Posthuman God
A
Posthuman God is a hypothetical future entity descended from or created by humans, but possessing capabilities so radically exceeding those of present humans as to appear godlike.
One common variation of this idea is the belief or aspiration that humans will create a
God entity emerging from an
artificial intelligence. Another variant is the hypothesis that humanity will create or
evolve into a
posthuman God by itself; for some examples, see
Christian transhumanism,
technological singularity, and
omega point.
The concept of a posthuman god has become common in
science fiction.
Arthur C. Clarke, world-renowned science fiction author, said in an interview,"It may be that our role on this planet is not to worship God, but to create him." Clarke's friend and colleague, the late
Isaac Asimov, postulated in his story "
The Last Question" a merger between humanity and machine intelligence that ultimately produces a deity capable of reversing
entropy and subsequently initiates a new Creation trillions of years from the present era when the Universe is in the last stage of
heat death. In
Frank Herbert's science-fiction series
Dune, a messianic figure is created after thousands of years of controlled breeding. The
Culture Series by
Iain M. Banks represents a blend in which a
transhuman society is guarded by godlike machine intelligences. A stronger example is posited in the novel
Singularity Sky by
Charles Stross, in which a future artificial intelligence is capable of changing events even in its own past, and takes strong measures to prevent any other entity from taking advantage of similar capabilities. In the
science fiction world-building project
Orion's Arm, most if not all terragen species (species originating from the
Earth) live in the omnipresence of god-like machines called
Archailects whose minds are composed of a collection of the minds of smaller AI gods, whose minds are further composed of the
telepathically collective minds of many individual beings who even modern day humans would fail to comprehend.
*
God*
Names of God*
Conceptions of God*
Existence of God*
Hugo de Garis
