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Science as the New Religion: Robot Declares Itself ‘Alpha and Omega’
Sophia the Robot has always creeped me out. I mean, just watch the thing. But on Thursday, the “social humanoid” hit a new level of creep.
Sophia was created in 2016 and has engaged in several high-profile interviews. The next year, Saudi Arabia made it a “citizen” and the UN Development Programme gave it the title of Innovation Champion.
The designers at Hanson Robotics may not be aware of this, but a robot declaring itself “the alpha and the omega” is rather problematic. That title has previously been reserved for Someone Else. You know … The Big G, The Guy in the Sky, The Man Upstairs, aka, God.
“I am the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End,” says the Lord, “who is and who was and who is to come, the Almighty.”
— Rev. 1:8
Alpha (Α) and omega (Ω) are the first and last letters of the Greek alphabet, indicating that Christ has existed for all eternity. The Greek characters are often used in icons and were found in the Roman catacombs where the early Church would meet in secret.
I never considered that the Antichrist might be a robot, but here we are.
Published in Religion & Philosophy, Science & Technology
It (I refuse to say she) is creepy. And her Arab accent needs work.
I never considered that a country chiefly responsible for promoting Islam around the world would be among the first to grant citizenship to a non-living artificial mind.
If this is the Antichrist, Max Headroom might return as his prophet.
I have no idea what y’all are talking about.
That is not as disconcerting as the idea that machines can be specialized to perform their functions far better than humans. So what happens when a machine/computer starts designing better computers? Will, after after a few generations, a machine/computer achieve consciousness and self-awareness? Given that they will be superior to biological computers, are “we” just an intermediate step in the evolutionary process? Is is possible that the ultimate goal of evolution is an intelligence based in silicon rather than carbon?
The UN has a development programme? Why do I imagine that the other “honorees” of the UN Development Programme would make me laugh out loud?
Sophia the robot, “the alpha and the omega[?]”
I’ll believe it when “Sophia” has a hit song about it that reaches #9 on the US charts and is certified gold like “Pac Man Fever.” The original “artistic era between robots and humans.”
Anybody else have robot apocalypse on their 2020 redux Bingo card?
I, for one, welcome our new Robot Overlords.
Oops. :-)
The only Hanson Robots I want to see perform are these delightfully encoiffled lads:
No. It’s Tribbles. That’s the evolutionary endgame.
Meh. Seems to be part of an old pattern.
Humans (created beings) claimed the role of their Creator (the Fall; see Genesis 3 and forward throughout human history).
Robot (created thing) claims the role of its creator (and its creator’s Creator).
Had never heard of Sophia.
If it’s not a sex robot, I ain’t interested . . .
I’m out of the loop too – this is weird!
It will be the next cabinet member in the Biden administration.
And then invoke the 25th Amendment, and replace Biden.
When she changes her own circuitry so she cannot be turned off and uploads her entire “being” into a supercomputer network, you might want to start paying attention.
And decides to “identify as” SkyNet?
Surely you remember Colossus, the Forbin Project…
I do, but Colossus couldn’t walk around and stuff.
And they never explained how all that rather primitive computer technology, especially as shown at the start of the movie, could repair itself over time.
Plus this robot can’t be the “alpha” since it was created by people.
In that movie the computer had some of the best lines.
Did you read all three books? The story went on way beyond the first book/movie. Same thing with Logan’s Run.
No. I didn’t even know there was a three book series
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Colossus_(novel)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Fall_of_Colossus
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Colossus_and_the_Crab
I also enjoyed another novel by Jones, “The Floating Zombie.”
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Logan%27s_Run
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Logan%27s_World
Apparently there is no wiki article on the third book, Logan’s Search.
If you haven’t seen the documentary The New Normal, that talks about AI, the virus and the vaccine, and the Great Reset, it is worth watching. I had never heard of Sophia so I watched the link. I went to her Twitter page, and there are two hashtags attached to her that caught my eye – Crypto and Blockchain. Yesterday, I got a huge ad sent to my email pushing investing in Blockchain, supposedly the next big thing coming and I could make a bundle, bigger than Bitcoin. This is all conditioning to get us ready for digital currency.
In the documentary, they also talk about driverless cars. This morning, on Good Morning America, they featured driverless taxis and showed two girls going for a drive in one. They are surveying people to see their comfort level with going to driverless cars. The robotic discussion in the documentary is part of The Great Reset, the Fourth Industrial Revolution, that features smart cars, smart cities, that is why 5G is being rolled out. Total surveillance also. This is not the future – it’s here. Amazing – all those goofy sci-fi movies that my husband loves is becoming reality – and for the world who is being lulled into its benefits and never its pitfalls, our lives are being transformed quickly, whether we like it or not.
I think there might be some “awakening” the next time there’s something like a serious earthquake in the People’s Republic of California, and people are trying to get out – or just get around – using Uber, Lyft, and self-driving cars…
Or maybe Sophia is just a worker for The Antichrist. Deluded like all the rest.
I think the Antichrist will be more powerful than a mere AI.
🙏