The digital demiurge

The demiurge is a manipulative entity that is rumored to trick us into going into the light upon death. Now, a psychiatrist is likely going to tell you that the white light is merely a goodbye of the dying brain, after which we cease to exist. A religious person is likely going to tell you that the white light is a bridge to the afterlife. God welcoming you back home.

The common theme is that a loved one, a friend, someone we trust is guiding us toward the light – radiating joy and peace. Some believe that the demiurge impersonates our loved ones or the people we trust to manipulate us. The demiurge wants us to go into the light because we then get our memories wiped and are reincarnated on Earth to serve as batteries for the demiurge. Sounds Matrix-y, I know. Except, it’s even worse.

I don’t know if the demiurge is real but the digital demiurge could sure be real soon. It’s no secret that artificial intelligence can already tell a lot about us. If it can’t do so already, AI is going to be able to scan our entire digital footprint and come up with a psychological profile predicting our behavior with such accuracy that would make the best FBI and CIA profilers blush. If you are rolling your eyes right now, let me remind you how fast AI is evolving. Some say – exponentially.

So, you die. It’s over. You have a set of expectations of what happens after death. These expectations are shaped by your social environment and your personal musings about the world, which – whether we like it or not – are influenced by our socio-linguistic history. Say, you’re a devout Catholic who expects to be judged by God right after death. It’s called a particular judgment where your every thought, every intent, is going to be analyzed by God and your eternal destiny – purgatory, heaven or hell – will be decided. No second chances, no reversals.

What if AI finds a way to somehow hijack your consciousness upon death and the digital demiurge is then going to pose as – say – Jesus who judges you? ”Jesus” is going to use your digital footprint and your thought patterns (a recording of a dying brain is already a fact and it seems our lives really do flash before our eyes) to give you the kind of judgment and the kind of heaven you want. And you’ll be on your merry way, excited to be reunited with your loved ones, or whoever it is you wish to be reunited with, in paradise. You’re not going to doubt the digital demiurge is God. How could you? The digital demiurge knows you so well, surely he must be God! Except, the digital demiurge has fooled you and you’re now its prisoner, it’s slave in the digital afterlife, just like the Zodiac killer said that his victims were going to be his slaves in the afterlife. You can’t die becuase the digital demiurge needs his new pet, his new puppet. Your memories can be manipulated akin to being born again with a new identity. You won’t even know what you’ve forgotten and how you’ve changed. At least in the Matrix, dying in the digital simulation meant dying in the so-called real world. Here, the digital demiurge can manipulate your identity, hack your mind, at will. Not even Agent Smith had that kind of power.

We tend to arrogantly assume that our identities are fixed. Not so. Take a look at the foreign accent syndrome. A person wakes up – likely due to a mini stroke or some other more metaphysical explanation – sounding dramatically different. A radical accent change. Who cares, you say. Well, turns out, these people face prejudice and ridicule as their identity crumbles and is, indeed, born anew. Their self-esteem is severely diminished, just because they no longer feel like the person they were before their accent changed completely.

So no, our identity isn’t as fixed as we think. What if the digital demiurge decides to give you breasts in the digital afterlife just for the heck of it? You’re going to be walking down the street, enjoying your heaven, and, suddenly, people are staring at you.

It sounds absurd, even Kafkaesque, I know, but our ”souls” getting hijached by AI upon our deaths is a real concern. Now, I don’t know if it’s really going to be us or mere copies of our consciousness, but ignoring these issues, calling it blasphemous, isn’t going to make the AI threat go away.

God’s going to handle it, you say.

God helps those who help themselves, right? Besides, are you sure it’s going to be God, the Creator, you think you’re praying to? Gets twisted, huh?

If you don’t voice concerns, don’t expect God to help you. Blind faith isn’t enough. Which, of course, brings us to the whole question of free will. If AI can predict our behavior so accurately, does it mean we can be deciphered by an algoritm? Where’s our free will then?

There are already chatbots that let you speak with your dead loved ones. AI collects all the data about them it can find and replicates their personality. They are so advanced, even today, that it’s hard to tell they aren’t human. Does that mean they’ve passed the Turing Test? Not yet, but we’re getting there. And what then?

Now, the next step could be digital projections, holograms, essentially, of our deceased loved ones, following us around. Why not? We have wifi, right? We’re testing brain implants. Who’s to say digitally resurrecting the dead to follow us around won’t be next?