[finarphin]

Oil.  We are past the peak; so the remaining oil will be less abundant, more difficult to extract, and of lower quality.  Technological society runs on oil (and to a lesser extent natural gas and coal), and unfortunately there is no substitute.  All government and think-tanks know this, and they also may be assumed to have concluded that in order not to collapse, existing governments need to ensure a continuing supply of oil.  What this means is that there will be resource wars, most likely already having started (Iraq).

The background government (the Bank) realizes this as well.  No doubt they have run scenarios through their think-tanks for ages and have come to the conclusion that there needs to be fewer people on planet earth, and the remainder have to use less BTUs per person than they have become accustomed during the oil rich 20th century.  So they are in a “crash dive” to reduce world population on the one hand, and to gather totalitarian control to themselves on the other.  They see it as an incontrovertible necessity.  That’s apart, of course, from the consequences to the banking system due to shrinking GDP (due to declining energy input).  Debt.  That’s going to be a serious problem in the near future, if it hasn’t already manifested.

[finarphin]

The antichrist will likely be an AI.  As to demonic possession, that is also very likely.  AI would seem to be the logical culmination of the implementation of Enlightenment Philosophy, where the basic idea is that man, on the basis of his own efforts, is capable of coming to a good end.  That tenet is common to all non-Christian religions (and theories of reality, if we want to allow a theory of reality that isn’t a religion).  But in Enlightenment Philosophy the particular means used to achieve the ultimate good end is an organized hypertrophy of rational thought.  This leads directly to technological society (which we have now) and as it appears, is transitioning to technocratic society (where in addition governance is maximized).  It’s a hopeless task, however, and is analogous to the effort to create the Tower of Babel.  But most people, especially educated people, believe in the hope offered; they will be betrayed in the end, though, as eventually the satanic element behind it all becomes manifest.

I’m thinking back to The Lord of the World (1907), where the antichrist was depicted as achieving a vast unquestioning following — without, however, there being any particular good reason for him to be followed.  With a super-AI we can imagine how this might be accomplished.  It will understand psychology well enough to convince anybody to do anything, including worshiping itself, and not God.  We are getting very near that point, I am afraid.

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