One can only wonder what would have happened if the tech elites had heeded the prophetic warning of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. In 1965, he warned that unless guided by God’s spirit, modern technology could transform our society into a “devastating Frankenstein” bringing our earthly life to ashes.
Now some 60 years later I find myself attempting to walk in King’s footsteps, without his brilliance, but still struggling to tell the same story in my new book, “The Rise and Fall of the Techno-Messiah. Technology and the End Times.”
It continues King’s warning of the danger of our machine culture displacing authentic humans made in the image of God with robots — artificial human substitutes — made in the image of humans, many of whom harbor deep biases of racism, sexism and encoded inequality.
This strange vision of the possible tragic consequences of a godless technology was not something this writer pursued. It was a strange prophetic encounter that pursued me to try to understand why God cared so much about technology. And if He does care so much, why do some of us seemingly care so little?
The pursuit began with a surprising revelation in my prayer time of God expressing His outrage at the titans of technology attempting to challenge His sovereignty. “Soon robots and cyborgs living beings merging with flesh and metal will mock me as haters mocked My Son as He bled on the Cross. These beings are being programmed to preside in churches as pastors and preachers of new religions. They are substituting technology as their god and computer-generating text as the Word of God. This is a rebuff to Me.”
He continued: “I did not step out of heaven, infuse myself into a woman’s womb, and offer my Son to be bruised and tortured so that metal machines could serve as human substitutes in my sacred space. My Son died on the Cross and was resurrected from the grave three days later in the flesh, not as a machine. He died so that my human family and continue in my spirit and My flesh to create beloved communities.”
It is not unusual for me to hear the voice of God, but to hear and feel the pain of God was so devastating I had to take a deep dive into technology. I saw how no part of human existence is left untouched by it, whether for good or for evil. It impacts our birth, breath, wealth, health and death. Machines are replacing thousands of us in employment, self-programmed to kill humans, rogue robots can write their own codes and with artificial intelligence can create fake faces, places, and fake scandals. I also saw the chilling reminder of how the uneducated or unenhanced to thrive in a tech-based economy could easily end up in a discarded human junkpile.
In a recent trip to Silicon Valley, I read a handout and then on a website that since Google was omnipotent, omnipresent and all-knowing, Google was indeed God. Although technology is neither God nor the devil and this Google Messianic view does not represent the entire industry it did reveal the role of technology playing god and thinking their laboratories are sacred altars. We must also be aware of new religions without God, robot priests and pastors performing religious services, as well as a trend of humans having sex with and even marrying robots.
Moreso, the tech elites recently showed reasons to worry about technology going rogue. In an open letter, 1,000-plus tech executives wrote, “Should we automate away all our jobs, including the fulfilling ones. Should we develop the non-humans that might eventually outnumber and outsmart us, Should we risk lose control of our civilization?”
Yet, in that great gathering of smart people seeking survival issues, the ultimate questions of the role of God in technology were not raised.
So, the uninvited presence of God for spiritual guidance brings us back to the warning of Dr King, who called for the inclusion of moral and spiritual awakening. Without it, he cautioned “we could destroy ourselves in the misuse of our own instruments.”
There is much work ahead to be done, but I, too, share the hope of Dr. King that it is not too late for the scientific genius that made our world a neighborhood could still make it a brotherhood and sisterhood.
