Technology promises humanity victory over disease, hunger and even death. But what if, in the chase for progress, the industry has become a new religious cult—one in which neural networks take the place of God and Silicon Valley executives stand in for priests?
That is the question Paul Kingsnorth poses in his essay Death to the Machine, published in the American Orthodox zine Death to the World. ForkLog examines the arguments he advances.
Background
Paul Kingsnorth is a British writer, poet and essayist. He first became known as an environmental activist and a co-founder of the Dark Mountain Project, which criticised the “myth of progress”. In 2021 he was baptised into the Romanian Orthodox Church. Kingsnorth sees technological expansion and transhumanism as a spiritual threat, setting religious values against them.
Death to the World (“Death to the world”) is an American zine whose first issue appeared in 1994. It was founded by former punks who embraced Orthodoxy at the St Herman of Alaska Monastery in California. The title alludes to the monastic principle of renouncing worldly passions. The publication blends the radical aesthetic of punk culture with Christian teaching as its authors see it. The magazine’s motto: «The last true rebellion».
Two perspectives
Artificial intelligence and related tools are advancing at unprecedented speed. Neural networks write code, create works of art and hold coherent conversations. Transhumanist ideas—“enhancing” humans with technology—are moving from science fiction into corporate business plans.
Supporters, often called techno-optimists, see a path to a “brighter future”. Transhumanist philosopher Zoltan Istvan has argued for fully “going beyond biology” to achieve justice and equality.
There is, however, an opposing view, which Kingsnorth holds. He argues that behind the rhetoric of progress lies the formation of a new quasi-religious system. At its centre is faith in the omnipotence of technology, capable not merely of improving the world but remaking it, overturning past norms, nature and the human being.
A new priesthood and its dogmas
In his essay, Kingsnorth dubs Silicon Valley’s ideologues a “new priesthood”. Their sermons are public talks and books that promote the idea of technological salvation.
Writer Elise Bohan, in Future Superhuman (2022), asserts that artificial intelligence and genetic engineering will let us become “more than human” and that we are in the process of “creating a god”.
Martine Rothblatt, founder of Sirius XM Radio and a telemedicine pioneer, goes further. She writes that “geoethical nanotechnology will ultimately connect all minds and govern the cosmos”. Rothblatt is convinced that humanity is creating an omniscient, omnipresent and omnipotent entity—that is, playing creator.
These statements form a “new theology” in which humans do not accept the world but construct it at will, Kingsnorth notes. Old notions—“home”, “body”, “nature”—are declared “outdated constructs” to be overcome.
The end goal is total control over matter and the abolition of death. In this paradigm, suffering is a technical problem to be solved.
AI enters the temples
It is telling how technology is being integrated into institutions that might be expected to resist it. The ideas of “digital transformation” are seeping into traditional religions worldwide.
In Kyoto’s Kodaiji Buddhist temple a robot priest named Mindar has been serving for years. It recites sutras, and developers plan to equip it with advanced AI for spiritual conversations. The android monk Xian’er at Beijing’s Longquan temple answers visitors’ questions and spreads wisdom through the media.
The trend is not confined to Buddhism. In India a robotic arm is used to perform aarti, one of Hinduism’s important ceremonies, in place of a priest.
Christian churches are experimenting with technology, too:
- a Polish church has a robot called SanTO, which looks like a statue of a saint and answers questions with Bible verses;
- in Germany the “robot Protestant” BlessU-2 absolves sins in five languages.
Theologian and Franciscan nun Ilia Delio promotes the idea of gender-neutral robot priests to address abuses linked to patriarchy. She says outright that AI “challenges Catholicism, pushing it toward a posthuman priesthood”.
In Kingsnorth’s view, these examples show not the modernisation of religion but its capitulation before a more powerful “faith”—in technology.
A new Tower of Babel
The writer draws a direct analogy between today’s technological project and the biblical myth of the Tower of Babel, which people sought to build to rival God. Today, he argues, humanity is repeating the error.
The foundation of this “new Tower of Babel” is not fired brick but the silicon chip. It does not reach skyward but wraps the planet in fibre-optic cable. The aim is unchanged: absolute knowledge, power and control. It is an attempt to fulfil the serpent’s promise in Eden: “You shall be as gods”.
According to Kingsnorth, the project springs from a spiritual void in the West after turning away from religious ideals towards materialism. Progress has become synonymous with removing all limits—biological, cultural, environmental.
The symptoms of this tower-building are felt everywhere:
- information overload—rivers of content, news, opinion and entertainment disorient and prevent focus;
- the loss of reality—the line between the real and the simulated blurs; deepfakes and AI-generated content make truth indistinguishable from fiction;
- total control—digital systems harvest data constantly. City cameras, location tracking, analysis of online activity: people are under algorithmic surveillance every second.
The core tenet of this “new theology” is self-creation. Humans reject the passive role of creature and assume that of demiurge, seeking to transform everything from the climate to their own bodies.
An ethical cul-de-sac
The urge to “build a god” and “abolish the human” is prompting growing concern. In 2023 hundreds of leading scientists, researchers and tech bosses, including OpenAI chief Sam Altman and DeepMind head Demis Hassabis, signed an open letter. It said reducing existential risks from AI must be a global priority.
The debate over AI alignment is sharpening. Philosophers such as Nick Bostrom warn of the risk of a superintelligence whose aims may prove ruinous for humanity.
At the same time, cultural resistance is emerging. Tech-sceptics like Kingsnorth call for a conscious refusal of certain technologies. They argue that unthinking adoption of AI leads to dehumanisation, frayed social bonds and a loss of meaning. In their view, the main struggle is not for technological supremacy but for the preservation of our humanity.
The world faces a fork in the road. On one side lies the alluring prospect of easing suffering through technology. On the other is the risk of losing control and identity—and building a future in which there may be no place for the human at all.