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Augustine, AI, and the Demon Heuristic

August 19th, 2024 | 34 min read

By Robert Cotton

One does not have to dig deep into the comments section of a ChatGPT demo video to find someone convinced that there’s something demonic about it. At the risk of keeping company with the most paranoid of the terminally online, I would like to add another point which makes this position plausible–that there is something of the demonic to recent AI developments. In a world where Jack Parsons, founder of NASA’s JPL, was an occultist and friend with Aleister Crowley, and where Marie Curie ran seances, and where August Kekulé divined the structure of benzene from a dream of Ouroboros–well, surely all of this is not unthinkable.

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Robert Cotton

Robert Cotton writes from the New York City area. He can be reached at cottonsclearinghouse@gmail.com.

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Technology