JOE HAWKINS/
While fear-based narratives prepare people psychologically to join a global cult, technology - especially artificial intelligence (AI) and digital surveillance - provides the mechanism to enforce conformity. In the past, totalitarian regimes relied on human informants, secret police, and brute force to control populations. The emerging AI-driven, algorithmic control systems promise to be far more efficient and pervasive - a digital net over humanity that could fulfill the vision of Revelation 13's Beast system like nothing before.
We live in an age where algorithms quietly influence our thoughts, choices, and behaviors every day. Social media feeds are curated by AI algorithms designed to maximize engagement - often by promoting emotionally charged content that keeps us hooked. This has led to well-documented phenomena of echo chambers and radicalization online; people are fed more of what they "like" or what provokes them, creating parallel realities of information.
In effect, AI algorithms manipulate public opinion at scale, though subtly. As one report aptly put it, "Some of our most popular technologies are becoming a means of mass coercion that open societies cannot survive." By serving up a tailored diet of content, AI can amplify certain narratives and suppress others, influencing what entire segments of society accept as true.
Furthermore, the rise of Generative AI (like advanced chatbots) introduces a new frontier of information control. On one hand, these AIs can flood the internet with content - potentially even convincing deepfake news or propaganda, making it hard to discern truth. On the other, and perhaps more insidiously, the major AI systems come with built-in "guardrails" that filter what information or answers they will provide. Ostensibly meant to prevent "harm," these guardrails can end up hiding information, enforcing conformity, and inserting bias in a way that users cannot see.
A Time magazine analysis warned that the fear of AI being misused is leading to preemptive censorship by AI itself - where the system's controllers decide what is harmful or disallowed content, and the AI simply refuses to output it. The authors note this could create an internet where AI invisibly shapes the knowledge ecosystem, nudging people only toward approved views. In their words, "guardrails erected to keep [AI] from generating harm [could] turn them into instruments of hiding information, enforcing conformity, and... bias."
We already see how this might play out: if one asks certain AI systems to explain a controversial issue from an angle that contradicts mainstream narratives, the AI often demurs, citing "harm" or "safety" policies. Thus, AI could become the perfect tool for censorship, far beyond what human moderators could achieve. AI doesn't get tired, it can monitor billions of posts and communications, and it can be tuned to filter out dissent automatically. In short, the future of censorship is AI-driven. Time magazine bluntly titled an article: "The Future of Censorship Is AI-Generated," noting that governments and Big Tech are eager to determine what information is "safe" for consumption, and AI will vastly enhance their ability to do so.
The enforcement of social orthodoxy via algorithms is already familiar to anyone who has been temporarily banned on social platforms for speaking against prevailing views on health, politics, or other sensitive topics. As AI gets more integrated into all software (search engines, word processors, etc.), one can imagine a scenario described in the Time piece: "Imagine a world where your word processor prevents you from analyzing or reporting on a topic deemed 'harmful' by an AI programmed to only process ideas that are 'respectful and appropriate for all.'"
It sounds Orwellian - because it is. The tools we rely on could quietly nudge or even coerce us into line with approved opinions. This is a powerful conditioning: over time, people simply stop attempting to express or even think contrary thoughts because the system has trained them that such thoughts are not allowed.
Another component is the dependency on AI and digital systems for daily life. As we integrate AI assistants, smart devices, and algorithms into every facet (from navigation to healthcare to banking), our capacity to function independently erodes. Should those systems be weaponized or centrally controlled, resistance becomes difficult. For example, if a future regime decides to deplatform someone entirely from digital services (as has happened on a smaller scale to controversial figures losing social media, PayPal, etc.), that person is effectively silenced and crippled economically. Widespread AI usage can make such personalized control seamless.
Now, imagine when most transactions are digital and cash is phased out. Many countries are exploring CBDCs, which would give central banks direct control over individuals' spending (each "wallet" can be tracked, and potentially restrictions coded: e.g., money that can only be spent on certain items, or that expires if not used). If a social-credit-like system were layered on a CBDC, dissenters could be instantly cut off from buying and selling with a keystroke.
Revelation 13:16-17 looms: "He causes all... to receive a mark... that no one may buy or sell except one who has the mark..." It is remarkably feasible in the near future. The "mark" could well be some form of digital ID or credential that is linked to your financial access. Without it, your digital wallet simply won't function for transactions. We see precursors: during COVID, some places required digital vaccine passes to enter stores or workplaces - a concept of health passport that can easily extend to a broader digital ID controlling access to society.
Artificial Intelligence supercharges this control. With AI monitoring vast data streams - from CCTV cameras (China has hundreds of millions of facial-recognition cameras), to online behavior, to financial records - a regime can get an accurate "profile" of each person's loyalty and compliance. AI can flag "suspicious" behavior (perhaps someone reading forbidden material, or meeting with dissidents) in real time. In Xinjiang, China reportedly uses AI to flag certain phrases or religious expressions in phone communications of the Uyghur population, aiding their oppressive surveillance. These capabilities will only grow.
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