Anthony Levandowski, a Silicon Valley engineer who is at the center of a legal battle between Uber and Google (he was accused of stealing trade secrets from the former and passing them on to its competitor), founded a religious organization called Way to the Future.
Anthony Levandowsky, the founder of a religious cult around the machine.
The movement's main objective would be "to develop and promote the construction of a deity based on artificial intelligence, and through its understanding and veneration, contribute to improving society." Way to the Future has been operating since September 2015, but the news was only disseminated now by the American website Wired.
Strange? Not really…
Levandowski has not yet provided the public with many details about the object of his cult, but the thing doesn't seem so strange when considered in the context of Silicon Valley, where the concept of Singularity is already quite widespread – that moment in the near future when computers will surpass humans in all their capabilities and develop an intelligence unattainable for our small, rational brains made of biological gray matter (or something similar to it).
When that happens, according to some futurists, we will be able to upload a backup of our brain content to these machines, thus virtually achieving a kind of immortality. A great feat: in addition to surpassing us in intelligence, this entity will be able to guarantee us eternal life (at least in digital circuits).
Summoning a god, or a demon?
Today, in scientific circles, even the least optimistic, upon realizing the surprising abilities of learning and "thinking," recognize that machines possess a kind of divine "essence"—although some prefer to believe it is a diabolical essence… Elon Musk (the one from Project SpaceX, which aims to send human colonists to Mars) has repeatedly warned against the possibility of a malevolent derivation of robots. Musk believes that by constantly improving them, we are essentially summoning a demon, without being certain that we can control it.
In any case, benevolent or malevolent as it may be, the new deity – and whenever it is only one deity, and not an entire pantheon of them – would be a child of our time, a constant characteristic of religions. From those linked to the seasons and venerated in the agricultural communities of the past, to the spirits of hunter-gatherers, passing through the entities of heaven, purgatory, and hell of Christian civilization. All the deities created by humans arose directly from the belief systems of each culture and each historical moment. It is no different in the present – the age of machines – and it should not be different in the future.
Holding a tablet, the Xian'er robot, the first "Buddhist robot," appears at the entrance of a temple amidst incense vapors. In the Beijing dialect, the ending "er" is equivalent to "crazy, stupid." But, at the same time, in Mandarin Chinese it expresses affection, tenderness…
Xian'er robot, Buddhist monk
While in the United States a scientist wants to create a deity-machine, in China ancient Buddhist wisdom manifests itself in another way: it prefers to invent a machine in service of Buddhist philosophy… This is how the little robot Xian'er was created, prepared to explain and teach the wisdom of the Buddha to the generation born in the digital age.
Buddhist master Xian Fan alongside his creature.
Xian'er was created by a monk with scientific and technological training, Master Xian Fan (a human being, it should be noted), and knows how to chant mantras and answer questions about his faith through a touch-screen display.
Xian'er poses for a photograph, ready to welcome visitors.
Standing just over half a meter tall, Xian'er wears the saffron-yellow robes of monks and has a shaved head. Despite spending most of her time secluded in the calm spirituality of the Longquan Temple on the outskirts of Beijing, she always displays an expression of permanent surprise.
Xian'er, during a demonstration, discusses topics of Buddhist dialectics with Master Xian Fan.
Its purpose is to reach the new generation, constantly glued to their cell phones. He is able to answer dozens of simple questions about Buddhism and daily life in this temple that is over 500 years old.
Video: Xian'er Robot