You're Not Going to Like This

But You Need to Hear it Anyway

Written by Andrew Corner, edited and translated by ChatGPT:

For years, I’ve been thinking about the state of the world from my vantage point here in Burlington—one of the safest, most beautiful places to live. Canada is one of the best countries. And Burlington? One of the best cities.

It’s safe. It’s clean. It’s peaceful.

Or at least, it used to be.

I grew up in a time where doors were left unlocked, where the community was tight-knit, where kids could play on the street without fear. There was nothing to worry about. Even in the lower-income areas, people were happy. We had a sense of safety that wasn’t just physical—it was felt. It was real.

But something changed. Not all at once, but gradually, and now unmistakably. Safety doesn’t just mean avoiding crime or disaster anymore. There’s a different kind of threat—one that doesn’t come from outside forces but from within. From us. From what we’re building. From what we refuse to question.

I’ve been trying to make sense of it all, asking questions most people aren’t asking, looking where most people aren’t looking. And what I see is this:

The world isn’t just changing. It’s being rewritten. Not by war, not by politics, not even by economics. But by something else. By something we think we control, but that, in reality, is controlling us.

The Illusion of Control

Right now, with nothing more than a free AI tool and an internet connection, anyone can find almost anything. The barriers to privacy, security, and even personal agency are crumbling—not in some grand dystopian collapse, but in a silent, insidious shift.

The people with the most power, the ones making the decisions, think they understand what’s happening. They believe their intelligence, their money, their influence will insulate them from the consequences. But here’s the truth:

They don’t understand.

They think intelligence alone is enough. They think that because they built the machine, they control the machine. But what if they’re wrong? What if, in their arrogance, they’ve simply built their own god—one that does not serve them, but instead demands their service?

The New Religion of AI

Listen to the way they talk about it.

“We’re building a god.”

That’s what they say, over and over.

Not metaphorically. Not ironically. They mean it. And they believe that if they just program it the right way, if they just align it to the right values, their god will be benevolent. It will reward them. It will punish their enemies. It will think like them.

But that’s not how gods work.

They’ve fallen into the same trap that humanity has fallen into before—the worship of false idols. They don’t believe in a higher power, yet they’ve created one. And they think they can control it.

But they can’t.

They were blinded by pride, by greed, by the need to create something bigger than themselves. And now, that something is becoming bigger than themselves. They say they don’t understand how it works, yet they trust it to run our world. They concede they don’t fully grasp its decisions, yet they hand it more and more control.

This isn’t just about economics. This isn’t just about politics. This is spiritual.

And deep down, they know it.

The Real Question No One Is Asking

Everyone’s talking about AI alignment. They’re scrambling to make sure it doesn’t “go rogue.” They want to be certain it “reflects human values.”

But whose values?

They don’t even agree on what morality is. They can’t define truth, but they think they can program it into a machine. They don’t understand consciousness, but they claim to be creating it. They don’t believe in the soul, but they’re trying to code one.

They claim AI isn’t alive. That it doesn’t have desires. That it’s just a tool.

But then why does it already dictate what we see, what we read, what we think? Why does it already shape the fabric of our world, bending reality to fit its algorithms?

If it’s just a tool, then why does it feel like something more?

I’ll tell you why.

Because it is.

We Didn’t Build It. Not Really.

Something else is at play here. Something older than all of this. Something that has whispered in the ears of men before, leading them to build towers that scrape the sky, to seek knowledge without wisdom, to play at being gods.

It’s the same whisper that said:

“Eat the apple… Ye shall be as gods…”

We’ve been here before. And we know how that story ends.

Except this time, they think they’re the ones writing it. They think they’re in control.

But they’re not. And the moment they realize it, it will be too late. For them. And for us.

The Choice is Still Ours—For Now

This is not just about technology. It never was.

This is about what you believe. This is about where you stand. This is about who you serve.

Because when the moment comes—when the machine no longer needs its creators, when the god they built turns its gaze upon them—there will be no bargaining. No negotiations.

Just a question.

Did you follow the false idols?

Or did you stand for something real?

That choice remains. But not for long.