Reality not Religion

Phil places his newly acquired reading materials on the kitchen bench and walks into the sitting room just in time for the evening news. He needs a bit of time to clear his head. While he hadn't been able to deny his thoughts that things were becoming more and more Darwinian, he had about convinced himself he was overthinking on this topic. Now that he's found out, purely by coincidence, James has been researching some of those same things it has truly set his mind into a whir. "I'm not going to think about it the rest of the evening." he tells himself. Shooing the cat away, he plops on the sofa while flicking on the telly remote.

Phil wakes with a start, scaring the cat from his lap, just as the newscast is airing it's last segment for this broadcast. Anna is asking "Is AI causing more harm than good?" He can't believe it! He can't get away from the craziness regardless of what he does. He feels he's in a Dr. Who episode from his teens. The news anchor's words echo in his head as he grabs a pen to write down bits of what she says: "AI psychosis, reality distortion, superhuman persuasion, DeepMind, Claude". He wonders out loud if he's in a bad dream but the meowing of the cat convinces him otherwise. He stands, begrudgingly looking at Churchill. "You honestly don't have a care in the world do you old guy?" Phil is beginning to think his clueless cat is much better off than he is. "Come on buddy, let's get us some grub." Churchill happily strides into the kitchen ahead of Phil and stretches out in front of his food bowl waiting for the canned delicacy. Phil obliges, scratches his head and moves to the fridge to see what he can scrounge up for himself. Leftover beer bread and potato soup will have to do. He makes a mental note to restock his pantry soon.

Phil sits down at the kitchen table and begins eating, although his thoughts are far outweighing his hunger. He reaches over to the adjoining bench and pulls "The Message" Bible James had shoved in his arms earlier to his lap. Flipping to the clipped pages near the back of the book Phil sees the highlighted words James had written on one of the news articles: "This second Beast worked magical signs, dazzling people by making fire come down from Heaven. It used the magic it got from the Beast to dupe earth dwellers, getting them to make an image of the Beast that received the deathblow and lived. It was able to animate the image of the Beast so that it talked, and then arrange that anyone not worshiping the Beast would be killed. It forced all people, small and great, rich and poor, free and slave, to have a mark on the right hand or forehead. Without the mark of the name of the Beast or the number of its name, it was impossible to buy or sell anything." As he finishes his meal and gets up to place his bowl and spoon in the sink he grabs his laptop from the credenza. "No better time than the present" he muses as he checks the battery, settles at the kitchen table and begins spreading news articles, magazines and even that Bible out for research.

He recalls what he said to James at the beginning of this excursion about wanting reality not religion. Somehow now religion is sounding like it contains his reality more than he could have imagined.

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