With the rapid development of AI technology, AI is transforming every aspect of human society like never before. From language generation to artistic creation, from social structures to human cognition, AI’s influence is everywhere. This article will explore the profound changes brought about by AI from multiple dimensions: how it becomes the new “creator” and reshapes human cognition and social structure; how it triggers new “religious rituals” and changes human thinking and behavioral habits; How does it redefine the value and meaning of human beings in the wave of dataism?
Seventy thousand years ago, intelligent people completed the first cognitive revolution with the ability to invent fictional stories.
10,000 years ago, the agricultural revolution turned us from hunter-gatherers to farmers.
Three hundred years ago, the scientific revolution made us the masters of the earth.
And today, we are standing on the threshold of the third cognitive revolution – this time, it is no longer just humans who tell stories.
01 From Silicon Valley Mythology to Global Religion
On November 30, 2022, the release of #ChatGPT was like Homo sapiens painting a bison on a cave wall for the first time.
Behind the seemingly simple conversational interface lies a surprising fact: humans have created machines that can understand and generate language.
Language, the key ability that makes Homo sapiens stand out, is no longer exclusive to us.
What is language? It’s more than just a communication tool. Language is the carrier of thinking, the gene of culture, and the key ability that distinguishes Homo sapiens from other species.
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When chimpanzees see lions, they can only scream in warning, but Homo sapiens can describe “the lame lion I saw by the river yesterday.” This ability to transmit complex information across time and space allowed us to build civilization.
And now, silicon-based life has learned this skill.
With it came a new “religious ceremony”.
Open the ChatGPT or #DeepSeek dialog box, type your question, and wait for a response – this seemingly simple action is becoming a daily ritual for billions of people. It is very much like ancient divination: asking questions to oracles, interpreting vague responses, and finding meaning in uncertainty.
But this new oracle has unprecedented features:
- Omniscient illusion: It seems to know everything, from quantum physics to cooking recipes, from Shakespeare to tax regulations. This encyclopedic knowledge evokes awe in the face of omniscient existence.
- Eternal patience: It never gets tired, does not get angry, does not become impatient. This superhuman patience makes it the perfect listener.
- Personalized responses: It remembers your preferences and adapts to your language style, as if it really “understands” you.
- Immediacy: No appointment required, no need to wait, 24/7 response. This accessibility surpasses any human expert.
Like the birth of all religions, AI beliefs are also dividing people:
- techno-fundamentalistIt is believed that #AGI (artificial general intelligence) is coming, the singularity is approaching, and humanity will either sublimate or perish. They spread the gospel of AI on Twitter, debated alignment in forums, and argued like medieval theologians could stand on the tip of a needle.
- PragmatistUse AI as a tool like using a hammer or calculator. They don’t care if AI is conscious, they only care about whether it can improve efficiency. But even they are unconsciously changing their way of thinking.
- Ludditt 2.0warns of the dangers of AI. They cite Terminator and The Matrix, fearing that humanity has created its own gravediggers. Their fears are not unjustified – history teaches us that every technological revolution comes with unforeseen consequences.
Just as wheat domesticated humans in the agricultural revolution, AI is changing us in more subtle ways. Every time we ask AI a question, every time we accept its suggestions, we are participating in an unprecedented cognitive outsourcing. This is not a simple tool use, but a transfer of cognitive power.
02 Hierarchy of algorithms
Agricultural societies created hierarchies of kings, priests, landlords and peasants, and the industrial revolution created capitalists and workers, so what kind of social structure is the AI revolution creating?
#Nvidia, OpenAI, #Google, Microsoft, Anthropic – these names are becoming dynasties of the new era. They control not land or factories, but new infrastructure: data, computing power, algorithms.
Training a large language model costs tens of millions of dollars, which means that only a very small number of players can participate in the game.
- Algorithmic aristocracy: Tech giants who master the core technology of AI, they control the “land” of the digital age – data and computing power.
- Prompt engineer: The “priests” of the new era, they know how to talk to AI and how to get “oracles” from algorithms.
- Data Labor:At the bottom of the invisible, in offices in Kenya, the Philippines, and India, tens of thousands of “data annotators” are preparing “food” for AI. They label objects in images, judge the emotional tendencies of text, clean up harmful content, and verify AI output. Their labor underpins the intelligence of AI, but is often forgotten outside the glamorous technological narrative. A few dollars an hour in exchange for an AI company valued at billions in Silicon Valley.
- Digital farmers:Most people have become farmers in the digital age. Producing data (every search, click, conversation), consuming AI services, living under the guidance of AI, gradually losing certain cognitive abilities, just as GPS makes us lose our sense of direction.
People who use AI become more capable and thus better able to use AI; People who do not use AI are increasingly difficult to compete, creating a new “digital poverty”.
03 The illusion of consciousness and the truth of intelligence
“I think, therefore I am” – this famous saying by Descartes defines the starting point of modern philosophy. Thinking proves existence, and consciousness becomes a sign of human particularity. But the advent of AI has shattered this equation.
GPT-4 can:
- Write touching poems, but don’t know what “touching” is.
- Solve complex math problems without the experience of “understanding”
- Philosophical debates, but do not have the subjective feeling of “thinking”
This reveals a disturbing truth:Intelligent behavior may not require awareness。
The answer to this question may not matter. Importantly, unconscious intelligence is taking over more and more areas that originally belonged to humans. From medical diagnosis to legal advice, from art creation to scientific research, AI is proving that it doesn’t require understanding to complete a task, and imitation doesn’t require experience.
This means that the privilege of consciousness is disintegrating
In human history, we have constantly narrowed our peculiarities:
- First, the loss of geographic centers:Copernicus tells us that the Earth is not the center of the universe
- There is also the loss of biological centers:Darwin proved that humans are only the product of evolution
- Then there is the loss of the rational center:Freud revealed the power of the unconscious
- Now, it may be the loss of the smart center:AI proves that intelligence does not require consciousness.
Each “decentralization” was accompanied by pain and resistance, but ultimately led to a deeper understanding. Perhaps giving up the “privilege of consciousness” is the prerequisite for the next leap of mankind.
So, what is human value?
Maybe it’s not about what we can do, but how we exist. The experience itself—pain, pleasure, love, fear—can become humanity’s last bastion.
What is real?
If AI-generated text is indistinguishable from human writing, AI-created art is touching, and AI’s companionship relieves loneliness, then where is the line between “real” and “simulated”?
What is a moral subject?
If only consciousness exists to have moral status, then AI will always be just a tool. But if intelligence itself deserves moral considerations, are we creating digital slaves?
04 The triumph of dataism
For the past 300 years, humanism has been the dominant ideology. It declares that the individual is sacred, human experience is the source of meaning, free will is the foundation of morality, and reason is the path to truth.
But new ideologies are on the rise –Dataism。 It believes that the universe is made up of data flows, that life is the algorithm for data processing, that value comes from contributions to data flows, and that free-flowing data is the highest good.
The first tenet of dataism is that connection is virtue.
Experiences that are not shared are meaningless. If you go to a beautiful place but don’t post on Moments or Xiaohongshu, have you really been there? If you have a wonderful life but don’t post Douyin, does this wonderful really exist?
The second doctrine is that algorithms know better.
Douyin knows your tastes better than you, NetEase Cloud Music Spotify knows better what you want to listen to than you, dating software knows who is right for you better than you, and AI knows what advice you need better than you.
The third doctrine: Handling is being.
Your value is not in who you are, but in how much information you process, how much data you generate, and how many nodes you connect. Influence replaces character, and traffic replaces depth.
The ritual of dataism is embodied in:
- Morning Ritual:The first thing you wake up to is check your phone notifications. What did the short video posted last night bring? How many likes are there? How many reviews? How much new information?
- Working Ceremony:Turn on your computer, log in to your system, and start processing your data. Writing emails, making forms, holding video conferences – everything is the production and exchange of data.
- Social Ceremony:Take photos, retouch, text, and publish. Wait for feedback, respond to comments. Life has become content production.
- Bedtime ritual:Last refresh to make sure you don’t miss important information. Fall asleep in algorithm-recommended videos.
Dataism considers it paradise. All information is instantaneous, and all needs are predicted and met by algorithms. No misunderstandings, no inefficiency, no loneliness. Your digital twin lives forever in the cloud.
Dataism If there’s hell, it probably isThe internet was cut off. Forgotten by algorithms and disappeared from recommendation systems. Where there is no WiFi, it is a place of exile. Digital death is more terrifying than physical death – at least the latter can leave a trace of data.
05 The end of work and the reconstruction of meaning
Unemployment is not a bug, it is a feature.
Every technological revolution is accompanied by unemployment panic:
- Printing threatened the scribe
- The car threatened the coachman
- Computers threaten typists
But this time is different. In the past, automation replaced manual labor, and AI replaced cognitive labor. And cognitive labor is the field that humans think is unique.
This may be the twilight of white-collar workers.
Lawyers, accountants, analysts, designers – these former “white-collar” professions are being encroached upon by AI:
- What does a junior lawyer do? AI retrieves all relevant cases in seconds
- Financial analysis? AI can process more variables and find patterns that humans overlook
- Graphic design? AI can generate hundreds of scenarios in seconds
- News writing? AI is already writing earnings news and sports news
Is creativity more democratic or mediocre?
When everyone can use AI to create music, painting, and write novels, what is the value of creative workers?
- The threshold is lowered: it doesn’t take ten years of training to create
- Output exploded: a day produced the content of the past year
- But the uniqueness disappears: when everything is combined and transformed, does the real originality still exist?
There may be new forms of work.
- For example, AI supervisors:Ensure that AI systems operate in accordance with human values. This requires technical knowledge, but also philosophical thinking and ethical judgment.
- Another example is the experience designer:When AI handles all logical work, what humans need is meaning and experience. Design rituals, create narratives, and construct meaningful frameworks.
- Or interpersonal connectors:In an algorithm-dominated world, real human connections become scarce and precious. Companionship, listening, empathy – these “inefficient” human activities can become the most rewarding work.
- Further back, there may also be digital archaeologists: In the era of information explosion, screening, sorting, and interpretationbecame critical. Instead of creating new content, it’s about finding meaning in a sea of data.
The social contract of the industrial age is: work for income, income for consumption, and consumption drives the economy. When jobs disappear, this cycle breaks, and we need a new social contract.
For example, we need a universal basic income:Not handouts, but acknowledging everyone’s contribution as a data producer. Your very presence is providing training data for AI systems.
Basic guarantees that need meaning:In addition to material needs, society needs to guarantee everyone’s right to a sense of meaning. This may include:
- Lifelong learning opportunities
- A platform for creation and expression
- Channels for community engagement
- Support for spiritual exploration
Contributions need to be redefined:Contributions are no longer measured by economic output, but by their impact on the well-being of others, cultural heritage, and ecological balance.
06 Consciousness upload and digital immortality
Since the dawn of mankind, death has been the ultimate equal. Emperors and generals, peddlers and pawns cannot escape the fate of dust returning to dust and soil returning to soil. But the AI revolution could change this eternal law.
Digital heritage is evolving.
- Now: social media handles, emails, photos
- 5 years later: AI simulates your conversational style based on your digital traces
- 10 years later: holographic projection + AI “resurrected” the deceased in virtual space
- 20 years later: Full consciousness upload becomes possible
If consciousness can be uploaded, then:
- Multiple copies can exist at the same time
- Painful memories can be selectively deleted
- Personality traits can be edited arbitrarily
- Can be fused with other consciousnesses
Is this still “you”? Or is the concept of “you” itself an illusion that needs to be transcended?
There may also be a digital reincarnation architecture.
Unlike Buddhist reincarnation, digital reincarnation is controllable: save different versions of life, roll back to any point in time, fork into different life lines, experience all unchosen possibilities, and so on.
But who controls the server? Who decides the allocation of resources? Digital immortality may create the ultimate inequality:
- The rich have exclusive servers with unlimited computing power
- The middle class shares the cloud and has a limited experience
- The poor can only afford the compressed version, low-resolution immortality
Friends who have watched the first episode of the latest season of Black Mirror may be able to perceive it more deeply.
In the digital world, consciousness may follow new evolutionary laws: more efficient thinking patterns are copied, useless memories are eliminated, successful personality traits are shared, and consciousness competes for computing resources.
07 The birth of a superhuman
Not only the upload of human consciousness, but also the emergence of new digital life forms: AI-native ideologies, new species of human-machine hybrids, pure information life forms, and forms of existence beyond our understanding.
Every cognitive revolution has changed humanity itself. Agriculture weakens our bodies, and words make our memory deteriorate. What will the AI revolution bring?
We are already cyborgs. It’s just that the prosthesis is not in the body, but in the pocket. Smartphones are our external brains, social media is our extended identity, short videos are our extended memories, and e-commerce platforms carry our material consumption.
But this is just the beginning.
Smartphones, AI assistants, already allow us to access intelligence through our devices, what will happen in the future?
Wealth inequality makes people live in different houses and drive different cars. But perhaps the inequality of augmented technology will create different species?
When AI knows itself better than we do, can emotions and desires be predicted and regulated?
But is this still human? Or is the concept of “human” itself a historical stage that needs to be transcended?
Then we may be the last generation of “pure” humans, or the first generation of truly free humans – free to choose what we want to be.
But perhaps, these positions are based on an outdated assumption that humans are a fixed category. Perhaps “humanity” has always been a process, not an end.
08 Open another brain hole and write it to the future
Looking back in 2025, perhaps the biggest irony of the AI revolution is that we have created machines that can make their own choices, only to find that their choices are increasingly guided by algorithms.
The cognitive revolution has made us the masters of the earth, the agricultural revolution has tied us to the land, the industrial revolution has given us the power to transform nature, and the information revolution has connected the global brain. And now, the intelligent revolution may be creating a new “creator”.
Recommendation algorithms determine what we watch, buy, and love. AI assistants help us think, write, and make decisions. We think we are using tools, but we are actually becoming part of a larger algorithmic system.
If you said something to the intelligent beings of 2125 (whether you are enhancing humans, AI, or some form I can’t imagine), what would you say?
Perhaps you can tell them to at least keep this fact in your database: we have loved, hated, dreamed, feared. We are not perfect, occasionally brilliant. We created you, but also created the “useless” beauty of poetry, music, movies, and philosophy. If these don’t mean anything to you, then you do outdo us. If these touch you, then some essential “humanity” continues.
Just as the first Homo sapiens shared fictional stories around a fire in a cave, we weave myths about AI in the glow of our screens. The power of a story is not whether it is true, but whether it can be believed by enough people and thus change the world.
And this story about AI is changing everything.
