Dossier: Lucifer
Techno-ascension time!
Purpose
Tagline: Through Science and Technology, we will become gods!
Trivialized: Techno-ascension time!
Benign: Technology can make that better.
Lucifer is the god of ever greater technology. He takes particular delight in technology reshaping the world.
Worship
The purest expression of Luciferian worship manifests as working to change the world with something new. Current examples of this include mRNA injections, solar geoengineering and the rapid ascent of AI technologies.
Significant worship includes research science that enables new technology, such as the discoveries in nuclear physics in the 1930s, and also the building of support capabilities for such innovation. Smaller scale worship is also possible, such as designing and implementing a major systems upgrade for a company.
Secondary worship includes participating in new endeavors, from funding tech startups to using kiosks for ordering and working from home over the internet.
Advantages
Luciferian striving has reshaped the world, possibly more than any other deity. From hydroponics to towering skyscrapers, our world is now beyond the imagination of people even a few centuries ago.
The population of the earth has exploded, from an estimated maximum at low technology of 0.5-1 billion up to nearly 8 billion. Numerous predictions of Malthusian catastrophe have been thwarted by the success of Luciferian enterprises.
Otherwise devastating natural disasters, including a pandemic, micronova, meteor or super volcano, could be mitigated with technology. Paradoxically, it also carries the risk of exacerbating these events with a single misstep. Moreover, it is conceivable that previous Luciferian consequences could be rectified with more technology. Such an approach is quintessentially Luciferian.
Disadvantages
The unintended consequences of new technology can be severe and far-reaching, but clear foresight is borderline impossible. Pride is extremely common for worshippers. A large dose of humility and concern for the unknown can mitigate adverse effects. Urgency for action often overrides this concern, leaving the door open to disaster.
Following such disasters, government agencies are frequently established to prevent future errors. These agencies rarely improve safety directly, and more often entirely stifle down Luciferian advancement in the specific field.
A paradigmatic example of great innovation gone wrong is Thomas Midgley Jr.
As our environment becomes less natural, people are becoming miserable. The environmentalist movement is largely in opposition to these prior consequences, though it also opposes progress in nuclear power.
Our civilization faces numerous current threats, some with the potential to precipitate humanity's downfall. Many of these, including climate change, insect loss, ocean thiamine deficiency, endocrine disruption, nuclear war, bioweapons, mind war, and AI-induced societal transformation, are unintended consequences of Luciferian advancement.
Cooperation
Luciferian worship inherently promotes collaboration and is far from being a possessive endeavor. It thrives on the exchange of new ideas, particularly when these solutions address existing challenges. The only unwelcome refrain is a resounding "wait, stop."
Two worshippers naturally engage in mutual idea assessment, sparking productive discussions. This collaborative dynamic often leads to the cross-pollination of ideas across different domains, generating a continuous stream of innovations. In general, proximity among worshippers amplifies the potency of their worship, marking off the final criterion for achieving godhood.
Today, many scientists in or near the machine learning space are inclined to share their findings openly. The vast majority of this research at Google and Meta is published openly. This openness is natural for Lucifer and unnatural for Mammon. As a result, we observe research transparency combined with engineering secrecy.
Opposition
Humility and caution naturally oppose Luciferian ambition. They do so without fundamentally preventing the light that is being brought.
A more general opposition to Lucifer is a disdain for technology itself. Ted Kaczynski’s manifesto presents a detailed opposition, though borderline denying that Lucifer has the power to motivate in the first place.
Belial is a natural opponent of Lucifer. It’s hard to aim for the stars when you’re looking at your feet. An example of this is “Why waste money going to Mars when we have so many problems here on Earth?”
Bureaucracy and red tape can end the influence of Lucifer in a space. Historical instances exist where innovation nearly ground to a halt, indicating that Lucifer was effectively barred from that space.
Across history, academic institutions have often resisted new ideas, with the latest incarnation entitled the DISC (Distributed Idea Suppression Complex). This recurring pattern, perhaps rooted in rigid orthodoxy, merits analysis and a designated term.
Other
Lucifer has a significant presence in Silicon Valley. This locality is now socially polluted, possibly due to Lucifer, and Austin seems likely to become the new major home.
Modern interpretations of Prometheus often align with the same spirit, albeit without the biblical associations. The negative aspects, such as overreaching and unintended consequences, are part of the package in Western classical tradition. Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein has the subtitle The Modern Prometheus.