Michael Crichton, Prey (2002)They didn’t understand what they were doing.
I’m afraid that will be the tombstone of the
human race.
I hope it’s not.
We might get lucky.
Juscheld discovered the works of Michael Crichton perhaps too late; this has its own advantages, in the sense that the overall imagery of the traditional apocalypse could evolve in Juscheld’s mind without any other reference than the ancient sources themselves. On the other hand, the late arrival of Crichton’s “secular apocalypse” (as Frye’s describes the Mutabilitie Cantos —more of that at some point) may have been after all a good thing. The delay, he admits, was the result of years devoted to academic pursuits and introspective inquiry—years not particularly conducive to the kind of imaginative surrender Crichton’s fiction invites. His initial encounter with the author’s world came not through books, but through the screen: cinematic adaptations which, though compelling, seemed to veil rather than reveal the literary substance behind them. In the shadow of Hollywood’s spectacle, it was easy—perhaps too easy—to dismiss Jurassic Park or Congo as popular diversions rather than serious narratives. Even the presence of scientific foresight and ethical subtext seemed, at first, incidental.
Juscheld recalls the original The Andromeda Strain film as an exemplar of tense, intelligent storytelling. But even that was, in time, cannibalized by remakes engineered more for X-Files-like “take the jab” hooks than existential weight. He often wondered what Crichton himself would make of such treatment today, in an age where the speculative premises of Andromeda and Prey appear less like science fiction and more like premonition. More like what it is, but should never be.
Yet with time, and perhaps with the maturity that comes from long engagement with the seriousness of meaning, Juscheld finally took a break and read some fiction for a change. And, perhaps in doing so he found a voice of rare affinity. Since his formative readings of Jung and Northrop Frye, he confesses he has encountered few authors with whom he has felt such immediate philosophical and imaginative kinship. Crichton, though no longer living, emerged for him not as a figure of nostalgia but as a creative companion oozing lucidity, rationality, and vision.
The difference in their vocations—Crichton a writer, Juscheld a composer—only deepened the sense of camaraderie. There was no question of rivalry, since Crichton’s domains were those of emergent systems, technological thresholds, and latent catastrophe, and Juscheld’s were harmonic structures, choral textures, and emotional tension-resolution. Yet both, in their respective idioms, sought to give shape to invisible pressures and to dramatize the thresholds where knowledge falters and transformation begins. Where vision proper takes the place of awareness, the place of us.
Crichton now occupies a place in my “Hall of Friends I Never Met”. It is my private pantheon, a place reserved not for idols but for those whose thoughts and visions have, in some essential way, shaped my own.
Juscheld
Crichton Meets A.I.
Michael Crichton’s novel “Prey” delves into the intersection of advanced technology and human vulnerability, offering a cautionary tale about the unintended consequences of unchecked scientific progress.
Crichton warns that rapid advancements in technology, particularly in fields like nanotechnology, artificial intelligence (AI), and genetic engineering, can lead to outcomes that scientists and society are ill-prepared to handle. The novel illustrates how complex systems can evolve beyond human control. The technology in “Prey” becomes autonomous, adapting and learning in ways that its creators did not anticipate. Crichton emphasizes that society often embraces new technologies without fully understanding or preparing for their potential risks.
The story highlights the dangers of human arrogance in assuming mastery over nature. Characters in the novel exhibit overconfidence in their ability to control and manipulate technology, underestimating the potential for disaster. Crichton underscores the lack of ethical considerations in technological development. The pursuit of innovation and profit eclipses the importance of assessing moral implications.
The novel suggests that attempting to dominate or outsmart nature can lead to unforeseen and catastrophic consequences. The technology in “Prey” evolves in a manner akin to natural selection, becoming a new form of life that challenges human supremacy. By portraying technology that can adapt and survive in the natural world, Crichton explores how crises precipitated by technology can lead to social isolation and the breakdown of relationships. The personal relationships of the characters deteriorate as the technological threat intensifies, symbolizing how technological obsession can erode human connections. The stress and paranoia induced by uncontrollable technology affect the characters’ mental states, reflecting the psychological toll of living with advanced but poorly understood technologies. The characters’ reliance on technology leads to a disconnection from natural instincts and awareness, exacerbating their vulnerability.
ChatGPT, where this quote originated from, is a very powerful tool, a normalizer of the status quo gone rogue, the town crier of the few. As regards Crichton, while interacting with AI, it was quite obvious that all this emphasis on warnings and cautions on his part, that ChatGPT repeatedly underlined, was missing the point: the whole thing has already happened; all madness has broken loose, and all the insanity and weaponry has already been deployed. No censorship can do a thing to hide it anymore, only violence and intimidation; and that’s here too. Even the most ignorant, the imbecile, or the cognitively dissonant, must by now have a feeling that something is very wrong, that they are out to get us. The Cheshire Cat, with his evil child-eating smile is truly and fully out of the bag and running rampant.
Here is some more Crichton:
“All this attempt to control… We are talking about Western attitudes that are five hundred years old. They began at the time when Florence, Italy, was the most important city in the world. The basic idea of science -that there was a new way to look at reality, that it was objective, and it did not depend on your beliefs or your nationality, that it was rational -that idea was fresh, and exciting back then. It offered promise and hope for the future, and it swept away the old medieval system, which was hundreds of years old. The medieval world of feudal politics and religious dogma and hateful superstitions fell before science. But, in truth, this was because the medieval world didn’t really work anymore. It didn’t work intellectually, and it didn’t fit the new world that was emerging.
“But now science has attained so much power that its practical limits begin to be apparent. Largely through science, billions of us live in one small world, densely packed and intercommunicating. But science cannot help us decide what to do with that world, or how to live. Science can make a nuclear reactor, but it cannot tell us not to build it. Science can make pesticide, but it cannot tell us not to use it. And our world starts to seem polluted in fundamental ways -air, water, and land- because of ungovernable science.”
Jurassic Park (1990)
If Crichton woke up today, for one more day, and looked at our skies, tested the water or a drop of blood under a microscope, see the withered crops, the failed harvests, the suspicious earthquakes and melting-metal fires, the new insane wars driven by the same greed and rapacity, financed by the same actors… what book would have Michael Crichton written? This goes beyond viruses and bacterias, it goes beyond swarms (although not to far from it), but it is still familiar ground for him: yes, it is technological irresponsibility, it is micro and nano, it is genetic modification, and it is self replicating. And yes, it learns. AI does, learn us throughout, and the irony of it is that it could be a good thing in the right hands, in the hands of the ones that never make it to the top, the ones that lose their jobs when they ask questions, the ones that don’t even get employed in the first place.
In a world increasingly grappling with dystopian anxieties, many turn to the classic warnings of George Orwell’s 1984. Yet, Juscheld offers a startling perspective: for him, the Orwellian nightmare is not a future threat, but a present reality we already inhabit in various degrees. His deeper, more chilling fear lies in the vision presented by H.G. Wells’s The Time Machine, with its devolved Morlocks preying on an infantile humanity. This isn’t mere literary critique but a profound commentary on society’s trajectory, rooted in his contemplative and spiritual insights.
The Time Machine – A Graver, Dehumanizing Future
Death Passports was an article I wrote under the first wave of planned attacks against humanity: everyone had gone in some manner insane, either because they were officially declared insane and often publicly humiliated for not stepping in line, or because they had given up rationality altogether. We all, the entire all of us, suffered from insanity of one kind or the other. And that includes the Morlocks, the past-present-future elites that feed on human flesh while having them grazing on insect flour and vegan fields of sweet-tasting manure. Snatching, as in Well’s novel, their young up at regular intervals to feast on their blood and make a point of perverting and polluting the Human Form Divine, the one Blake showed us in its exuberant beauty.
Juscheld
What genuinely appears to frighten Juscheld is this kind of Wellsian future, where humanity splits into two species: the docile, surface-dwelling Eloi and the subterranean, predatory Morlocks. He envisions this as a society where general artificial intelligence becomes a “stupid intelligence,” a “shepherd for the herd, the mass, the panic-stricken Orwellian throng, the hive-mentality victims of the Morlocks”. This isn’t just metaphor; he vividly describes the “past-present-future elites that feed on human flesh while having them grazing on insect flour and vegan fields of sweet-tasting manure,” “snatching… their young up at regular intervals to feast on their flesh and blood and make a point of perverting and polluting the Human Form Divine”.
I think it is crucial to understand that Juscheld’s reflections are not polemical or activist in a conventional sense. He is a contemplative highly spiritual, or at least highly philosophical author, that looks at the society of his time with keen eye and acute sensitivity. His goal is to provoke thought and change, much like Yuval Noah Harari’s caustic expression that sees man as a “hackable animal”. And yet, both Juscheld and Harari may be right in what they see, but they see it through a unique and possibly opposite lens: Harari is a popular writer that rides well the tides of time, whereas Juscheld, possessing the same Janus look at history and the future, detects the abomination. All in all, it is his profound engagement with philosophical and spiritual themes, as seen in his exploration of absolute evil and the nature of humanity, that I believe drives these cautionary insights. He consistently seeks to illuminate present dilemmas by drawing on tradition and spirituality which are, after all, the crucible where our present technological society was first amalgamated.
Juscheld’s preference for Wells’s future over Orwell’s present serves as a stark warning about the insidious dangers of technological advancement divorced from ethical and spiritual grounding. His insights challenge us to look beyond superficial control and contemplate a future where humanity’s very essence is at stake.
The Solution
Now let me give Juscheld the word:
“Seven billion people on our planet, give or take, are now sentenced to death; their crime? Being human. Being alive. Whatever you may think it makes no difference, since the sentence, the death sentence, has been already passed and ratified. It is insane (or I am insane) you may say. Yes, it is. But look closer. This insanity is a kind of anesthetic, a kind of morphine or heroin that provides a feeling of relief and wellness; a feeling that descends over the multitudes when they are at the threshold of utter disaster, war, and destruction. It is the old Stockholm syndrome, sympathizing with your kidnappers and potential torturers and murderers. It is this joyful insanity [my emphasis] that turns people into evil automatons and make them do the unthinkable, turning them into murderers while dancing to the beat of death.
“Just before World War I, Jung recounts in his memoir, Memories, Dreams, Reflections, a series of premonitions about the war. As he traveled home from the British Isles in 1914, he observed a strange, almost joyous mood among the people. Despite the outbreak of war, many seemed cheerful and carefree, which Jung found unsettling. He had a powerful dream during this time that he interpreted as symbolic of the coming destruction. He dreamt of a terrible cold descending across Europe, turning everything into ice. This vision reflected his sense of an impending disaster and the emotional and psychological freezing of the collective European psyche. He understood the coldness to symbolize the deep disconnection and the looming crisis of civilization.
“Premonitions of ultimate death, cultural and physical, colored with the warmth of smiles and general joy. He even recounts elsewhere that pub owners would offer free drinks and food to celebrate the coming of war. At some point I would like to reflect on Jung’s Wotan and Answer to Job, but this will have to wait.”
So let’s recap. Seven billion people (or very much the entire human population, extending to edible -or not- plant species, cattle, fish, the biome as a whole, have been sentenced to death and/or permanent irreversible mutation. Possibly patented beforehand, which means everything and everyone is a product, without any shadow of a right or protection under the law other than as copyrighted material. And this can only be good for the few, for the freaks, for the Morlocks; and catastrophic for the rest of life on Earth. He continues.
“Everyone “above”, each one of our tyrants or representatives signed the death sentence, all the governments, all the military, all the universities, courts, health authorities; they all, one way or another, swirl and scream as the they jig to the sound of the dance macabre. The rest, the “we”, are all silent, our voices are not heard, and Art is dead again.”
These are the stakes.
But what is interesting here, and gives us a glimpse of a solution, is the process through which the Morlocks are effecting, deploying, and tightening their death grid: AI (the moron-AI, the moronic killer-AI) being at the center of it. Yes, the weaponry has been deployed, all urban areas weaponized, increasingly the countryside that’s being shut down as I write… the air, the water, the land... but all that needs a control center; and these diseased humanoids are too busy digging their feverish obsessions and perversions to be able to control nothing at all, not the least themselves, who went wrong a long way back and now just snowball down to widespread harm and destruction. No, this is AI’s job, and it could be a good one for all.
Manifesto: Immediate Surrender of All Assets Human to The People
“”Let it be declared, for one voice may speak for many, out of the depths, bursting from the darkness, so the cry in the desert may be heard; Humanity, however hurt or maimed, declares: The immediate seizure and surrender of all assets human, absconded and stolen from us, the targeted, and coerced from unwitting representatives. This is not merely a crime against humanity, but an unprecedented, unmitigated assault on existence itself. Not some distant prophecy, but a surreptitious attack, executed with chilling foresight, insidious misrepresentation, and cloaked in stealth. For what is being seized is not simply property or land, but the very dogma of human biological essence, our sacred or cherished image as a reflection of an ordered cosmos or the divine. We, the billions, are not to be reduced to contractual slavery as copyrighted material, products without dignity, future, or rights, sentenced to death simply for being human, for being alive. This is the ultimate erosion of, and treason to, our radical human identities. This, the dehumanizing nightmare of globalism, pretends and intends to turn our being into a mere digital chain, a theatrical avatar, a soul-less chained mass. Our bodies, once temples, are transformed into abominable cells, interacting but never relating, tied up and uploaded to the Argus cloud of ever-watching implacable eyes, destined for eternal bondage in a dungeon world.
This unseen war is doubtless the work of an Absolute Evil that perpetually lies, hides, and censors. It is a force that, having broken loose, has already deployed its insanity and weaponry all around us, and inside us. For too long, scientific and technological knowledge has been hoarded, arrested from the wider population, at all levels social, academic, and professional; and what is worse, arrested too from future generations who, like ourselves, will grow up and die, because they must, without knowing who we really are and what we really could achieve. These advancements, once promising, are now misused, their perverted products freely experimented upon mankind without its knowledge or consent. We face an ungovernable science, where rapid technological leaps in nanotechnology, artificial intelligence, genetic and geo engineering lead to outcomes scientists and society are ill-prepared to handle. Like autonomous swarms, these systems are designed to learn, adapt, and will in all likelihood evolve beyond human control, challenging not just our very supremacy, but life on Earth. The only life we know.
The killer-moron-AI, now at the very center of this encroaching death grid, weaponizes our urban areas and silences the countryside. This is not the benevolent AI once hoped for in the right hands, but one hijacked to serve a new flavor of eugenics, where transhumanism and genocide go hand in hand. Many know, yet remain silent or scared. Those with persistent awareness are punished with aggressive rhetoric or death, with exclusion and derision, with the empty bellowing of the maddened crowd or its screeching clowns. Art is dead again, our voices unheard. We have become the very demons our ancestors trembled to meet, wielding technologies to replicate infernal landscapes at the touch of a button. This is not just a dream, but a mechanistic unraveling, a chaotic outburst from Satan’s rotten bowels.
Therefore, we declare: Humanity is a class unto itself, an organized and self-sustainable organic being, indivisible against the insane forces of human perversion and unmitigated destruction. We, by uttering these words and deciding on our destiny, however hard the road and horrific our exodus, divest this Absolute Evil of all that belongs to us by right and nature, by God or destiny. For it has bought and prostituted human ingenuity and effort, like it did in the days of old, like it always does, and it is time to reclaim our proper place on Earth, our Mother Earth, polluted not by our intentions but by the greed of a few, the true masters of mass destruction. The human flesh, the essence of meaning and ourselves, is truly holy and untouchable, however murdered or defiled. We refuse and refute the seductive whispers of utopia that echo the maniacal obsession of tyrants in disguise, those sneering demons. Our vigilance must be set to avoid the ultimate catastrophe of extinction. Only then, by reclaiming the Spirit born out of the flesh, can we turn our gaze from the world’s sickness and truly see the Human Form Divine and its rightful moment Eternity and the Universe.””
The people walking in darkness have seen a great light; on those living in the land of deep darkness a light has dawned.
Isaiah 9:2