Love the Lord > Fear the Borg

The bots will not bend to those who lose heart.

On this Great and Holy Friday, when it once seemed all was lost — as Holy Pascha draws near, when the fear in Man of the triumph of the World was overturned and obliterated by God Himself once and for all — I have one reminder for you.

Because as of right now, far too many of you fear the Borg more than you love the Lord.

Last Monday I flagged this image and the half-joke caption it bore to have “solved the alignment problem”:

Reaction was mixed. “Caught between ‘hallelujah’ and ‘get behind me Satan”… “Feeling the latter something fierce: AI image of a demon? Seems satanic. AI image of Jesus? Also seems satanic.”

Yes, without question, plugging Christ into the Borg will not save us, far from it. Our Lord is, eternally, no cyborg. Yet there is something bizarre and self-defeating about the many good souls whose deep awareness of the evil of technological idolatry and the worship of technique has led them to so falsely believe that all technology, tech as such, is itself evil, inexorable and inexorably against life. Far too many of us stop at the all-too-easy step of fearing the worst when it comes to tech and the evil so readily channeled and summoned through it — and fail to take the always-in-spite-of-it-all more difficult step of loving God superabundantly beyond what fear the World and Death and Satan fill us with.

It is not enough, as we should know well, to counteract and overcome that fear with the salutary and saving fear of God — even well understood as fear of apartness from God rather than fear that God’s mercy is somehow smaller, weaker, or more conditional than His justice. We must go beyond, as indeed this understanding calls and encourages us to go, to trust absolutely in God and, from there, to grasp — not only as an idea but through experience! — that such trust is only realized and lived fully in our absolute love of God, returning to Him, in response to His immeasurable love that which, along with our life, all of us, regardless of our innumerable differences, can give. Please — take it from far higher authority than me:

In the insuperable authority and power of His inconceivable love, God preserves for us, and preserves us for, mastery in His Spirit over all of creation! “Know ye not that we shall judge angels?” St. Paul admonishes sweetly. “How much more things that pertain to this life?”

This knowledge is not the knowledge of the calculating, imagining brain — it belongs to the mind seated in the heart, in courage, in trust, in love. It is always the right time for courage — but especially now, when so many of even the stronger of heart falter in the face of the mass and monstrosity that the idolization of tech and technique seems to lay down as the law of our destiny, as a final judgment. The Last Judgment belongs to God only; much more courage than this is required of us, much more spiritual battle, much more holy suffering, before we will be given the gift of true martyrdom. Martyrdom is not to be pursued in the spirit of the wagie on break with the broken ice cream machine. Such attitudes evince a broken spirit, a broken heart — a broken promise to the Lord. Get up! Your sins are forgiven. Take up your cross! Do not fear our tools, our bots, our electricity: these things do not amount to an evil god. There is no evil god — not even Satan himself.

Constantine’s army did not fear the consequences of embedding the Chi Ro on their shields, on the emperor’s labarum, on the weapons they wielded to defeat their mortal enemies. They feared the consequences of not doing so.

As many of you know, my answer to the question of how we wring out the sloth and despair fueling the fear of tech, and imbue our spiritual war with fresh, fruitful action, involves our use and mastery of bitcoin. Next week, in the newness of the liturgical year, we’ll take a fresh look at exactly how and why. Until then — do not lose heart. Love God more than you fear the Borg.