AI myth as a new category of myth
Abstract
This chapter situates AI myth within the broader landscape of mythological theory by evaluating major theories of myth to determine their alignment and compatibility with AI myth and its implications. Drawing on theories from anthropology, sociology, psychology, theology, and political science, this chapter will argue that prior theories of myth are insufficient to fully describe and explain theistic AI myths. Many notable mythologists from the nineteenth century, for example, viewed religious myths as pre-scientific attempts to explain the physical world, leading twentieth century theorists to decouple religion and science altogether. This tension between religion and science remains particularly acute in the monotheistic West, where the notion of god is often regarded as antithetical to the cosmology established by modern science. AI myth provides a potential resolution to this tension by offering a secular form of religious myth that depicts a scientifically acceptable form of god, succeeding where many other attempts, such as James Lovelock’s Gaia theory, failed. While AI myths are compatible with some aspects of the several historical theories of myth reviewed, this chapter ultimately concludes that AI myth represents a new category of myth that functions to bring the idea of god back to the world in the secular age.
