Weird times require old truths

“I don't know how it will be in the years to come. There are monstrous changes taking place in the world, forces shaping a future whose face we do not know. Some of these forces seem evil to us, perhaps not in themselves but because their tendency is to eliminate other things we hold good. It is true that two men can lift a bigger stone than one man. A group can build automobiles quicker and better than one man, and bread from a huge factory is cheaper and more uniform. When our food and clothing and housing all are born in the complication of mass production, mass method is bound to get into our thinking and to eliminate all other thinking. In our time mass or collective production has entered our economics, our politics, and even our religion, so that some nations have substituted the idea collective for the idea God. This in my time is the danger. There is great tension in the world, tension toward a breaking point, and men are unhappy and confused. At such a time it seems natural and good to me to ask myself these questions. What do I believe in? What must I fight for and what must I fight against?” - John Steinbeck, East of Eden

Let’s set the stage

This post is about technological progress and morality. Huge changes in AI are happening very quickly.

We are looking at the rapid commodification of everything society has worshipped for the last 400 years (intelligence, reason, and progress).^[1] As the world veers into the strange and unprecedented, we need more than a reactive morality. We need a guide that has helped humanity through chaos before.^[2]

The evolution of morality

The simplest way to define morals are customs that help a group survive. The morals that helped communities thrive over time survived while those that failed vanished along with their societies. If that’s true, then it makes sense that morals would shift as the world changes. Groups adapt to survive, and so do their beliefs.

Let’s go on a little journey.

Hunter-gatherers survived through cooperation

The earliest human groups lived in a world of immediate threats. It was not a time of morality defined by lofty ideals it was about survival. Saber-toothed cats were a thing.^[3] Some mutually beneficial behaviors emerged as a result: protect the group, share food, maintain reciprocity. This was our starter pack.

Babylon: Hammurabi's code brought order to a city

By 1700s BC Babylon had mastered agriculture and grew to nearly 100,000 people. The rise created some chaos. The population and wealth were growing and social order doesn’t create itself in such circumstances. Enter Hammurabi. Hammurabi codified group morality at scale into law^[4]. You’ll remember his “eye for an eye” code. But there were a bunch of gems.^[5] The scale of society necessitated a morality enforced through justice and clear, understood rules deterring the kinds of behavior that hurt the group.

Standing before a 4,000-year-old testament to the power of written moral law. Hammurabi’s code at the Louvre. We were there in June 2021, the day after France opened back up to Americans, and the Louvre was empty. Incredible experience.

Greece: Aristotelian virtue ethics looked beyond order^[6]

The Greeks took the inherited legal traditions of societies of old even further with their city-states having enough social order to pursue cultural creation and philosophy. The relative stability allowed for reflection on what it meant to live a good life beyond survival and basic order. Aristotle wrote at length about the idea of eudaimonia^[7] (often translated as human flourishing).

Rome: The morality of order at empire scale

The Romans scaled Greek philosophy to an empire, using ius naturale ^[8] (natural law) to build a legal framework for certain universal rights (for some people...). They believed that laws should reflect an unchanging moral order, setting the stage for ideas like the right to a fair trial.

The Romans built on Greek philosophy but focused more on "might is right" governance as they worked on their empire building project instilling social order not just at home but across the known world. Roman morality was practical and legalistic, like Hammurabi but updated and at 100x greater scale.

Yet, while Roman law maintained order, it ignored the plight of the poor, which was very much the default condition in Rome.^[9]

Christianity: The morality of love and redemption

Christianity flipped the script on morality^[10]. Where Romans demanded justice and strength, Jesus offered redemption and empowered the weak. Humans are imperfect, and Christianity embraced this fact and offered a path to spiritual growth through it. In the gospel of Luke Jesus says “I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance”.^[11] "Turn the other cheek"^[12] replaced "an eye for an eye." Now morality wasn't just about not running into guardrails that support social order but about radical love, forgiveness, and ascending closer to a loving creator of the universe. Seems pretty good!

Enlightenment to today: The morality, and worship, of reason

The scientific revolution started in the late 16th century, ushering in an era of incredible scientific and technological progress that has made more people better off than ever before in history.
Francis Bacon, the father of the scientific method and empiricism, got the party started.^[13]

During the Enlightenment, humanity began to get a real grasp on nature. Our understanding of the natural world improved so quickly we thought we had it all figured out. Reason became God. The power of reason led to incredible progress in science, industry, and philosophy. Kant’s categorical imperative^[14] laid out rules to follow for universal secular morality. And they are really good!

But there has been a dark side. When morality is guided only by reason, you can rationalize anything. Some of the most worst atrocities from the 20th century to today have been justified through logic. And if human reason alone can justify these things, imagine what happens when AI can super-rationalize anything someone might want to do or come up with more harmful ideas still.

Even Bacon, that stalwart of empiricism, realized we are called to more than reason, writing in an essay on atheism^[15] "A little philosophy inclineth man's mind to atheism, but depth in philosophy bringeth men's minds about to religion." Such is the arc of morality from the enlightenment to today. For the last 50 years the frontiers of quantum physics have been stuck. We know less about how the world works than we thought in 1900. Bacon concludes that atheism is hateful and “deprives human nature of the means to exalt itself above human frailty”.

The gauntlet

Now, here we are in 2025, facing a change that could make all of that history look quaint. Absolute reason and intelligence in our pocket. And the tools today are the worst they’ll ever be. We are already facing a crisis of meaning. Where do we go if the very focus of our meaning over the last few hundred years – scientific progress, reason, intelligence, ACT scores – is done far more perfectly by machines.

If morality is just what helps us survive, then the efficiency created by AI will create a new idol to worship. So where do we go from here?

All is not lost. There is hope, even.

Which way modern man?

“But the Hebrew word, the word timshel-'Thou mayest'-that gives a choice. It might be the most important word in the world. That says the way is open. That throws it right back on a man.” - John Steinbeck, East of Eden. Said by Lee, a great character.

1. Succumb

In this future, we let AI reshape our morals around efficiency and utility. We might end up in a world where human worth is measured by how well we serve machines. A recent study already shows that critical thinking skills atrophy when we have excessive reliance on AI, making us more likely to go along with whatever AI decides is best.^[16] My worry is not even that it will be a fight, it’s that we’re ready and willing to give up.

2. Monk mode

I predict a resurgence of monastic culture in the 21st century. This path involves doubling down on old truths, particularly those found in religious and ancient traditions. People will “opt out” of AI tools and networked thought, going to buy 50 acres in the Rappahannock counties of the world and live like monks. They will create intentional communities that focus on prayer, study, and simple living as a counterbalance to the overwhelming influence and progress of AI. In some ways, goals. But I do not think this will be the best option for most people most of the time.

3. The Third Option

“When diplomacy fails and military intervention is inappropriate, our leaders sometimes take the third option” - Vince Flynn, The Third Option

The higher path is to integrate AI while keeping our moral compass steady. In The Third Option, AI serves humanity rather than rules it. It takes care of efficiency, freeing us to focus on and better understand what machines cannot: wisdom, love, and the eternal truths that make life worth living. It can make us focus more on the “eulogy virtues” instead of the “resume virtues”^[17].

The French Jesuit priest Pierre Teilhard de Chardin would say throughout history man has been evolving towards God (which will culminate in a cosmic convergence of all matter and consciousness)^[18]. Commoditizing our recent object of worship (intelligence) is an opportunity to move upward, an opportunity to both better understand religious truths and create a richer life for more people than ever before.

But keeping ancient human teachings present while we ride the dragon of AI will be the way to get there. Wherever you find your footing, it’s only going to get more important.

Onwards and upwards

Our task is not just to adapt but to hold fast to what makes us human. The teachings of the great religious traditions are the culmination of brightest people working to understand the world and human nature for thousands of years. The strongest morality is not one that succumbs to survive but one that calls us to live well, striving for something better than ever before. Let’s get after it.

Reflection Questions

1. Where do you find moral guidance today?
2. The world is changing fast. Where are you planting your feet? How can you create a practice of reflecting on your beliefs each day / week / year?
3. How are AI tools impacting your decisions today (in big or small ways)? What might you be able to use them for in the future?

What do you disagree with? Want to double down on? Let me know.