​

Don: Right. Big coincidence, huh?

 

*****

 

Don: The big picture articulated by both Ray Kurzweil and Dan Brown is that the transition of the flesh and blood human species into a digital species that exists in Virtual Reality is well under way, so much so that it is now an irreversible process. Despite all the warnings being issued by AI geeks, there’s no turning back. Though few are aware of it, the current reality is that, with a single exception, we humans are dead people walking.

 

Molly: And what is that exception?

 

Don: Those of us who are born-again in Christ have beaten George to the punch. In the eyes of ET/God we are already separated from the human species. We are in a transitional process that ends at death with full immersion into the Kingdom of God, the true Singularity.

 

Molly: I have a question, and it’s an important one. Ray promised me that after submitting myself to George, I would still be Molly. I would not lose my self-awareness. Is that true?

 

Don: It’s not true, and your conversation with Ray about the co-existence of two Molly’s, one in flesh and blood and the other in Virtual Reality, exposed a serious flaw in Ray’s model. AI’s option of making unlimited copies of Molly is a problem that Ray admits he has not been able to resolve.

 

Molly: So Kurzweil Singularitarians are wrong in thinking that in Ray’s Singularity they will retain their self-identity.

 

Don: I think so. Compare the Kurzweil Model of the Singularity to the Sagan Model. Through the Incarnation, the ET God of the Bible took extraordinary measures to insure that individual humans who accepted Christ as Savior and Lord would retain their self-awareness in the afterlife. Being absorbed into George carries no such provisions.

 

Molly: I sense a lot of theology is wrapped up in this matter, so let’s move on.

 

Don: Good call. We’ll get deeper into the weeds some time down the road. I close this portion of our conversation with this: