From Harari to Barber: Trying to Make Sense of the Fast Moving World Around Us

Opening Banter and Travel Plans

Well, greetings and welcome to The Dividing Line. A little bit easier for me to do today because I've got somebody else to take care of all the, you know, the menial labor, just the little stuff, you know, that, uh, uh, uh, I know, you know, Rich was just off, you know, relaxing and sunning himself and stuff like that all last week.

Actually, he didn't do any of that stuff. Which is why I don't bother with vacations. Vacations are exhausting. Just just stay. You know, you've got eternity to rest, you know, I've just never really quite gotten how that works.

But hey, if if Apologia didn't have a two week forced sabbatical rule for the full time guys, I'm not a full time guy, so it doesn't apply to me, but I wouldn't have gotten to preach this past Sunday.

And if you haven't caught that or have interest in that, it really. I hope no one minds. I was primarily preaching to our own folks. I think that's sort of appropriate, sort of, sort of how preaching has always been done through the ages until cameras invaded our space, but spoke from Revelation chapter two and abandoning your first love, the epistle to the church at Ephesus and the tremendous text.

And I hope if you get a chance to listen to it, you'll be edified by it. But I'm just sitting here and I just discovered that my son-in-law, Eric, was on Apologia Radio. And the funny thing, you know how old I'm getting, how slow I'm getting these days?

They gave a response to the Theocast guys, and I had only just recently gotten that episode downloaded and put into my to be listened to list. I just can't get to, there's too much. I can't get to everything at any type of pace anymore.

And partly because I'm not spending nearly as much time on the bike as I used to. I used to spend, you know, 11, 12 hours a week. And now I'm doing about eight. And most of it's not outdoors. So it's not necessarily getting as much listening time in.

So anyway, so now I don't have to respond to that episode. I can take that out of the list, because somebody else did. Now I have to listen to their response, though. But yeah, with this next trip coming up, I'll have plenty of hours on the road to catch up on everything, I would assume.

Since we're going all the way up to Eli, Minnesota. What, what, what, what, what, what, what, what? Do you remember how to do this?

So yeah, I, let's do that. Hey, I have received phone calls regarding your pronunciation. That is Eli, Minnesota. And they're apparently rather sensitive about this. And so it is, is Eli, Minnesota. At the same time, they really want to know where you're speaking.

And so that's, that's what's going on.

Eli, huh?

Eli, Eli, Minnesota.

Well, there's only three letters. And, you know, okay, cool. So anyways, as I was saying before I was most rudely interrupted for irrelevant stuff, we're going to be doing a lot of traveling, driving all the way up to someplace in Minnesota I'm not going to mention anymore.

And, and then back again. So what's, what's, what we're doing strangely is I'm going to Colorado. I'm speaking there at Redemption Hills. We have the really nice graphic on the website right on the front page.

And I discovered most people don't bother looking for stuff like that because people are asking where is it? Well, it's on the front page of the website. Anyway, and then instead of staying in Colorado, I'm leaving and heading all the way up, like I said, to someplace in Minnesota.

And then back again to Colorado. So it's unusual to stay in the same place twice on the same trip, but that's how that's working out on this particular, this particular jaunt that's coming up very, very quickly.

And as soon as I pick up the unit, I imagine you're going to be heading over and there's going to be all sorts of stuff to do. Yeah, rolling up the sleeves and I got to get that AC running. And I'm trying to figure out how much of the background do you think is already peeled down to the floor?

I, I, I really wonder. That's, that's, that's going to be one of my projects is getting that wall completely cleaned and using some new stuff to try to get, get that stuff up.

And I'm just afraid that you're going to have to hang a sheet.

No, the reality is if, if the stuff that I've bought doesn't keep it up there, then the next thing to do is you can buy the very same kind of background as a photo shoot background and we'll just have to, it'll be a flat.

So it won't, it won't, it won't go with the curvature and we'll have to put it up that way.

That's the only way to do it. That's kind of what I've wanted to do is have something that we can, you know, kind of through a little tension, put back there and it's straight, flat and true.

That's, that's, that's the next shot. If this works, that's the easy way. If it doesn't work, then that's the only other option that we've got really is to, is to go that. Because I don't really think right now the cameras really see any of the curvature at all.

So it probably wouldn't, people wouldn't notice, but it would, it would be an extra thing that we'd have to be careful of.

Right. The cameras strangely actually have a bit of a curvature in them because they're round.

Right.

So there are times when you look at that straight line behind you and it's got a little bit of a bow to it.

Yeah.

Some of the photo programs, I'm, I'm not high enough on that stuff to do much with it, but they, they will fix that kind of stuff and take the lens distortion out and all that kind of stuff, which is great.

Anyway, so once I pick up the unit, we're going to have some work to do and then it's off on the road and lots and lots of stuff to do on this trip. It's going to be exciting. It's not going to be cold, but it'll be warm and, well, I don't know.

Who knows what it'll be once I get up to Colorado. It's been fairly cool. I was looking up there. It's only been the seventies and the highs and fifties at night, but it's supposed to start warming up.

It's supposed to warm up here too, to a little bit under average. It's just been, there's been no summer so far in Phoenix and I'm not complaining about that at all.

I'm just waiting for the global warming crowd to declare victory.

Yeah, yeah. For what? For having done, it's the windmills that did it. All those, all the eagles were killing, all the whales were killing, everything else. It's been worth it because global warming is over.

That's how it works. Anyway, I am watching a lot of the stuff popping up on my screen, especially now that I have TweetDeck set up. Lots of stuff going on at the Southern Maps Convention and I'm only watching it from afar.

It, I don't know. We'll see what happens at the end, but I have a feeling I know where it's going to be going, but I can't really make too much comment about it from there. I did want to get to a bunch of stuff that has been posted.

One of the first things that came up a day before yesterday, I think. Okay, no. This was posted June 8th, but I didn't see it until about the day before yesterday. I have more than once spoken about Yuval Noah Harari, who is a Jewish, atheist, secularist, futurist, big guy at the WEF.

So when you imagine all the dystopian futures that you've read, 1984, Brave New World, Fahrenheit 451, This Perfect Day, whatever it might be, there's always in the background these terrible people. I actually saw a movie that you would go, you watched that?

Yes, it was called Alita, Angel Warrior, Warrior Angel, something like that. And you go, why did you watch it? Because when I went to my normal place where I get spaghetti and meatballs, it was on the TV, but the volume wasn't up.

So it's one of those things where you're, you know, you start watching, you start going, what's going on in this? I'm not really sure. And before I left, I said, by the way, what's the name of this? And they put the thing on that gave you the information.

I'm like, so I looked it up. It was really well done CGI, actually. It was another, just so many of these dystopian movies have this, like Elysium, you have the space station, and getting up to Elysium is what everybody wants to do.

And this was like a cloud city type thing. And again, there had been, except this wasn't, we didn't destroy ourselves via the environment. It was a war with the Martians, believe it or not, that created this one.

But there was one sky city left type thing. And everybody down on the ground, it's your standard no law and order type. I don't know how to describe it, but anyway. They're all the same. It's all the same plot.

And it's the people up on the space station or the cloud city or whatever. That's Yuval Noah Harari. I mean, they could put him in any one of those dystopian novels or movies, and he would fit perfectly.

He wouldn't have to put makeup on. He wouldn't have to change his voice. He would just absolutely fit in perfectly in any of these movies, especially when you listen to what he's saying and the worldview that he is helping to promote through the World Economic Forum.

And these people, Klaus Schwab does view him. I mean, he is a James Bond villain. And this is his henchman. And people just applaud them and think they're great and they're wonderful. It's like, okay, all right.

So Harari is a big exponent of AI. And no matter how hard you try, you are not. And I've sort of been trying. I have never used AI. I've never gone to chat GP or whatever it is, because I figure I'm just helping to train the thing.

So why should I help to train my future masters? I've never worn a virtual reality thing on the face where you do the game stuff. You think it is. Well, see, I never have. So I am more virtuous than you are.

I've never. You're trying to figure out why that is?

Okay.

No, I'm not. No, I've never done that either. Because, you know, the new Apple thing, immediately there's some really interesting articles that I saw from non-Christians going, this will destroy mankind.

And, you know, most people just look at it as, oh, it's just a new thing. No, it goes beyond that. It is. And, hey, you should recognize this, because O 'Fallon has been talking about this for years now.

But the combining of the cyber, the digital, and the analog, and blurring the distinction between the two. And when you have people who have been raised within the secular system, they're made in the image of God.

The secular system cannot give them reason for living. So they're miserable. And that's why they glom onto all this insane stuff like transgenderism and everything else. They're looking for something to give their life to.

And you give them something like this, where they can escape into an analog-digital combination realm. Because one of the things that, and I'm going to get back to Harari here in a second, but one of the things, this Apple thing, they were showing you using this to be in digital meetings online and having conversations with people and stuff.

And I'm sitting there going, I'm watching it, and everybody that they're showing isn't wearing one of these things. So how can you be the only one wearing one of these things? And then it points out that what it does is it creates a digital picture of your face.

And so what it's actually projecting isn't you. It's your avatar. It's avatar. And so even the conversations that you're having with people aren't actually with them. They're with a digital representation of them.

And that's how everybody in the Zoom meeting or whatever all have regular faces. They don't have these goggles on their face. Because it's not really their faces. You're not really actually talking to them.

And so all this AI that is coming at us at warp speed, once again, I've said this before, maybe there are lots of Christians who have written on this and stuff like that, and I just haven't seen it. I'm way behind the curve on all this kind of stuff.

I'm slowing down. I get it. But we really, really need some well-thought-out... You want statements that will have meaning down the road? A Christian theology of a natural body and a natural mind. Living a natural world.

That's important. That's going to become really important. Because Elon Musk wants to make it possible for you to have stuff stuck in your head to where you'll be able to start seeing the internet without wearing something on your face and interfacing with the internet wherever you are, anytime, at 10G speeds and stuff like that, right?

And that's exactly where they're going. And there's a reason not to do this from the Christian perspective. It's a fundamental alteration. It's one thing to use a tool, it's another thing to implant a tool in your body.

And I can say that, but we have to... There's a lot of discussion that needs to be taking place, and I'm not sure... If it is taking place, I'm not sure where it's taking place. I'd like to get involved with it if it is.

But... Back to... AI is heading your direction. AI is heading my direction as a professor.

And...

It is interesting... Couldn't AI teach better than a human being could? If you're only talking about data content, probably. But man, my best professors were not the best professors I had because of data content.

They had solid data. They knew their subject. It was the passion with which they communicated. It was the application. It was the humanity that they illustrated in how they spoke and how they talked. And so, these are all things we need to be thinking about.

And so... Harari, obviously, is real big on AI and sees AI as the future of everything and that most of us... He would say already the vast majority of mankind is irrelevant. And once you accept that as a given worldview, there's Elysium.

That's why the med beds that can heal any disease are only on Elysium and nobody from the Earth is left because they don't matter. They're a drag on the system as it is. And think about government entities that have a worldview that say that the majority of human beings are irrelevant.

They have no meaning. They have no purpose. What are you going to do in situations like that? You're going to lower the world's population. By a long shot. Have to, right? Just got to. So, you see the predictions of the massive downfall of human population that's coming.

The guy from the 1970s was wrong about everything. Just like the climate scientists are wrong about everything right now. Total climate scam. 1000%. But the crash is coming and it's purposeful. It's very, very purposeful because these people see no reason in having anybody with an IQ lower than maybe 140.

And once you've got AI why does it matter what your IQ is? It's who you know. The elite. So, anyway. Hopefully we didn't change where the sound was going. So, hopefully this is going to work. Here is the quote that came out of I think it was somewhere South America.

Ferrari is being interviewed. Listen to what he says. It's only 40 seconds long. And then we'll interact with it.

AI can create new ideas. It can even write a new bible. Throughout history religions dreamt about having a book written by a superhuman intelligence. By a non-human entity. Every religion claims our book.

All the other books of the other religions humans wrote them. But our book, no, no, no. It came from some superhuman intelligence. In a few years there might be religions that are actually correct. Just think about a religion whose holy book is written by an AI.

That could be a reality in a few years.

Their holy book is written by an AI and that would make it correct. According to him. Because right now none of them are. Because he's an atheist of course. Now there's a lot of frightening stuff in Harari's thought.

And the fact that he has such influence at the World Economic Forum is enough to make most of us go wow that's really really bad. And let's try to do something about that. Exactly what we're going to do about it, I don't know.

But I want to leaving that aside for just a moment I want us to think about what is the current probability of a worldwide religious movement focused on AI? Just think about it for a second. What would be necessary?

Well, you'd have to prepare the environment. And so people would have to be taught that they are cosmic accidents that they have no transcendent meaning that there is no ultimate purpose in life and therefore they would have to be looking to the natural realm to fill in the big gaps.

And so they would have to be taught to honor and believe and in a sense venerate science. And if science begins to speak with encyclopedic knowledge.

And.

Offer, for example, great medical advancements because AI could very well result in medical advancements. It could also result in the exact opposite. But it could. And so everything I've been describing is what's been going on.

So I think there is a high probability that you could see exactly this kind of a scientism-based AI oracle exaltation of artificial intelligence technology. Now, as we all know AI is still a computer.

And while.

The programs that they're developing and the processor speeds they're developing make it look like these things are sentient themselves. The fact is they are programmed. They are given parameters.

And.

What we know is right now you can ask AI things and it just gets completely wrong. Partly because of the data that's fed into it partly because of the obvious bias of the designers themselves.

Google.

Facebook whoever they aren't even close to unbiased. And so there are prejudices built into the mechanism. But even laying that aside I could easily see people who are disgusted with their lives, disgusted with the emptiness that secularism forces upon us they're living in God's world but they're living in rebellion against that and therefore there's fundamental disharmony in their lives finding a voice that speaks with constant wisdom.

I could see something coming out of that very very easily. Very very easily. And most of us have not given much thought. How would you go about evangelizing a devotee of the religion of AI? Might want to be thinking about that.

Well it's not here yet. It's happening awful fast. It's happening awful fast. And we're always on the back end of the curve trying to respond to something that is now way ahead of us. I think it's something we might be thinking about even now.

How to do that. Okay. The next thing I've got here. A fellow by the name of Imtiaz Mahmoud posted a tweet I don't know how it ended up going across my thing. And I was like Wow. We really really need to talk about this.

I'm not going to be putting it on the screen. That's why I'm facing this direction. Again, this is the kind of stuff that is out there. This is the kind of stuff that is being repeated over and over again.

It's the kind of thing that it's a little bit like the letter that ended up on the West Wing about the Holiness Code and mocking God's Law and stuff like that. These things take on a life of their own sometimes.

I don't think this one will. But elements of it you'll find all over the place. This guy is an atheist, quote unquote free thinker. Here's what he says. We know that Jesus Christ was a fictional character created by the Council of Nicaea in the year 325 A .D. and modeled after Julius Caesar to pacify the poor in the Roman Empire.

We know this to be true for independent historians born in the same time period hold no records nor is there physical evidence of Jesus Christ and the twelve disciples ever existing in real life. Joseph Atwell, who is the author of a book entitled Caesar's Messiah, the Roman Conspiracy to Invent Jesus asserts that Christianity did not begin as a religion but was actually a sophisticated government propaganda exercise used to pacify the subjects of the Roman Empire.

Most certainly Augustine inserted the virgin birth, Jesus as God, the Holy Trinity, original sin, forced conversion, holy wars, all of which were adopted in Nicaea. I know, I know, hold on, I gotta get it read.

I know Augustine was long after Nicaea. We all know that, but this guy doesn't. And there were many aspiring prophets wandering Judea during the occupation. If Jesus lived and was killed for overturing the money exchange at the temple, he would likely not have garnered any significant notice on the part of the contemporary Romans.

If Rome hadn't commandeered and utilized the whole theme, the man would have likely have faded from history. To believe that Pontius Pilate was bothered to interrogate Jesus for claiming to be the king of the Jews is equivalent to believing that Governor Abbott would bother into interrogating some psychotic homeless man spewing the end is near pure fantasy.

But this scene is described in the Gospels because it was written by the Romans, and the Romans smell so sweet in the Gospels. It also supports Pax Romana, give unto Caesar what is Caesar's, or pay your taxes.

So, there is.

A s s s s s s s s s s s s s s.

S.

S s s s s s s s s s s s s s s s s s s s s s s s s s s s s s s s s s s s s s s s.

S.

S s s s s s s s s s s s s s s s s s s s s s.

S.

S s s s s s s s s s s s.

S.

S s s s s s s s s s s s s s s s s s.

S.

S s s s s s s s s s s s s s s s s s s s s s.

S.

S s s s s s s s s s s s s s s s s s s s s s s s s s s s s s s s s s s s s s s s s s s s s s s s s s s s s s s s s s s s s s s s s s s s s s s s s s s s s s s s s s s s s s s s s s s s s s s s.

S.

S s s s s s s s s s s s s s s s s s s s s s s s s s s s s s s s s s s s s s s s s s s s s s s s s s s s s s s s s s s s s.

S.

S s s s s s s s s s s s s s s s s s s s s.

S.

S s s s s s s s s s s s s s s s s s s s s s s s s s s s s s s s s s s s s s s s s s s s s s s s s s s s s s.

S.

S s s s s s s s s s s s s s s s s s s s s s s s s.

S.

S s s s s s s s s s s s s s s s s s s s s s s s s s s s s s s s s s s s s s s.

S.

S s s.

S.

S s s s s s s s s s s s s s s s s s s s s s s s s.

S.

S s s s s s s s s s s s s s s s s s s s s s s s s s s s s s s s s s s s s s s s s s s s s s s s s s s s s s s s s s s s s s s s s s s s s s s s.

S.

S s s s s s s s.

S.

S s s s s s s s s s s s s s s s s s s s s s s s s s s s s s s.

S.

S.

S.

S s s s s s s s s s.

S.

S s s s.

S.

S s s s s s s s s s s s s s s s s s s s s s s s s s s s s s s.