The God Machine: Post-Religious Communication in the Era of Artificial Intelligence

Rafał Jakub Pastwa

doi:10.18290/rkult25164.9

Published : 2025-12-15

Vol. 16 No. 4 (2025)

The God Machine: Post-Religious Communication in the Era of Artificial Intelligence

Rafał Jakub Pastwa

https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9470-5156

DOI: https://doi.org/10.18290/rkult25164.9

Abstract

The article addresses the problem of post-religious communication in the context of contemporary cultural and technological transformations, with particular emphasis on artificial intelligence (AI) and biotechnology as dimensions of technological transcendence. The central focus is Julian Savulescu’s thought experiment of the God Machine, a bio-quantum supercomputer capable of monitoring and intervening in human intentions and thoughts in order to prevent deeply immoral and harmful acts. The analysis explores whether the God Machine can be interpreted as a post-religious form of communication and morality, in which AI assumes functions traditionally attributed to religious transcendence, such as moral authority, norm-setting, power, and eschatological hope.

Methodologically, the article integrates media studies, philosophy, and bioethics with elements of the sociology of religion, employing interdisciplinary, analytical-synthetic, and comparative approaches. Empirical references demonstrate correlations between technological development and declining religiosity, supporting the thesis that technology is increasingly sacralized as a new technosacrum. The analysis confirms the interpretative hypothesis that the God Machine represents a radical example of the technological sacralization of immanence: a secular and post-religious substitute for the Absolute, constructing a new moral order grounded not in transcendence but in data, algorithms, and predictive control.

By examining selected media narratives and cultural practices, the article argues that AI functions as a domain of post-religious communication, generating eschatological expectations of justice, security, and the elimination of suffering – precisely where traditional religions and secular ideologies have failed

Keywords:

AI, God Machine, media, moral enhacement, post-religion, post-religious communication, technology

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Pastwa, R. J. (2025). The God Machine: Post-Religious Communication in the Era of Artificial Intelligence. Roczniki Kulturoznawcze, 16(4), 149–170. https://doi.org/10.18290/rkult25164.9

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