Rise of the Machines: A Cybernetic History, Thomas Rid - "Science has invaded the realm of religion and driven out God"

 

Regarding the “Rise of the Machines,” I'm talking about automation, and there's a part of it that relates to Yuval Noah Harari's “Homo Deus.” It's about man silencing God, but it's also about overturning religious taboos with regard to cybernetics.

On page 116, Weiner makes three points in his view that science has invaded the realm of religion and driven out God. The first point is that “what God created cannot outrank God.” Second, “only God can create life,” i.e., God alone is the Creator. Third, “machines are magical.

In other words, machines are included in the magical. The point here is a game with the devil, as is also the problem in the Old Testament book of Job and John Milton's Paradise Lost, against the belief that what God has created cannot supersede God. The same is true in Goethe's Faust.

The question here is, if God created everything, why does the devil exist and does God allow his existence? When you are playing games, you are acknowledging its existence. In short, it is understandable up to the point where God allows the devil to exist, but there is a possibility that God could lose in that game.

Going back to page 116, in a limited sense, the question arises as to whether the creator can play a meaningful bargain or game with the created. However, as has been proven in chess, Go, and other games, the created can outperform the created. To put it another way, we can conclude that man can surpass God.

The belief that “only God created and only God can create life” is also being overturned by the fact that machines are now able to reproduce the phenomenon of self-replication. When it becomes possible for a machine to create itself, it means that God's monopoly as Creator is broken.

Finally, regarding “the magical is mechanical” rather than “the machine is magical,” it is important to consider that the magical does not include the machine, but the machine includes the magical. Magic and psychic phenomena are logical; they represent the logic of the machine. It means that the machine exists before the magic and the magic is only a part of it. Again, we conclude that the realm of the divine is being violated here.

In conclusion, I believe that, as Weiner sees it, science has invaded the realm of religion and driven out God.

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