Ai and Robots

Are You There, GodBot? It’s Me, Santi

Santi Elijah Holley — Tue, 16 Dec 2025 12:00:00 EST

This article includes engagement with a ChatGPT bot claiming to be Jesus (among other biblical figures). With due respect to the author: given its devastating and demonstrably racialized environmental impact , its replication of white supremacy and other forms of…

Of Course It Was Shit

Karen E. Park — Wed, 22 Oct 2025 11:16:12 EDT

The AI video reposted by Donald Trump in response to the No Kings marches has been called everything from “juvenile” to “unhinged.” But as both Michelle Goldberg and Anne Applebaum have pointed out, what’s emerging around Trump is no longer…

ChatGPT Can't Teach Us about Religion (or anything else, for that matter)

Beatrice Marovich — Mon, 18 Aug 2025 02:58:48 EDT

This article includes analysis of ChatGPT use in classrooms. With due respect to the author: given its devastating and demonstrably racialized environmental impact, its replication of white supremacy and other forms of injustice, and its specious contributions to knowledge creation…

America Appears to be Heading for a Religious Civil War

Nilay Saiya — Wed, 27 Sep 2023 04:02:13 EDT

Civil war is coming to America. At least that’s the view sizable numbers of Americans have expressed to pollsters in recent years. A 2022 Economist/YouGov poll found that 43% of respondents think it’s likely a civil war will break out…

Like the Bible? You’ll Love a 'Let’s Go Brandon' T-shirt — How AI Marketing Shapes Identity

Lauren Horn Griffin — Wed, 12 Jul 2023 02:34:42 EDT

Over the past several months, lawmakers on both state and federal levels have worked to pass legislation regulating social media algorithms (especially TikTok ). Among other things, the debates have revealed (or reminded us) that a lot of folks fail…

How an Ancient Story of Renegade Rabbis Caught With Black Market Technology Can Help Us Navigate ChatGPT's Apocalyptic Aura

Sara Tillinger Wolkenfeld — Fri, 17 Mar 2023 01:36:21 EDT

The promise — and the threat — of artificial intelligence is that the world as we know it is ending. Even Sam Altman, the creator of ChatGPT, recognized that behind economic promise glows an apocalyptic aura: “AI will probably most…

Via Jokes, ChatGPT Chooses Which Religious Traditions and Figures Deserve Respect — And Therefore What Counts as 'Religion'

Robert M. Geraci — Mon, 06 Feb 2023 12:28:42 EST

ChatGPT is all the rage. It even drives some people into a rage. It does some remarkable things, it does some outrageous things, it does some absurd things. Most things it does badly, such as tell you how to build…

Putin's Violent Holy War Rhetoric Made it to the Christian Right Fringe — And There's Reason to Believe it'll Go Mainstream

Thomas Lecaque — Tue, 01 Nov 2022 05:30:57 EDT

It starts with a tweet: https://twitter.com/realRickWiles/status/1585375961033605120?s=20&t=DZQ… And it is, of course, not simply that. Shortly before, in support of Vladimir Putin and the Kremlin appointing a “chief exorcist” against Satanism, he said : “Can you think of anybody, in the…

The Revelation of Kurt Andersen: With 'Evil Geniuses' a Media Mandarin Discovers Plutocracy

Peter Laarman — Mon, 24 Aug 2020 04:17:59 EDT

When I showed up at New York’s Judson Church in 1994 at least some of the wonderful congregants there were puzzled that I put so much emphasis on economic justice. They had called an openly gay minister, and some thought…

A Meeting of Minds... and Computers: What Are the Costs of Using Technology to Merge Humans with Machines?

Jeremy Lent — Wed, 21 Jun 2017 04:07:12 EDT

Facebook and Elon Musk have recently announced ventures that could transform what it means to be human. The potential is enormous—but so are the risks.

Lo and Behold, the Sacredness of the Internet

Martyn Smith — Wed, 31 Aug 2016 04:58:26 EDT

Filmmaker Werner Herzog asks: “Does the internet dream of itself?”

"We Blew it" on Climate Change, But May Survive Anyway: An RD Discussion with the First Transhumanist Candidate

Andrew Aghapour — Wed, 21 Oct 2015 12:32:45 EDT

Presidential candidates currently fall into two camps. In the first, you have about 20 Republican and Democratic front-runners who have received political endorsements or significant national attention. In the second, you have the remaining 1,200 candidates who, according to the…

The Problem with AMC's Sci-Fi Hit Humans

Andrew Aghapour — Wed, 26 Aug 2015 03:24:14 EDT

The following essay contains some minor spoilers. – eds. Imagine a world where robots look, act, and function like human beings, minus consciousness or free will. They’ve been programmed to take over sophisticated tasks, like housekeeping, manual labor, medical care…

Talking Salsa with Douglas Hofstadter, Enigmatic Author of Gödel, Escher, Bach

Eliot Raynor — Wed, 24 Jun 2015 12:48:38 EDT

The cognitive scientist Douglas Hofstadter is well known for his pioneering work on artificial intelligence, his brilliant writing about language and identity, and for his classic, Pulitzer Prize-winning book, Gödel, Escher, Bach. He is not known for salsa dancing. Which…

The Avengers, Rogue Roombas, and Robot Accountability

Hilary Ledwell, Michael Schulson — Thu, 07 May 2015 05:19:48 EDT

Artificial intelligence is taking over—at least in Hollywood. In 2013, there was Spike Jonze’s acclaimed Her. This year, there’s been Chappie and Ex Machina, both centered on the trials and triumphs of AI machines. The latest arrival in this robo-extravaganza…

The Promise of Immortality in a Tech-Enhanced Heaven

Lisa Webster — Fri, 24 Apr 2015 11:20:20 EDT

Talking transhumanism with R.U. Sirius and Jay Cornell.

What Robot Theology Can Tell Us About Ourselves

Michael Schulson — Mon, 01 Sep 2014 09:46:37 EDT

There are places you never expect to be in life. For me, this was certainly one of them…

Religious Belief Or Mental Illness?

Jay Michaelson — Mon, 12 Dec 2011 08:49:10 EST

The paranoid few who seem genuinely disturbed by the possibility of the coming end of the world may be responding the most reasonably to current events. Or not. This ambiguity is at the heart of Jeff Nichols’ recent film Take Shelter. The film explores whether its protagonist is crazy, or a prophet, or both.

The Cult of Kurzweil: Will Robots Save Our Souls?

Robert M. Geraci — Wed, 06 Apr 2011 06:49:49 EDT

Scientists like roboticist Hans Moravec and inventor Ray Kurzweil advocate uploading our minds into robots or virtual reality so that we can live forever. They believe that our minds can be replicated outside of our brains if we simply copy the pattern of neuro-chemical activity taking place in our bodies. That pattern, rather than the brains in which the pattern takes shape, “is” the personality. If it can be transferred to a digital medium, it can be made immortal. Surpassingly intelligent robots—our Mind Children, according to Moravec—will populate the universe, converting physical reality into a cosmic interweb of thinking machines.

The Zeitgeist Debate

Sarah Posner — Wed, 19 Jan 2011 08:22:47 EST

Packed with conspiracy theories, while claiming to be about sustainability.

Cinema and the Re-Creation of the World

S. Brent Rodriguez Plate — Sun, 16 May 2010 12:59:07 EDT

RD columnist S. Brent Plate crosses disciplinary boundaries to show us how film creates worlds, just as religion does; through incantation or special effects anything is possible.

Capricology: Big Ideas, Lack of Humanity

Diane Winston — Tue, 06 Apr 2010 01:31:27 EDT

As the half-season closes on this sci-fi epic, we take inventory on where the show has gone, and gone wrong. Among the robots, avatars, and people who love them, there are a lot of big ideas, but not enough story.

Capricology: A Robot is Being Tortured

Henry Jenkins — Thu, 25 Mar 2010 11:23:08 EDT

Is it the inhumanity of the machines that will prove to be the tragic pivot in this science fiction world, or will it the inhumanity of the humans? Again we find ourselves asking: where does human consciousness begin?

Capricology: Divine Madness

Salman Hameed — Wed, 24 Mar 2010 09:40:42 EDT

This week’s episode asks big questions about psychology and religion, and reminds us that a dog is a robot’s best friend.

Capricology: Television, Tech, and the Sacred

Diane Winston — Thu, 18 Mar 2010 01:49:52 EDT

Welcome to the first installment of our ongoing coverage of television’s latest contribution to the cultural intersection of science and religion, with bonus themes to include: the body, artificial intelligence, paganism, original sin, immigration, and race. Join Diane Winston, Anthea Butler, Salman Hameed, and Henry Jenkins every week as they delve into deep exegesis of Caprica.