I am a huge Dune fan and currently a popular topic of discourse is the Pope's Encyclical on AI or properly titled Pope Leo’s “Magnifica Humanitas”. I have not read the Magnifica Humanitas yet though I am going to prepare to read it by revisiting the Butlerian Jihad from Frank Herbert's Dune.
For Dune fans context is only going to be from excerpts of book one, “Dune”.
In the Dune universe, “The Butlerian Jihad” or “the Great Revolt” is a war on the thinking machines and was a pivotal point in Dune history.
The promise of making the thinking machines was to get rid of slave-like labor; the result of the creation was the continuation of the same power dynamic only amplified.
The Butlerians Declared a Jihad which could have been called a crusade if not for the Islam theme of the Dune planet. They defeated the thinking machines in a long and bloody war which started in 201 BG and ended in 108 BG, so 93 years of war. After the war this led to the ban of thinking machines which continued for the next 10,000 years to present time Dune in or present time of book one 10,191.
The result of the victory led to a new commandment in the Orange Catholic Bible. In book one Paul quotes one saying, “Thou shalt not make a machine in the likeness of a human mind.” Paul’s mother in conversation with Paul says that the Butlerian Jihad took away a crutch from humanity and forced them to develop their minds.
The crutch position, I feel, is happening right now. Much of all writing, coding ,and researching is being done by AI. I don’t know anyone that hasn't used chaptgpt besides my grandpa and I think even he’s used Gemini unwillingly because of having a google phone.
I think everyone is guilty of this crutch myself included, but it still has not had the dramatic tipping point of singularity. More likely it will be slow and unnoticeable like culling that has happened to our attention spans.
I think AI is gonna be used no matter what until we reach a critical point of convergence with the tech or complete destruction. We probably will see it in our lifetimes but it won't be like the Butlerian Jihad. I am still very hopeful for our world and the outcome of this AI innovation coming to be. Whatever happens it will be interesting and we will overcome it.
Works cited
Herbert, Frank. Dune. Chilton Books, 1965.
"Butlerian Jihad." Dune Wiki, Fandom, https://dune.fandom.com/wiki/Butlerian_Jihad.
"Timeline (Original Dune)." Dune Wiki, Fandom, https://dune.fandom.com/wiki/Timeline_(Original_Dune).
"Magnifica humanitas." Wikipedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magnifica_humanitas.
- Lucas Edward