E.J. Simon: Artificial Intelligence Challenges Religion's Monopoly on Life After Death

Bestselling author E.J. Simon says not only will artificial intelligence displace humans in the workplace, and roboticize warfare as referenced in today’s New York Times, but asserts that artificial intelligence challenges the very role church plays in our life – namely, the afterlife.

“Soon we will be able to duplicate ourselves – and our very consciousness – on our computers, and gain an afterlife without all the praying, fasting, confessing, tithing, and guilt that our respective religions require in return.”

The New York Times piece reports on a century long study that was recently undertaken at Stanford University seeking to track the effects of artificial intelligence on the economy, war, and crime. Simon believes there will be substantial and significant changes for the economy. “The growing, unknown, power of AI – now recognized by such iconic figures as Stephen Hawking and Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak, may also challenge the monopoly that religions have had on the answer to the biggest question of all: what happens when we die.”

Simon’s books Death Never Sleeps (a #2 bestseller, moving over 80,000 copies), and Death Logs In feature one of contemporary fictions only artificial intelligence based protagonists, Alex Nicholas, a gunned down Mafioso that duplicated himself on a computer before his death, a computer his corporate CEO brother, Michael, uses to unravel a conspiracy that reaches to the highest offices at the Vatican.

“The church has had a monopoly on life after death for centuries, it’s the ultimate allure of any religion – that guaranteed reservation into heaven or hell and the opportunity for immortality. Now we can immortalize ourselves on a laptop. Online services like LifeNaut and others, allow you to record all of your expressions, answer questions about your life and history in a way that creates a virtual you – one that can have a conversation with anyone - one that will be here long after you’re gone. The ability to do this wasn’t possible when I wrote my first book, I created it– now it’s here, and developing rapidly. We have yet to understand it’s full potential.”

E.J. Simon is the former CEO of GMAC Global Relocation Services (a division of GM), and the Managing Director of Douglas Elliman, the largest real estate company in New York.