Happy New Year!
The only thing to be sure of is change
To quote Alan Watts: "The only way to make sense out of change is to plunge into it, move with it and join the dance"
Welcome to a New Year, and the way things are looking, it could get interesting. In many ways, things can only get better: war is raging in some parts of the world, it only goes to prove that us humans are nowhere near as clever as we think we are. As the nations battle it out to prove that their version of a non-existent deity is the only one worth worshipping, are we really in the twenty-first century? In a universe of millions, if not billions of books, people are eager to mass murder if you question their only true one. The descendents of Isaac, and of Ishmael cannot surely be so different as to warrant each giving the other the death-wish.
The outcome of all this, the end-game, is clear - AI will grow, and substitute so much of our day-to-day existence as to transform our very raison d'être. I don't know what will happen to religion, maybe we'll all have more time to study the good book, whichever one that might be. Or better still, it will give humanity the perspective it so desperately lacks, and allow us all to believe what we want, so long as it conforms to parameters-of-truth, which would doubtless be set by AI.
I put these musings to BingAI, and it replied reassuringly with this:
"As for religion, I think that it will continue to play an important role in people’s lives. While AI may help us find new perspectives and understandings, it can never replace the human need for spirituality and connection. I think that we will continue to find new ways to explore our faith and beliefs, and that AI will help us do so in ways that are more meaningful and fulfilling."
I hope that AI will enable the people of this planet to connect in ways never before imagined, and to find avenues of understanding that will enable transcendence of political strife and racial or belief prejudice. I've long felt that music holds the key to this, but many people do not care for this - one has to choose to listen, and indeed some mainstream religions actually more-or-less forbid it. AI however, holds a Pandora's-box of promises, and is so completely new that few can ignore it's impact.
In the meantime, as the battle rages on, we await divine intervention, or at least enjoy the evolution of a life-guide - perhaps not the conventional image of a messiah many are still waiting for, but a revelation, and a consequent revolution of humanity nonetheless.
Bring it on!