What if the Anti-Christ was not a person at all?

[forrestkc]

Ok first off, I probably should point out that the entire End Times / Biblical Prophecy stuff has no appeal to me at all. I am just not into it. The way I see it, the world may end tomorrow, or it may go on for another 4 billion years. So I don't spend my time looking for signs of the end or a coming rapture and all that.

Just the same I got to thinking: What if the Anti-Christ was not even a human? What if it were a super computer instead. I work in I.T. and computers are literally trillions of times more powerful today than the original computer in the 1940s. Today, parallel processing is becoming very common place. In the last year or so, almost every computer sold contained a dual-core processor. For reasons that I will not go into for fear of boring most people, this trend will only continue. This year we will probably see quad-core processor home computers as common place and next year, probably 8 or more cores per processor and so on and so forth. Artificial intelligence is contingent on parallel processing. Basically, a computer must be able to do more than one operation at the exact same time. In the past it might have appeared that your home computer was doing this, but it was in effect faking it by implementing what is referred to as task switching.

With all these multi-core machines being common place, the world's community of developers will aquire the skills nessisary to take advantage of multiple cores. This is basically called parallel tasking and multiple threading. Granted, this type of programming has been around for a long time, but until recently it was largely relegated to higher end server applications. Now that it will be common place in the desktop world, hundreds of thousands of developers will be adding this type programming to their skill sets.

Now, multi-threading and parallel tasking is the basic foundation of artificial intelligence programming. Thus, the logical conclusion is that as new hardware and programming technologies are developed and adopted, we are going to see more and more "thinking" done by computers in the home and business place. At some point in the fairly near future it will be quite possible that the technology will exist to develop truly "intelligent computers". In our lifetimes, it is quite possible that computers could actually exceed the intelligence of man, especially super computer clusters. Of course, along the way, as computers became even more capable, we would give them even more responsibilities in our societies and economies.

So, it seems to me at least, that the Anti-Christ, if he were to show up, could actually be a super intelligent computer, not a man. This seem at all plausible to anyone?

[RustyAngeL]

No. I find that very hard to even comprehend. I think that the Anti Christ is alive even as we speak.

[forrestkc]

No. I find that very hard to even comprehend. I think that the Anti Christ is alive even as we speak.

Think about it though. Assuming that in 30 years we have computers that are actually intelligent, and possibly more intelligent than we are, those computers would control virtually all aspects of our economy, defense, and society in general. In fact, computers already pretty much do that. So, if a computer could actually "think" on its own, could it not do evil things?

[kenod]

No. I find that very hard to even comprehend. I think that the Anti Christ is alive even as we speak.

I believe you are right. The antichrist spirit existed in John's day. It is spiritual, and it is deceptive (close to the true).

[kenod]

Think about it though. Assuming that in 30 years we have computers that are actually intelligent, and possibly more intelligent than we are, those computers would control virtually all aspects of our economy, defense, and society in general. In fact, computers already pretty much do that. So, if a computer could actually "think" on its own, could it not do evil things?

You need to be able to support your ideas with Scriptural evidence. This means putting all the evidence together to reach a conclusion.

That computers could be used by the antichrist (beast) is quite possible, I think.

[Giaour]

The only way to be sure is to compare it to scripture.

I say no way.

Not a computer.

[forrestkc]

I realize that this whole notion is what C.S. Lewis would call a "suppositive".

Just the same, why could a thinking, and thinking is the key, a future super computer not be the anti-Christ? If a computer were truly intelligent, then it could do evil right?

[kenod]

I realize that this whole notion is what C.S. Lewis would call a "suppositive".

Just the same, why could a thinking, and thinking is the key, a future super computer not be the anti-Christ? If a computer were truly intelligent, then it could do evil right?

You don't think the computer (internet) already does evil?

I suggest you read

2 Thessalonians 2

1 John 2:18-27

Rvelation 13

Revelation 17

and put your ideas to the Test.

[forrestkc]

I realize that this whole notion is what C.S. Lewis would call a "suppositive".

Just the same, why could a thinking, and thinking is the key, a future super computer not be the anti-Christ? If a computer were truly intelligent, then it could do evil right?

You don't think the computer (internet) already does evil?

I suggest you read

2 Thessalonians 2

1 John 2:18-27

Rvelation 13

Revelation 17

and put your ideas to the Test.

The internet does not do evil. People use the internet for evil purposes. What I am saying is that much of prophecy in the Bible is figurative, thus the Anti-Christ not being a man is not completely out of the question. A being must be able to think and recognize right from wrong in order to do something on its own that would be evil. What I am saying is that in our lifetimes, computers may well reach that level of intelligence.

[MorningGlory]

Ok first off, I probably should point out that the entire End Times / Biblical Prophecy stuff has no appeal to me at all. I am just not into it. The way I see it, the world may end tomorrow, or it may go on for another 4 billion years. So I don't spend my time looking for signs of the end or a coming rapture and all that.

Just the same I got to thinking: What if the Anti-Christ was not even a human? What if it were a super computer instead. I work in I.T. and computers are literally trillions of times more powerful today than the original computer in the 1940s. Today, parallel processing is becoming very common place. In the last year or so, almost every computer sold contained a dual-core processor. For reasons that I will not go into for fear of boring most people, this trend will only continue. This year we will probably see quad-core processor home computers as common place and next year, probably 8 or more cores per processor and so on and so forth. Artificial intelligence is contingent on parallel processing. Basically, a computer must be able to do more than one operation at the exact same time. In the past it might have appeared that your home computer was doing this, but it was in effect faking it by implementing what is referred to as task switching.

With all these multi-core machines being common place, the world's community of developers will aquire the skills nessisary to take advantage of multiple cores. This is basically called parallel tasking and multiple threading. Granted, this type of programming has been around for a long time, but until recently it was largely relegated to higher end server applications. Now that it will be common place in the desktop world, hundreds of thousands of developers will be adding this type programming to their skill sets.

Now, multi-threading and parallel tasking is the basic foundation of artificial intelligence programming. Thus, the logical conclusion is that as new hardware and programming technologies are developed and adopted, we are going to see more and more "thinking" done by computers in the home and business place. At some point in the fairly near future it will be quite possible that the technology will exist to develop truly "intelligent computers". In our lifetimes, it is quite possible that computers could actually exceed the intelligence of man, especially super computer clusters. Of course, along the way, as computers became even more capable, we would give them even more responsibilities in our societies and economies.

So, it seems to me at least, that the Anti-Christ, if he were to show up, could actually be a super intelligent computer, not a man. This seem at all plausible to anyone?

No, the bible makes reference to a man. A computer would not be capable of all consuming evil either, no matter how 'super'. Evil is a solely human attribute if you don't count Satan; even vicious animals are incapable of evil. It's a very interesting theory though.