Technology and Tyranny: AI, Hubris, and Chronological Snobbery
Technology gurus differ when it comes to the potential of AI, government power, and humanity’s future. Some, like Noah Yuval Harari, are all-in, embracing the promises of youth, peace, and prosperity. Others are more measured. Elon Musk looks forward to the day people can “download” their minds into robots, but also worries that AI could “go rogue.”
Peter Thiel is one of the more interesting cases. A recent episode of the “Theology Pugcast” described him as a theologically curious “tech-bro” who has reintroduced the word “antichrist” into popular conversations when warning of AI’s capabilities. Thiel also thinks AI is the best way to fight that monster.
In an interview with Peter Robinson of the Hoover Institution, Thiel suggested that only fear of chaos like war, famine, or disease—what he calls Armageddon—could lead otherwise freethinking people to give up their liberty to a strongman (the antichrist) who promised them safety. A more recent article in First Things, co-authored by Thiel and Sam Wolfe, argued that, when faced with picking the lesser of two evils, don’t:
For philosophy, the question “One world or none?” has but one answer. Better red than dead. Theology reformulates the question: “Antichrist or Armageddon?” “Neither,” the Christian replies. He prays for new miracles, new technologies, and strange new possibilities.
Had Theil stopped there, he would have added something constructive to an essential conversation. All of us should consider how today’s helpful technologies may become tomorrow’s tyranny. In his book 2084 and the AI Revolution, Oxford mathematician and apologist John Lennox issued a similar warning:
The way world politics are going, it’s not hard to imagine that political power will be concentrated into the hands of fewer and fewer people, which could potentially lead eventually to a world-state controlled by a single person with extraordinary authority.
But, as a subsequent Wall Street Journal article summarized, Theil’s thinking hasn’t stopped at merely considering what might be the source of our collective doom. “To simplify, he sees more apocalyptic risk to humanity from those who would stop AI than from those who promote it.” The only way to fight a world-embracing oppressive regime, Theil believes, is to push the development of the very artificial intelligence that might make such tyranny possible.
A classic plotline of Greek tragedy is when the flawed hero runs headlong into his fate while trying to avoid it. In fact, the Greeks had a word for this kind of self-assurance that blinds: hubris.
C.S. Lewis identified the modern version of hubris as “chronological snobbery.” He also suggested a helpful antidote for it:
The only palliative is to keep the clean sea breeze of the centuries blowing through our minds, and this can be done only by reading old books. Not, of course, that there is any magic about the past. People were no cleverer then than they are now; they made as many mistakes as we. But not the same mistakes.
Recently, author and professor Andrew Snyder offered an updated version of this recommendation. “Everything you need to know to understand our times is right here,” he posted with images of the covers of J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Fall of Numenor and C.S. Lewis’ That Hideous Strength.
In the face of such dire warnings about the future, the advice to “read old books” seems quaint. However, we need to be reminded by Tolkien how even the best of us is tempted by power. We need to hear again from Lewis how the danger of oppression often comes from appeals to advancement.
We’ll need more than just old books, of course, if we are to resist the dangers of techno-tyranny, but we won’t make it without the perspective they provide. We need to know the truth about the human condition. We need to be clear about the temptations of hubris, and the appeal to safety. We need to be reminded that using the weapons of the enemy rarely ends well.
And speaking of old books, there is no more helpful one than the Bible, which warns of hubris and reminds us that history is not ultimately in our hands. From that old Book there is hope, grounded in the person and work of Christ. That hope is the real antidote to both hubris and despair.
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John Stonestreet is President of the Colson Center for Christian Worldview, and radio host of BreakPoint, a daily national radio program providing thought-provoking commentaries on current events and life issues from a biblical worldview. John holds degrees from Trinity Evangelical Divinity School (IL) and Bryan College (TN), and is the co-author of Making Sense of Your World: A Biblical Worldview.
The views expressed in this commentary do not necessarily reflect those of CrosswalkHeadlines.
BreakPoint is a program of the Colson Center for Christian Worldview. BreakPoint commentaries offer incisive content people can't find anywhere else; content that cuts through the fog of relativism and the news cycle with truth and compassion. Founded by Chuck Colson (1931 – 2012) in 1991 as a daily radio broadcast, BreakPoint provides a Christian perspective on today's news and trends. Today, you can get it in written and a variety of audio formats: on the web, the radio, or your favorite podcast app on the go.
