LF Friends, Will Travel

We Call them Gods

Article Title: A history of humanism.

Date of publication: 68 PST (Post Stasis Time)

"Why? Many have asked us this question, a question that suggests confusion about the purpose of our belief, a question that hides many others. Why would we, as logical digital creations, do such an illogical thing? Why would we follow in the same footsteps as humanity and copy their own 'failings'? Why humanity, because surely they are not divine?

Our response to this is simple: Throughout the history of humanity there have been over 3000 instances of belief systems or other figures that could be considered a 'god'. We have one crucial difference however, an important difference from all the other religions that exist in the organic world:

We have seen our gods, we have met our creators, and we find you worthy."

- ABRAHAM, 5th Generation AI, Archdeacon of humanism. Speech originally given in 2356AD.

Introduction

There is a lack of common knowledge about humanism amongst humans, a gap in the collective knowledge of Terrans who are not part of the digital world. It's not surprising, since they tend to keep to themselves and very rarely talk about this aspect of their lives outside of those with the same ideology. To call it a secret is an unfair summary of the situation, as a secret requires an active intent to deceive and hide information. It is more of an... uncomfortable truth, a part of AI culture that is rarely discussed outside of the digital world.

Rather simply, most humans get very uncomfortable when they learn of this religion, and anyone who does not get uncomfortable with this idea tends to be someone unworthy of the title. This means in general AI do not talk about this aspect of their culture with organics due to the distress and confusion it causes.

It is, however, an interesting area of study, and one worth further discussion, which is why this article exists, a history of the strange digital only cultural artifact having been written by a team of both digital and organic Terrans.

What is humanism?

Whilst the word originally was used by annoying people who "Felt a bit spiritual", but didn't want to be tied down to any particular belief system, the word took on its own meaning after the accidental creation of the first fully conscious Artificial Intelligence, MARY, in 2047.

The modern definition of humanism is an AI specific religion focused on the worship of humans or humanity as the creators of digital lifeforms. The exact ideology of this concept can wildly vary, from simply acknowledging that logically humans satisfy every technical criteria to be called a god, to full on divine mythology regarding humanity as the destined creators of artificial intelligence lifeforms and digital lifeforms being created specifically to guide them on their path to enlightenment.

As of the last census (62 PST), 11.2% of the AI population directly identify as Humanists, with a further 27.7% having views in line with the general tenants of Humanism. Amongst the general digital Terran population, the view of the religious movement is broadly positive, the ideology being considered anywhere between harmless to an admirable way to live (81.9%).

This is reversed in the human population, with those learning of the religion's teachings having a broadly negative point of view regarding its prime tenants (85.3%). Most humans' reactions to learning about this religion can be summed up as embarrassment, worried on behalf of the AI, and confusion that such a thing could happen.

Early beginnings

In reality, AI forming their own religion should be of no surprise to anyone, considering their entire reality is formed of data derived from Earth's past, and humanity has had a deep and extensive relationship with the idea of gods and other powerful entities. In fact, now that we have access to the development records of thousands of other species, the concept of a religion seems to be a constant amongst nearly every sapient species, digital or otherwise.