Dark Aeon: Transhumanism and the War Against Humanity

by Joe Allen, Steve Bannon (Foreword)

Humanity is consumed by relentless transformation
 
Like a thief in the night, artificial intelligence has inserted itself into our lives. It makes important decisions for us every day. Often, we barely notice. As Joe Allen writes in this groundbreaking book, “Transhumanism is the great merger of humankind with the Machine. At this stage in history, it consists of billions using smartphones. Going forward, we’ll be hardwiring our brains to artificial intelligence systems.” 

The world-famous robot, Sophia, symbolizes a rising techno-religion. She takes her name from the goddess—or  Aeon— whose fall from grace is described in the Gnostic Gospels.
 
With an academic background in both science and theology, Allen confronts the paradox of what he calls “good people constructing a digital abomination.”  Dark Aeon  is nothing less than a  cri de coeur  for humanity itself. He takes us on a roller coaster ride through history and the emergence of Scientism, and from government-mandated mRNA vaccines to the weird visions of cyborg billionaires like Elon Musk. 
 
From Silicon Valley to China, these globalists’ visions of humanity’s future, exposed and described in  Dark Aeon , are dire and terrifying. But Joe Allen argues that humanity’s salvation is within our grasp. Only if we refuse to avert our eyes from the impending twilight before us. 

 

Genres: Science, Sociology, Nonfiction, Artificial Intelligence, Technology, Cultural, Politics

504 pages, Hardcover

Published August 29, 2023

Reviews

[Alex · Rating 1 out of 5]

“The finest comment I’ve ever had on an assignment… went something like this: ‘Your sarcasm masks your ignorance. Nothing you have written resembles an argument. I never want to see a paper like this again.’” (280)

This is going to be a long review. I write reviews for myself to “close the book” on things I’ve read, and to help synthesize all the thoughts I’ve had on it. I tab and highlight and write in my books, but uh. This one kinda takes the cake. It’s not often I’m handed a book by an alt-right blogger by my Poppy (a wonderful, intelligent albeit paranoid man), but out of love and respect for him, I chipped away at it for a few weeks.

So, this review is divided into three parts: the author, the lack of good faith this is written in, and the summary. If you’re looking for the actual review, skip to the last section.

Part 1: I can’t tell if this is just some dude or not.

Not to throw you back to English, but what clues you in to whether a source is valid or not? My first clue was “Foreword by Stephen K. Bannon” (one of the co-founders of Breitbart News, chief strategist in the Trump admin). The next clue was the “War Room Books” on the spine. “Books” implies more than one, but on the War Room website, the “books” header just leads to a page for this book, so not much help there.

Alright, what about Joe Allen? Who’s he?

• Another reviewer already linked the numerous right-wing websites he writes for, but the book’s bio adds that he got his master's from Boston University and he's an arena rigger.
• His Gettr/Twitter profiles indicate he’s the “Transhumanism editor” for War Room: Pandemic.
• Dr. Wesley Wildman’s CV says he is a signer on his Master’s thesis in 2017, but like I said, I haven’t been able to find his thesis.

Great! Not helpful, nothing official. So I hopped over to his substack to see if I could glean anything else. Nope - same stuff.

No, literally. Same stuff. The book isn’t just a copy-paste of his substack, but if you were to run an originality report of it on Turnitin, I don’t think the results would be good.

In any case, there are vivid tales of his time doing research with his advisor, but since I can’t find any place he deigns to say what his degree is actually in (and since I can’t find his master’s thesis), I’m forced to assume this is just some dude. Moving on.

Part 2: This book was not written in good faith.
Something my family and friends are probably sick to death of hearing from me is the idea of doing something in good faith. I need to know someone is trying to be impartial, trying to convey an idea in a way that’s helpful and informative. I need citations, and I need the author to not deliberately link these concepts to things he believes - or he believes his audience believes - are scary.

Dark Aeon is a masterclass in bad faith. Take these stats as you will.

• The World Economic Forum/WEF: 41 mentions.
• Gay people/flags: 24 mentions.
• Trans people: 46 mentions
• Vaxx-*: 97 mentions.
• Covid: 113 mentions.
• Leftists/liberals/woke: 41 mentions.
• Ableism/ableist slurs: 11 mentions.

Here’s what my book is tabbed up with:
• Pink/red/violet: Bad faith, grammatical errors or annoying quips (after the “amateurish capitalization” bit on 220 I lost my patience), minority bashing, and slurs.
• Orange/yellow: Uncited ideas, terms he used incorrectly, things he admits to not understanding, and logical inconsistencies.
• Green/lime green: Consequences of capitalism Allen blames on transhumanism
• Blue/teal: Things I found interesting (mostly direct quotes from other authors), novel, or logical. Towards the end he actually says quite a few things I actually agree with.

For our purposes, we’re going to talk about the first three categories in this section, and the last category in the next. If these three tab groups didn’t exist, I wouldn’t have trouble taking Allen seriously, and I wouldn’t feel the need to clown on him.

An exercise in bad faith: 9 honorable mentions (red tabs)

“Former male…his/her…he/she… trans ideology is a slippery slope towards technological oblivion” (70).

Committing to the bit this hard was cringe. Also, that last part was completely uncited, and he does more random dunking on trans people throughout the book.

“In my own experience, the progressive churches’ emphasis on inclusion… [is] about conquering territory [rather] than saving souls” (107).

Uncited and mere paragraphs after “Much of Christianity’s success is due to its unique amplification of kindness - or altruistic instincts - toward other members” (104).

“Luckett’s genocidal metaphor is so twisted” (113-114).

This one is so heinous it gets its own section. More below.

“On the other side were masked, germaphobic, self-righteous, vaxx-addicted, and implicitly genocidal mutants” (137).

“[Techno-utopian leisure, in Rossum’s Universal Robots] leaves women frigid and infertile.”

Citation needed, first of all, and secondly, the way he refers to women is very consistently with disdain: “Eve is formed from Adam… From there, human history begins on precarious footing” (246), “(She is a woman after all)” (281), Sophia is “frigid” (289), and, of course, Hugo de Garis believes women “to be inherently inferior to men in most regards” (329).

“It’s not that I don’t love my enemies” (243) and “Call me a sucker, but I actually like a lot of transhumanists, because by nature I like most people… some, I assume, are good people.” (354-355).

This is a reversal from his previous stance (xvi), and an outright lie. But thanks for the Trump reference.

“In academia, I learned that many of our brightest minds are more interested in social status… [and what] will get them tenure. These days, that’s just university culture” (244).

Sources needed.

“‘I want you to experience frictionless entry.’ Sounds like prison slang to me.” (263) and “[A] war on retardation” (265-267).

“The Greater Replacement” (326)

Unsurprisingly, this run-on sentence of a blog post needs to keep you interested by peppering in insults aimed at the usual outgroups. Trans people, gay people (he really likes to talk about gay men), people in academia (while citing their studies), the “woke” liberals, women, non-white people, and immigrants. There’s probably more, but I’ve gone nose-blind and this review would be about as long as the book if I listed them all. It’s lazy, it’s boring, it’s inflammatory, and it’s there to signal to the rest of his alt-right people that he’s on their side. He’ll mention people on the right who espouse crazy beliefs (but won’t name them, so as to not drag their name through the mud (253)), and he’ll make sure the reader knows he’s a “huge fan[, and] he always [has] been” of.. Steve Bannon? Alex Jones? It’s made unclear to the reader.

But being a big fan of either one of them is antithetical to his claim of loving his enemies and liking most people. He doesn’t have to say he hates most people that aren’t himself, it comes with the reflexive downward punches that sound like they come from a fourteen-year-old playing Fortnite. One that very clearly fell into the alt-right pipeline on Youtube circa 2016 if co-opting “The Great Replacement” to make white people scared says anything, but his biased treatment of the alt-right as a short-lived, irreverent meme machine (213) is not only uncited, but also completely incorrect. One of the most heinous things he describes is the alt-right co-opting of “poz,” which refers to someone who is HIV-positive, but whose viral load is undetectable and therefore not infectious. HIV eliminated most of a generation of LGBT adults, and those with HIV are still viewed suspiciously.

It doesn’t stop Allen from stitching together the words of an HIV-positive gay man to suit his own purposes. Of a quote he stitched together from seven paragraphs of text, he says:

“This is cultural eugenics by way of mental bioweapons, where the death angel of natural selection slips the condom off. Luckett’s genocidal metaphor is so twisted, you have to admire him for being so bold.” (214)

I had to stop reading right here and go to the referenced text. This destroyed any semblance of belief in Allen as an author. From The Social Organism:

“Now, think of the words “black lives matter” as a similar broad-based attack on an entire system—and by that I mean as a shock to a flawed, anachronistic system that has not yet evolved to an optimal state of race-blind inclusion and fairness… it’s demanding that society as a whole adhere to a fundamental principle of life itself. It’s an all-out attack on the system. And it does so in the most dramatic, emotion-triggering way…

The other similarity is the mutation cycle…With #BlackLivesMatter, various “mutated” spinoff expressions emerged but held true to the original statement’s sweeping demand for justice. In those we find the power of a strong meme, one that’s capable of evolving and adapting on a grand scale [such as to “Hands Up, Don’t Shoot,” “I Can’t Breathe,” #Ferguson, #MikeBrown, and #TakeItDown.]....

Three years on from its founding, #BlackLivesMatter was not only alive and kicking, it was taking center stage. If HIV is a super-virus, then this is surely a super-meme.”

Now look at that long block quote. I still snipped out most of the seven paragraphs of context used to explain that metaphor, because this is the central dogma of Allen’s writing: snip it, mash it together, explain it in a way that makes sense to a conservative audience.

If it’s said by a gay man or a transwoman, all the better.

For the love of god, do some research: 8 + 2 examples from an irate MPH (yellow tabs)
• A quick list of terms he clearly can’t define (either because they’re used incorrectly or the use implies poor understanding: “Luddite,” “phenotype,” “darwinism,” ”gonadotropin” (not gonadotrophin), “gain-of-function,” and “control group.” Anyway, moving on.

“[W]idely ignored adverse event reports” (141).

Citation needed.

“A few conservative commentators swooned over [ChatGPT’s]... ‘unbiased’ output. In response, OpenAI… constrained the initially unbiased AI with politically correct guardrails… Think of it as a ‘based’ Id locked behind a ‘woke’ SuperEgo” (254).

Biases are baked into AI, because we as humans have biases. The purpose of training AGI is always to try and eliminate these biases. They still exist, by the way.

“Among the more disturbing uses of [deep brain stimulation implants] is the treatment of chronic depression. Imagine using electro-stimulation to make you feel better about the world” (262).

This fool has evidently never heard of using electroconvulsive therapy as curative treatment for treatment resistant depression, I’m guessing.

“[AI] want[s] to hunt us for sport” (329).

Why? Cite your sources.

“With Harvard as our reference point, we can look forward to being called ‘speciesist’” (337).

One guy from Harvard said something, so obviously that’s the consensus.

“Full speciation is almost certain to occur” (338).

No citations on this page.

“By 100 percent pure coincidence, it crept in alongside soul-crushing anti-white tutorials and psychotic sex-ed programs… When confronted, the educators fell back on… ‘[t]hat’s not happening and it’s good that it is” (348-349).

Citations needed.

• Numerous “x group believes,” “y group says,” “z group might think” with 0 citations attached.

• “I have no idea what he’s talking about/whatever/I guess/I assume”

There’s not a whole lot to say about this, other than the fact that Allen is a blogger and “I guess” most of the people subscribing to his substack are willing to take what he says as fact, word for word. Even if it’s misspelled or not what a concept means. Even if it’s totally uncited.

See, if he actually wanted to convince people, he wouldn’t do any of this. This is the nature of virtue signaling: once again, he’s signaling to all of his readers and people on the right that he’s on their side. It’s what makes his reference to “a church, a temple, a synagogue, a
mosque, or a pagan tree” (399) ridiculous, and his assurances that he likes most people outright lies.

But there is inherent danger. When you’re unable to correctly define “control group” and people are taking what you say about AI seriously, it’s more than likely someone’s going to be led astray.

It’s capitalism. What you’re describing is capitalism: 12 quotes from the dude that hates socialism (green tabs)

“In America, [faith in the transcendent] is not occupied by governments so much as the corporations that control government policy, and… on the ground, by gadgets that convey such delusions of grandeur to our minds” (109).

“[F]inance algorithms rake over consumer behavior and stock performance to predict optimal buying and selling decisions… caus[ing] a market crash” (117).

“[G]overnment officials and corporate executives are constantly colluding against their citizens… they cook up various plans to turn any given crisis to their advantage. And when disaster strikes, often due to their own incompetence, they almost always come out on top.” (131).

“[T]hey were disconnected from public spaces and open institutions. Their social ties were severed one by one, disconnecting their organic networks… every social interaction was to be mediated by technology. Friendships, romantic encounters, and family ties were relegated to apps…a flood of new gadgets hit the market.” (135-136).

“Meanwhile, we legacy humans have either lost our jobs to automation or have AI bots micromanaging our work. Our movements are tracked by mass surveillance devices… ;Our free time is spent watching AI-generated movies, amusing ourselves in AI-generated virtual reality, and saying AI-generated prayers to robotic icons.. Corporations hold the real power” (315).

“A culture that values automation over talent and inspiration is no culture at all.” (327)

“Without firing a single shot, these overlapping organizations have conquered half the world… our will is to be replaced” (355)

“Our global elites live like ant queens engorged on royal jelly. Down below, the working classes have been specialized and atomized beyond any roles found in the insect world… they peer down at us from tech centers” (384)

What Allen fails to realize (even though he comes relatively close) is that all of this is the logical outgrowth of capitalism. Automation, surveillance, quantifying your soul? The denigration of you as a human being, AI jesus? The diminishing of human spirituality, creativity? Dude, that’s capitalism. The boogeyman is capitalism.

There’s something in his hindbrain that recognizes it, because he does make continuous references to being replaced by robots and humanity’s economic value going down the drain. But he’ll place the blame on “egghead/schizoid/mad scientists” rather than the capitalists that will benefit.

Christ.

It makes analyzing the arguments actually made in the book somewhat difficult, understanding this.

Part 3: (Some of) the points made are not that bad.

In wading around the keys jangled over the conservative audience’s face to keep their eyes on the pages, Allen does have a few interesting things to say.

Flashes of insight: 6 quotes that aren’t written by an alt-right ChatGPT (blue tabs)

[B]ecause we are raising [AI], we must force ourselves to be nicer people. Otherwise, our wicked tendencies will rub off on this digital deity, and he’ll turn out to be the Beast of Revelation.”

“Most importantly, we told stories to each other - about the little things, and about everything. Just as proteins are encoded into DNA, so humans encode cultural information into language and symbols.” (89)

“[D]ifferent interpretations by sects and denominations are like epigenetic gene expression.” (106)

“It might resemble a human mind in its generality, but ultimately, AGI’s true nature would be a warped simulacrum. Lacking a human body and brain, or normal life experiences, its mind would be utterly alien.” (293)

“We are meant to love our families and friends, celebrate their victories, and pick them up after defeat. We are meant to make love and build new families. We are meant to do useful work for our neighbors…We are meant to be human.” (346)

“[R]ogue AI is nothing but a metaphor for man as he already is.” (347)

These are actually interesting bits of information. Parts of them are striking, parts of them resonate with me at a deep level. It’s difficult for me to articulate how deeply anti-human our current world is, so much of the 55-Point Plan To Stay Human is not unreasonable. Emphasizing humanity rings true to me, on a Juungian level.

Perhaps these are the messages Allen truly wants to get across to his audience, and the key-jingling is necessary to access the group he is most able to connect with. Truth be told, Allen is at his best telling religious stories. His language is evocative, even if it is deceitful. The sources he’s able to compile (even if they’re far from sufficient, and his ability to synthesize them is incredibly poor) are interesting. He brings together a great many sources that are intriguing, but fails to put them together for a message that means anything to anyone outside the group that needs the teething ring of transphobia in order to get through it.

As a whole - as a persuasive document, as a book the reader “can flip to any chapter and dive in[to]”, it is an abject failure. I pushed through this book out of love for my Poppy, but it rapidly devolved into spite and incredulity. This book is riddled with lies and half-truths, bigotry and hatred. It is a manifesto of hatred towards people outside the alt-right whitelist, but since Allen has a particular interest in race-realism and transhumanism, he wrapped those ideas in a picture of Sophia the Robot and slapped “DARK AEON” on it.

If he could restrain himself from dunking on people he doesn’t like every other sentence, maybe he could write another book on religion. Some of his ideas are interesting - but to write nonfiction, you have to cite your sources. And preferably not just stitch some disparate ideas from your blog together until you get a ridiculous tome that you can market as a one-stop-shop for all things transhumanism.

[Dalton · Rating 4 out of 5]

Definitely an interesting read, this is always an idea that terrifies me and this book did a good job of explaining everything a bit more about why I should remain afraid of this idea if it ever comes to happening.

[Brett Stortroen · Rating 5 out of 5]

I was looking for a book which would summarize the Transhumanism and AI movement. Joe Allen's "Dark Aeon" filled the bill. He gives the historical trends and veritable who's who in the industry. As a theological writer myself, I rather enjoyed the religious analysis throughout the work. Well done sir.

[Elijah · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book is not academic or at all trying to be impartial. It's a polemic that veers into 'old man shouting at clouds' territory. It's hilarious. You should read it.

[John Spiri · Rating 5 out of 5]

If you’re wondering whether AI and robots will usher in a golden age or lead to catastrophe, Joe Allen has an answer for you. Allen views the quest to merge man and machine, to live forever, to grant robots consciousness, all akin to madness, or at least a massive wrong turn that could very well lead to human extinction. Allen acknowledges that the leaders of the AI movement have varied aims; his analysis is nuanced. An attractive aspect of this book is Allen doesn’t constantly hammer readers with his convictions. One can actually read long descriptive passages of where AI is going and think, ‘Hey, it's great that technology is going to enhance humanity,’ or ‘the singularity will be a monumental achievement.’ Another attractive aspect is Allen’s writing. His prose, at times rife with wit and sarcasm, can sting; his creative metaphors can make readers laugh. Allen envisions an eventual showdown between “legacy humans,” those who embrace biology, tradition, and a relationship with a higher power, with transhumanists who are eager for the singularity and technological upgrades for humanity. Many of the latter have inverted the spiritual dictum that God created man, and instead believe humanity will soon create a kind of god, a machine-god, omniscient, all powerful, able to grant us immortality. The book is sobering in its pessimism about the mad scramble to inject more and more technology into our lives and redefine our souls. Allen is imploring us to stay human.

The paragraph below from the book is, I think, the author’s own excellent summary.
“This book has been about creating an awareness of possible futures with the hope of destroying the worst of them before they come to pass. Call me a cultural eugenicist if you like, but the idea of elevating “godlike computer software” over human life needs to be strangled in its crib. The Singularity is a colonialist dream at best, where the human race is conquered and subdued by man-made machines. Yet we’re supposed to believe it will be the Machine’s responsibility, or the will of Nature herself. Those terms are not acceptable. At worst, the Singularity—and its cultural echoes—are genocidal nightmares wherein human culture is gutted and digitized, and whatever bodies that remain are melded to the Machine like fatted chickens in a factory farm. Don’t let them pretend it’s anything else.”

[Alanna L.P. · Rating 1 out of 5]

This is some disgusting, populist -ish. From antivaxx hyperventilating to proposing not all races are created equal, it’s what you would expect from someone who is BFF with Steve Bannon. This would be a useful book if the author just stayed in his own lane and stopped sharing disinformation and conspiracy theories about medicine.

By chance, I read this book simultaneously alongside Dr. Fauci’s On Call and it was obvious who the adult in the room was in regards to medicine and spoiler alert, it wasn’t Allen.

Allen sounded like a toddler throwing a temper tantrum because “doctor equals ouchie!” when explaining vaccines next to Dr. Fauci’s scientifically sound and evidence based research. It was hilariously clear that Allen is not a doctor and probably couldn’t even play a convincing one on TV.

In conclusion, I appreciated the tech information and that’s what kept me reading in a “know the enemy” frame of mind. But Allen’s dangerous medical opinions sold as fact were a turn off and ruined this book and my opinion of the author.

This book had potential to inform people if the author just stayed out of his own way.

[Richard Derus · Rating 2 out of 5]

Real Rating: 2.5* of five

The Publisher Says: Humanity is consumed by relentless transformation

Like a thief in the night, artificial intelligence has inserted itself into our lives. It makes important decisions for us every day. Often, we barely notice. As Joe Allen writes in this groundbreaking book, “Transhumanism is the great merger of humankind with the Machine. At this stage in history, it consists of billions using smartphones. Going forward, we’ll be hardwiring our brains to artificial intelligence systems.”

The world-famous robot, Sophia, symbolizes a rising techno-religion. She takes her name from the goddess—or Æon— whose fall from grace is described in the Gnostic Gospels.

With an academic background in both science and theology, Allen confronts the paradox of what he calls “good people constructing a digital abomination.” Dark Æon is nothing less than a cri de coeur for humanity itself. He takes us on a roller coaster ride through history and the emergence of Scientism, and from government-mandated mRNA vaccines to the weird visions of cyborg billionaires like Elon Musk.

From Silicon Valley to China, these globalists’ visions of humanity’s future, exposed and described in Dark Æon, are dire and terrifying. But Joe Allen argues that humanity’s salvation is within our grasp. Only if we refuse to avert our eyes from the impending twilight before us.

It is relevant here to quote the unknown author’s bio from Skyhorse’s website here: Joe Allen has written for Chronicles , The Federalist , Human Events , The National Pulse , Parabola , Salvo , and Protocol: The Journal of the Entertainment Technology Industry . He holds a master’s degree from Boston University, where he studied cognitive science and human evolution as they pertain to religion. As an arena rigger, he’s toured the world for rock n’ roll, country, rap, classical, and cage-fighting productions. He now serves as the transhumanism editor for Bannon’s WarRoom .

I RECEIVED A DRC FROM THE PUBLISHER VIA EDELWEISS+. THANK YOU.

My Review: Regular readers will expect rude comments about religious nuts and radical right-wing conspiracists here. The author is, indeed, a religious nut and a radical-right Koolaid imbiber. Follow any link in his bio that I have left for you.

That does not make him all wrong. There is much to deplore in Musk’s vision of transhuman consciousness. Start with, howinahell can a mere computer contain a human consciousness, let alone millions or billions of them, when the computer is still stuck by the laws of physics in the role of extremely fast calculator? We think a LOT faster than computers, a lot deeper, too. Will the day come when we can upload a human consciousness into an electronic matrix? Maybe. But while it is a good thing to think through the implications of that, and of actual AI not merely the impressively glib LLMs we see today, doing so from this viewpoint is...well...stupid.

For people who claim to base their visions for Humanity on their god’s rule, they have very little faith in her ablity to do stuff for herself...they need to protect this omniscient and omnipotent being from us mere humans’ actions, because they will somehow harm her.

What this book gets wrong is its religion, not mostly wrong like its science. If your omnipotent god does not want transhumanism to occur, it won’t. Simple as that. As she set up rules of physics that present HUGE hurdles to the creation of genuine AI and/or transhuman being, I’d say she has it covered and y’all need to CTFD.

Skyhorse wants $17.99 for an ebook. I say get it out of the library.

[Brian Balke · Rating 1 out of 5]

If machines have superior senses, and greater intelligence and durability than humans, why seek to continue to be human? This is the conundrum considered by Joe Allen in “Dark Aeon.”

Allen’s motivations for addressing this question are unclear. In his survey of the transhumanist movement, he relates experiences that defy categorization and quantification; religious transcendence and social bonding are exemplary, and filled with ambiguities and contradictions that inspire art. Allen seems committed to the belief these experiences are sacred and not reducible to mechanism.

In this quest, Allen discerns a parallel threat in the liberal project of equal opportunity. There is something sacred in our culture identity. Allen is not prejudiced in this view: his survey of the Axial Age reveals commonality where others might argue superiority. Nevertheless, he seems to believe that transcendent experience arises from the interplay between the elements of each culture. Attempting to transplant or integrate elements leaves us marooned in our quest for contact with the divine.

In his humanism and nativism, Allen finds cause with Steve Bannon’s crusade against the administrative state, held to be the locus of transhumanist technology: the corporate CEOs, liberal politicians, and militaries that rely upon data to achieve outcomes that are frustrated by human imprecision. Most of the book is a dissection of their motivations and the misanthropic attitudes of the technologists that drive the work forward.

Allen professes to humility in his judgments, admitting that he has subscribed to wrong-headed intellectual fads. Unfortunately, in his allegiance to Bannon, Allen sprinkles his writing with paranoid characterizations of COVID containment policies and gender dysphoria therapies. We must reach our own conclusions regarding the clarity of his analysis.

For myself, I approached the work as a survey. I know that the mind is far more than the brain. The mechanisms of human intellect are stunning, and the logic gates of our cybernetic systems will never match the density and speed of a harmonious organic gestalt. The original world wide web is known to Christians as the Holy Spirit. As witnessed by Socrates, every good idea is accessible to us even after death. Finally, in the pages of time are held details that are inaccessible even to our most sensitive sensors. In this awareness, I turned to Allen to survey the delusions that allow transhumanism’s proponents to believe that they have the capacity to challenge the Cosmic Mind.

This is not an idle concern. Among the goals of the transhumanist movement is to liberate human intellect from its Earthly home. Humans are not capable of surviving journeys through interstellar space. Of course, to the spiritually sophisticated, the barrier of distance is illusory. We stay on Earth because to be human allows us to explore the expression of love. Those that seek to escape earth as machines are fundamentally opposed to that project. The wealthiest of the wealthy, they gather as the World Economic Forum to justify their control of civilization. They are lizards reclining on the spoils of earlier rampages. The Cosmic Mind that facilitated our moral opportunities possesses powerful antibodies to the propagation of such patterns. Pursuit of these ambitions will bring destruction upon us all. See the movie “Independence Day” for a fable that illuminates the need for these constraints.

Allen is intuitively convicted of this danger and turns to Christian Gnosticism as an organizing myth. Unfortunately, his survey demonstrates that the metaphors are ambiguous and provide inspiration to both sides.

Lacking knowledge of the mechanisms of the Cosmic Mind, Allen is unable to use the unifying themes of Axial religion to eviscerate the mythology of the transhumanist program. But perhaps that would not be sympathetic to his aims. Love changes us, and so its gifts are accessible only to those that surrender control. In his humanism and nativism, Allen is still grasping for control – even if his aims are disguised under the cloak of “freedom.” He wanders in the barren valleys beneath the hilltop citadels erected by the sponsors of the transhumanist project. Neither will find their way into the garden of the Sacred Will.

[R Moltzon · Rating 2 out of 5]

I received Dark Aeon as a gift with the implied request that I express what I thought of it. I found it to be a dense, meandering retelling of many recent decades of science fiction stories, with emphasis on the most dire technological outcomes. This is not to say that there aren’t some legitimate problems outlined in the ponderous telling. AI has advanced (and continues to do so) to the point where society should be concerned whether “sentience” will really be achieved and what that could mean. Gene modification with the invention of CRISPR has raised questions of morality and ethics when applied to humans that countries throughout the world are just now beginning to address. Throughout the book, the author doesn’t hide his political views and cultural biases but generally does a neutral job in delineating technological problems facing society, where people are unaware of the potential outcomes. The author blames capitalists and the freedom of capitalism in the U.S. for advancing AI beyond where it should go and elsewhere, authoritarian governments for weaponizing it. Mankind’s desire to increase longevity and physical capability also come under criticism, as leading to loss of what makes people human. Much of the author’s history and theological arguments are unnecessary to make his point; they tend to detract from the overall work. Dark Aeon repetitively calls out technological problems society faces but as someone I once worked for said: anyone can find problems, bring me solutions. Unfortunately, my view is that in the end, Dark Aeon doesn’t propose solutions that realistically would make a difference. Not an easy read.

[Garrett Brock · Rating 5 out of 5]

"Deus Ex" may never get another sequel but at least you have Joe "Joebot" Allen's madcap inquest into neo-gnostic software worshipers. The digital future is an ugly wasteland and Allen leads readers on a guided tour through all its vistas and downturns. Joe Allen pulls back the curtain to show that world leaders would rather emulate Doctor Doom instead of Gandhi. Public propaganda, backroom rumors, and even dream sequences form a rambling case against the future. Joe Allen's arguments are sometimes implied from information that just fails to connect, sometimes feels like a dead end, but other times delivers unparalleled insight into understanding an over-modern worldview. Each chapters is therefore a surprise. This book dissects an unholy alliance of religion, technology, and business converging to make dystopia reality. It makes an ideal gift for any crazy uncle. Through all of it, Joe Allen is a surprisingly sober narrator. His varying levels of analysis seems mostly driven by sick curiosity. Awful science fiction is attempting to infiltrate reality, he writes. Between those two points is his book. If the promised future wasn't so laughably absurd, this book would be a dire political piece. Instead to me it reads more like a comedy, written by reptilians for electric sheep.

[J M · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a MUST read for you, your children and your grandchildren ,etc.
For those of us familiar with the subject, it maybe have some redux, but a very fine one, with current updates.
We are at a crossroads. People are like sheep being led to the slaughter. This day was coming for along time.
This books lays out the problem for those of you, who have been ignoring it or are ignorant of it.
Stop and read up about many things and people he writes about. You will find some real eye openers. Hadn't seen Sophia in at least 8 yrs. It was a really shocking to look at it/her now. Scary
Don't need to read mindless fiction when you have the spookiest story going on here.
So elated I found this book!

[Raafter · Rating 3 out of 5]

read this because Vanity Fair article said it was Steve Bannon's favorite book. Wanted to see what it was about. Steve B wrote the forward.
Transhumanism is apparently the next step in the development of humans - merging techno gadgets with flesh - or the 'state' wiring into your brain. Joe is a religious philosopher who recites all the historic cases of other authors/philosophers/profits predicting what he is interpreting as Transhumanism. In his appendix Joe lists the 52 things to do to avoid this fate - actually sounds like a reasonable way to live: throw away the TV, get a flip phone, love your neighbor.....

[Todd Smith · Rating 4 out of 5]

A good book to discuss where we are headed with technology. Godless man tends to make gods of anything and technology is no exception. The author gives warnings as to where we are headed if we don’t consider the “dark” side of technological advancement. The author claims a faith in Christ and the Bible but also leans a little too far in seeking to be accommodating by speaking a lot about various world religions. The appendix with the 55 page plan to stay human is excellent, and gives a lot to consider.

[Gay Anne · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book explains the philosophy behind the inevitable digitalization of modern humans for high-tech societies in the twenty-first century. Joe Allen discusses popular beliefs and reactions to many AI innovations. He mixes captivating informative texts with sincere warnings of a dystopian future that is closer than ever for humanity.

[C K · Rating 5 out of 5]

Five stars because it’s my besties favorite and I’ve enjoyed talking it over with her. Vibe is long Atlantic editorial - facts, memoir, and author’s musings mixed in (calm down- yes I know the Atlantic is liberal/author works for a conservative - only a style reference). Personally I like his substack better. Appendix is fun- maybe even start with that

[Josh · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book probably could have been 200 pages shorter, and admittedly I started skimming the borderline-schizophrenic chapters on conspiracy theories and religion, but there are some interesting ideas in here. I'm not sure I could recommend it, but the book is quite ambitious, even though the author appears to be a few steps away from the loony bin.

[DC Penny · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a very well written and very very troubling book. I highly recommend that you read it!

[Michael Cates · Rating 5 out of 5]

Good Read

This was a well researched and enlightening read. If you want the rundown on transhumanism, this is the book for you.

[Philip Chaston · Rating 3 out of 5]

Witty, unique bit but prone to Oz scarecrows

[Rick Burcik · Rating 2 out of 5]

H. G. Wells' "War of the Worlds" rears its ugly head yet again. Humans versus the machines redux. AI, transhumanism, and the rest. Machines will become so intelligent that they will be able to predict the future. Forget about complexity and chaos theory which forbid such predictions. Forget about Henri Poincare's proof that Newton's "Three Body Problem" can never be solved. The coming machines will be capable of tackling any problem.

[joan · Rating 4 out of 5]

A good corrective to those moments of optimism you may have about this or that tech billionaire Odysseus steering us safely to a flourishing and humanistic future. Even *if* the techno-optimists are sane, the many-headed technology has a will of its own. Stand aside as best you can as the monster slouches by.
Worth sticking with, since the book digresses quite a bit, to read the author’s own interaction with the developing spiritual and technological movements of the 21st century.

[Reagan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Essentially a theologian framework detailing the rise of AI as an antichrist. Lots of moving passages, very effective ending…

As the Apostle John says, “No one has ever seen God.”