Re: <nettime> At Doge, AI faith has fully fused with Christian Nationalism

[Frédéric Neyrat via nettime-l <nettime-l@lists.nettime.org>]

You're right, Brian, I responded too quickly.

Perhaps there's a step before “AI is God” that we need to keep a close eye
on: it's “anti-AI is the devil.” This equivalence should get a lot of
traction in those in power, be they populist, techno-accelerationist,
or/and Christians.

F


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On Sat, Mar 22, 2025 at 2:39 PM Brian Holmes <bhcontinentaldrift@gmail.com>
wrote:

> Yes, there are mediators between populism and techno-optimism, JDV is
> definitely one. But between Lance Wallnau and Ray Kurzweil? That is,
> between Christian Nationalism (a very specific variety of populism) and
> Silicon Valley?
>
> JDV does not (yet) say AI is God.
>
> I have always assumed that the tycoons simply manipulate the believers. If
> they were "fully fused", as Carhenge-via-Felix is suggesting, that would be
> extremely threatening. It's an imaginable and plausible fusion, but I
> wonder if it's a real one. If there's a Christian Nationalist imaginary in
> which AI is equivalent to God... well, that would be a contemporary
> American formula for totalitarianism, imho.
>
> On Sat, Mar 22, 2025 at 2:03 PM Frédéric Neyrat <fneyrat@gmail.com> wrote:
>
>> dear Brian and dear Felix,
>>
>> one answer is there:
>> https://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/documents/remarks-the-vice-president-the-american-dynamism-summit
>>
>> "populism" + "techno-optimism" = JDV, the Mediator
>>
>> F
>>
>> _______________________________
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>>  (LLL, 2025)
>> __________________________________
>>
>>
>>
>>
>> On Sat, Mar 22, 2025 at 1:57 PM Brian Holmes via nettime-l <
>> nettime-l@lists.nettime.org> wrote:
>>
>>> The notion that DOGE wants a direct pipeline to taxpayer money is highly
>>> plausible, in a context where, for just one instance, Musk is advocating
>>> politically for a Golden Dome missile-defence system that his companies
>>> will build. This is the well-known neoliberal playbook: appropriate
>>> public
>>> money for corporate designs, whether it's schools, water systems, space
>>> programs, or whatever.
>>>
>>> The structural parallels between the Christian Nationalists' admiration
>>> of
>>> God and Silicon Valley's AI faith are a great insight, one of those
>>> striking ideas that immediately ring true.
>>>
>>> But what does it mean to say that Christian Nationalism and the "AI
>>> faith"
>>> (aka Silicon Valley) are fully fused? Is there an evangelist that
>>> straddles
>>> the two camps? How do they coordinate? What is the Christian payoff for
>>> the
>>> libertarian heist?
>>>
>>> These questions matter because the populist base that supports the Trump
>>> administration is largely Christian Nationalist. It is widely assumed
>>> that
>>> their link to libertarianism is non-existent and therefore, a basic
>>> weakness of the Trump coalition. If the Christian Nationalists were to
>>> start seeing AI as God, or if some Silicon Valley nutcase is successfully
>>> explaining to them that AI is God, or it's God working through machines,
>>> or
>>> whatever claptrap they may believe or pretend to believe, in all cases
>>> that's extremely bad news.
>>>
>>> So I am curious whether this goes beyond Carhenge...
>>>
>>> best, Brian
>>>
>>> On Sat, Mar 22, 2025 at 12:27 PM Felix Stalder via nettime-l <
>>> nettime-l@lists.nettime.org> wrote:
>>>
>>> >
>>> > This is one of the best account I've seen about what DOGE is actually
>>> > doing, practically and strategically. It's a first hand account of
>>> > someone deeply involved in government AI.
>>> >
>>> > The key sentences are:
>>> >
>>> > "Lately the AI faith has fully fused with Christian Nationalism.
>>> > Together, these two faiths crave the end of American liberal democracy
>>> > and government."
>>> >
>>> > and the final paragraph.
>>> >
>>> > Felix
>>> >
>>> > PS: as an added benefit, I learned about https://carhenge.com/
>>> >
>>> >
>>> >
>>> > https://carhenge.club/@skiles/114203147063483693
>>> > Mar 22, 2025, 01:02
>>> >
>>> > I helped build a government AI system. DOGE fired me, rolled the AI out
>>> > to the whole agency, and implied the AI can do my job and the jobs of
>>> > the others they've fired.
>>> >
>>> > It can't. But, what DOGE accidentally revealed about themselves in the
>>> > process is fascinating. I worked on a tool we called the AI sandbox.
>>> Our
>>> > goal: let federal software devs test out AI tools in a safe way, to
>>> > discover if they have any use. Renamed GSAi, the tool has been claimed
>>> > by DOGE. It is being rolled out on an alarming accelerated schedule.
>>> >
>>> >
>>> > No one from the new admin wrote a single line of code for it. But GSAi
>>> > has become their proud "AI-first strategy." (Previously at my job,
>>> > rather than AI or any tech we put *people* first. See 18F's work on
>>> > "human-centered design.")
>>> >
>>> > As my coworker explains in this demo, we knew AI's capability is
>>> limited
>>> >
>>> > "The principle is to show you *not* that AI is great for everything,
>>> not
>>> > to try to encourage you to stick AI into every product.... You can get
>>> > yourself into trouble thinking that it can do things that it can't."
>>> >
>>> > As a fed, I am accustomed to knowledgeable and diverse coworkers who
>>> > don't get snookered by the latest buzzwords. But yesterday at GSA
>>> > headquarters, 6 white guys in suits (one without a tie!) took the
>>> stage.
>>> > They demo'd GSAi like it was pure magic to them. [1]
>>> >
>>> >
>>> > While saying "this is incredible" over and over, Musk's GSA head
>>> Stephen
>>> > Ehikian asked GSAi to "write me a website." The output was not
>>> compliant
>>> > with federal law. It said "Welcome to Our Company" on it and did not
>>> > resemble a federal website at all.
>>> >
>>> > 😟 This garbage demo had a terrified audience
>>> >
>>> > One viewer said "if this is the tool meant to replace us, thank God".
>>> > Everyone is afraid for their jobs, their projects, and their democracy.
>>> > There is a widespread impression that AI is supposed to replace the
>>> > people who are fired.
>>> >
>>> > I actually don't think that's the plan. Let me explain:
>>> >
>>> > There is a quasi-religion in Silicon Valley that views AI as godlike.
>>> > This faith has always been parallel to Evangelical Christianity: it has
>>> > salvation (transhumanism), the rapture (the technological singularity),
>>> > and demons (Roko's Basilisk)
>>> >
>>> > Lately the AI faith has fully fused with Christian Nationalism.
>>> >
>>> > Together, these two faiths crave the end of American liberal democracy
>>> > and government. You can smell it at GSA.
>>> >
>>> > They won't replace us with AI because 𝒕𝒉𝒆𝒚 𝒅𝒐𝒏'𝒕 𝒘𝒂𝒏𝒕 𝒕𝒐
>>> > 𝒓𝒆𝒑𝒍𝒂𝒄𝒆 𝒖𝒔 𝒂𝒕 𝒂𝒍𝒍. They want our work to end. DOGE is
>>> > firing us as fast as possible, and that is the whole plan.
>>> >
>>> > Listen: maybe I'm wrong and this is just the worst software deployment
>>> > of my career, not actually a conspiracy against democracy.
>>> >
>>> > Maybe these guys just don't see they are frittering away all product
>>> and
>>> > service design knowledge in the agency. And don't even know that they
>>> > lack this knowledge.
>>> >
>>> > Honestly: From the 2013 failure of healthcare.gov to today, the
>>> > government *almost* learned how to build software. We were close. Then
>>> a
>>> > bunch of white men in suits swooped in to snatch defeat from the jaws
>>> of
>>> > victory.
>>> >
>>> > Maybe they are just incompetent. But I think it's worse than that.
>>> >
>>> > On stage, Ehikian asked GSAi to "write me a plan to rewrite the FAR"
>>> >
>>> > The FAR, Federal Acquisition Regulations, are laws that control how the
>>> > gov't buys stuff. They are legendary in their complexity for a good
>>> > reason: to prevent corruption. To protect taxpayer money from theft by
>>> > beltway bandits.
>>> >
>>> > The AI's "plan" to simplify the FAR was generic and unusable, of
>>> course.
>>> > But it is a subject that Ehikian and DOGE keep returning to:
>>> > Contracting. Acquisition. The money.
>>> >
>>> > They want to file the corners off of the process that regulates
>>> > government spending. They want to consolidate all government contracts
>>> > in one place. And put AI in charge.
>>> >
>>> > I believe the firings and the AI have the same purpose: to get humans
>>> > out of the loop of evaluating contracts. To automate the process of
>>> > spending government money. To rig up a computer that sends taxpayer
>>> > dollars directly to the broligarchy. And to make sure democracy can't
>>> > switch that computer off.
>>> >
>>> >
>>> >
>>> > [1] https://www.wired.com/story/gsa-staff-all-hands-meeting-ai/
>>> >
>>> > --
>>> > | |||||||||||||||| http://felix.openflows.com |
>>> > | |||||||||| https://tldr.nettime.org/@festal |
>>> > | for secure communication, please use signal |
>>> >
>>> >
>>> >
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>>
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