Are you an APOCALOPTIMIST? I am.
Tristan Harris's "apocaloptimism" — political activism for a pro-human AI future — may be missing something crucial: *the anti-human present is already here.* Drawing on queer theory, Pauline theology, and a revealing visit to Judson Memorial Church, this post argues that the proliferation of AIs reflects our collective exhaustion with the tedium of modern life and its normative authorities. Where the church offers the tired prescription of more God-talk, AIs may be better positioned to help people pursue the intimate lives they actually want. Against the mainline Protestant culture of self-care as mourning past intimate lives, the Pauline command to simply "love one another" points toward something both livelier and queerer. With Harris, and against him, the author lands as an apocaloptimist — betting that honest reckoning with the revelation of our anti-human present can still open toward a more human future.
