After the Singularity: Benevolent Superintelligence, Domination and Islamic Theology

This seminar is available to attend both in-person and online.

Humans have long grappled with the idea of living under an all-powerful, all-knowing and perfectly benevolent God, a being encountered only through metaphor and faith. With the rise of AI, robotics and transhumanism, this ancient problem takes on a new and concrete form. Since Turing first asked whether machines could think, we have entered an era in which superintelligent systems may acquire godlike capabilities that are visible, tangible and embedded in everyday life.

Unsurprisingly, debates about AI draw heavily on the theological language of the Abrahamic traditions, invoking themes such as the apocalypse and the ethics of AI. Yet amid these often superficial debates, the most important philosophical questions about AI's impact are being overlooked. This seminar begins with the traditional Muslim imagination of the apocalypse and shows how contemporary philosophers have expressed similar anxieties about AI in secular terms, as "the Singularity." It then turns from fears of a hostile AI to a harder theological and philosophical question: what if a superintelligence were entirely benevolent and the Singularity were achieved? Finally, it considers what Islamic theology might contribute to these questions.

About the Speaker

Syed Farooq Mohyud Din is a PhD student in the Department of Religion at Rice University, whose interdisciplinary work sits at the intersection of religion and artificial intelligence. Drawing on archival and ethnographic methods, he examines the ethical dimensions of technology through the lenses of Islamic thought and Sufi mysticism. He is also interested in eschatology in Islam and Christianity, as well as in secular visions of the apocalypse.

Chaired by Dr Shoaib Malik

Shoaib Ahmed Malik is Lecturer in Science and Religion at the University of Edinburgh. With a PhD in Chemical Engineering from the University of Nottingham and another in Theology from the University of St Mary’s, Twickenham, Shoaib stands at the crossroads of Science and Religion. His monograph work, Islam and Evolution: Al-Ghazālī and the Modern Evolutionary Paradigm, was acclaimed as the foremost academic contribution to the field of science and religion, receiving recognition from the International Society for Science and Religion (ISSR) in 2022. He is working to develop the infrastructure for the field of Islam and Science.

CLICK HERE TO REGISTER FOR FREE.