Already in 1920 Rudolf Steiner said of Western technology which was as yet untouched by binary techniques:
Today's "enlightened" minds consider it superstitious to look for spiritual powers in natural phenomena. They have not the least idea that demonic spirits are active in the whole world of technology created by the human race. Nor will they find it easy to see this, because those powers are acting on the will – and I have often told you that the will is asleep. They work at an unconscious level, taking hold of the unconscious human mind. The consequence is as follows. In the past, human beings had at least some awareness of demonic powers. Today demonic powers are restively stirring in all products of technology: their activities extend into the sphere of the human will, but human beings are not yet inclined to accept this… The spirits perceived in the phenomena of nature in older times were Luciferic by nature; the spirits active in machines, in all products of technology, are Ahrimanic in nature. Human beings are thus surrounding themselves with an Ahrimanic world that is growing completely independent of them.
You will perceive the trend in human evolution. From a Luciferic world that still influences their conscious minds and determines their destinies, human beings are drifting into an Ahrimanic world. And at present this is happening at quite a fast pace. This Ahrimanic world acts on the human will, and the intellectualism of modern science does not enable people to gain immediate conscious awareness of the will. The great danger is that the Ahrimanic world will take hold of the human will and human beings will completely lose their bearing among the demonic powers that are present in the products of technology.
Since Steiner's time, two tendencies have become apparent. On the one hand, an increasing number of people have become interested in spiritual science and are looking towards it for solutions to problems produced by technology. On the other hand, technology itself was precipitated into the binary form during the Second World War, and has advanced along that path at unbelievable speed. Human beings are indeed losing their bearing among the demonic powers that are present in it.
The last part of the twentieth century was characterised by the rise of the "Academy" of Silicon Valley, which provided the anti-Michael demons with a very strong foothold in human life, from which they launch their attacks on the Michael Movement to greater effect than many members of that movements are willing to admit. True followers of Michael are called upon at the present time to penetrate deeply into this demonic stronghold with their thinking, and "offer up to Gods the secrets wrested from demons".
The beginning of the third millennium (from our 21st century onwards) bears the signature of the historical event described by Rudolf Steiner in the following terms:
…before even a part of the third millennium of the post-Christian era has elapsed, there will be, in the West, an actual incarnation of Ahriman: Ahriman in the flesh. Humanity on earth cannot escape this incarnation of Ahriman. It will come inevitably. But what matters is that men shall find the right vantage-point from which to confront it.
Wherever preparation is being made for incarnations of this character, we must be alert to certain trends in evolution. A Being like Ahriman, who will incarnate in the West in time to come, prepares for this incarnation in advance. With a view to his incarnation on the earth, Ahriman guides certain forces in evolution in such a way that they may be of the greatest possible advantage to him. And evil would result were men to live on in a state of drowsy unawareness, unable to recognise certain phenomena in life as preparations for Ahriman's incarnation in the flesh. The right stand can be taken only by recognizing in one or another series of events the preparation that is being made by Ahriman for his earthly existence. And the time has now come for individual men to know which tendencies and events around them are machinations of Ahriman, helping him to prepare for his approaching incarnation.
The overwhelming spread of binary computer technology, which did not yet exist in Rudolf Steiner's time, has been the most influential factor paving the way for incarnation of Ahriman in that mighty Aspect of his cosmic being which we call the Sorat, the Binary Beast. Indeed, we may say this incarnation of Ahriman is the incarnation of the Binary Beast.
Ahriman comes from remote realms alien to human evolution on the earth. His interest is to divert this evolution from its natural path into other, inhuman forms of existence utterly removed from that which was intended for man by his Creators. Through unwholesome occult arts combined with dark technology, the physical incarnation of this alien divinity has been made possible:
This Ahrimanic incarnation cannot be averted; it is inevitable, for men must confront Ahriman face to face. He will be the individuality by whom it will be made clear to men what indescribable cleverness can be developed if they call to their help all that earthly forces can do to enhance cleverness and ingenuity. In the catastrophes that will befall humanity in the near future, men will become extremely inventive; many things discovered in the forces and substances of the universe will be used to provide nourishment for man. But these very discoveries will at the same time make it apparent that matter is connected with the organs of intellect, not with the organs of the spirit but of the intellect. People will learn what to eat and drink in order to become really clever. Eating and drinking cannot make them spiritual, but clever and astute, yes. Men have no knowledge of these things as yet; but not only will they be striven for, they will be the inevitable outcome of catastrophes looming in the near future. And certain secret societies – where preparations are already in train – will apply these things in such a way that the necessary conditions can be established for an actual incarnation of Ahriman on earth.
Although they are not yet common knowledge, these things have indeed been discovered by materialistic science. The role of artificial intelligence in these preparations for Ahriman's incarnation need hardly be stressed. Today there is scarcely a major research institute on earth that does not rely heavily on computers. Indeed, much research is done today not by experimenting with real substances and processes under investigation, but by investigating computer simulations of them!
Ahriman will not only draw into his power the out and out materialists. Many of those who incline to the spirit without actively pursuing spiritual development are falling victim to his supreme intelligence:
Through certain stupendous arts he would being to men all the clairvoyant knowledge which until they can be acquired only by dint of intense labour and effort. Men could live on as materialists, they could eat and drink – as much as may be left after the war! – and there would be no need for any spiritual efforts. The Ahrimanic streams would continue their unimpeded course. When Ahriman incarnates in the West at the appointed time, he would establish a great occult school for the practice of magic arts of the greatest grandeur, and what otherwise can be acquired only by strenuous effort would be poured over mankind.
Let it never be imagined that Ahriman will appear as a kind of hoaxer, playing mischievous tricks on human beings. No, indeed! Lovers of ease, who refuse to have anything to do with spiritual science, would fall pray to his magic, for by means of these stupendous magic arts he would be able to make great number of human beings into seers – but in such a way that the clairvoyance of each individual would be strictly differentiated. What one person would see, a second and a third would not see. Confusion would prevail and in spite of being made receptive to clairvoyant wisdom, men would inevitably fall into strife on account of the sheer diversity of their visions. Ultimately, however, they would all be satisfied with their own particular vision, for each of them would be able to see into the spiritual world. In this way all culture on the earth would fall prey to Ahriman. Men would succumb to Ahriman simply through not having acquired by their own efforts what Ahriman is ready and able to give them. No more evil advice could be given than to say: "Stay just as you are! Ahriman will make all of you clairvoyant if you so desire. And you will desire it because Ahriman's power will be very great." – But the result would be establishment of Ahriman's kingdom on earth and the overthrow of everything achieved hitherto by human culture; all the disastrous tendencies unconsciously cherished today would take effect.
Looking beyond the early centuries of the new millennium we see the whole of humanity gradually becoming naturally clairvoyant. Physically man will be weaker. The decline of his physical forces is a necessary part of evolution. It is not essentially a decline of man himself (unless he remains bound to the body), but only of his physical organism:
But now, in the Fifth Post-Atlantean epoch, he is on the path of decline, he is a being growing physically weaker, and to perceive the world in the way the Greek perceived it would be too much for his strength.
The physical senses, sight, hearing, etc, will fade and will be replaced, on the one hand – in the case of those who follow the spiritual path – by ever clearer clairvoyant perception, and, on the other hand, by artificial perception based on simulation devices. Digital image processing, computer simulation and the implantation of microprocessors in the human body are precursors of techniques which will largely replace physical sight and hearing for much of humanity. Even today people look at the world through television, electron microscopes, radio telescopes with computer images, digital-imaging medical diagnostic apparatus, and so on. Military pilots are trained in "flight simulators" – moderns of fighter-plane cockpits with windows and instruments that are television screens. The images react to the controls exactly as, in real life, the view out of the cockpit would change as the pilot manoeuvred his aircraft. And this dials of the instruments give the appropriate readings.
All this is leading to the replacement of real-world situations by simulations adapted to the needs and wishes of the individual. Such techniques are naturally open to abuse of all kinds, and bring with them the temptation to create imaginary worlds of artificially produced sensuous experience in which people can take refuge from the painful realities of life. Such worlds will be, after all, nothing more than the logical ultimate development of what began at the end of the nineteenth century as the cinema.
The true clairvoyance of the spiritual race may well be imitated, in caricature, by the use of "clairvoyance machines". The forerunners of such probable devices are the so-called "meditation machines" already in use in America, and in some parts of Europe. These first-generation meditation machines are designed to produce altered states of consciousness by applying stimuli to the brain. They are based on techniques developed over the years in medicine, principally in the field of electro-encephalography. It is reasonable to suppose that later generations of such machines will be more sophisticated and powerful, as manufacturers and users gather experience in the methods of influencing the mind by altering the electrical state of the brain.
In 2004 the Massachusetts Institute of Technology reported in its Technology Review that neuroscientists and engineers were developing methods to allow the brain to interact directly with computer networks, by implanting a microprocessor into the brain tissue. A specialist company in the United States called Cyberkinetics has received government approval for clinical trials of a brain implant intended to enable the minds of paralysed patients to communicate directly with their personal computers. Other research on similar lines is under way. The initial intention is to enable patients to relate to the real world through the computer. But, obviously, it is equally possible to enable them to relate to virtual worlds as though they were actually living in them. Indeed, to a considerable degree they are already living in them.
Human beings will separate progressively into two races, the spiritual race using the new clairvoyance in a moral way, the materialistic race rending more to look into the spiritual forces within matter and those of the sub-physical realms. Then, as the Anglo-Saxon Germanic civilisation continues, new faculties will appear spontaneously in man. He will learn to influence electrical processes directly by thought. He will also gain mastery over the physical and life processes involved in conception and birth, and will learn to determine what kind of souls shall incarnate. Genetic engineering, which has already taken its first faltering steps in work on clones and the manipulation of stem cells, will acquire advanced techniques of altering the physical body. This, too, is a necessary development, which also is open to abuse and will produce strange mutants. Behind the longing to control the coming into being of the physical form of man lies the occult knowledge hinted at in Goethe's Faust, in the creation of Homunculus, and the desire for physical immortality.
Advanced genetic manipulation, combined with the techniques that Rudolf Steiner called eugenic occultism (control of conception and birth so that only selected types of souls can incarnate) will have very far-reaching effects on social life. Medicine, too, will assume forms quite different from the present ones and will become very highly spiritualised in both good and evil ways.
During this fifth post-Atlantean period of culture, artificial intelligence will reach a very advanced stage of development, and men will grow together with machines. From the clumsy first beginnings of robotics that we know today, the most remarkable machine-beings will develop and will begin to assert their physical superiority in certain realms of outer life. Men will become increasingly conscious of the dead, and the souls who have passed through the gate of death will play an important role in all these developments. They will either work inspiringly from the spiritual world out of their own impulses, or will be drawn by evil arts into the web of artificial intelligence.
A further product of artificial intelligence, which will be brought progressively into relation with the cosmos and which will analyse cosmic influences in a materialistic way, will be that men will master new energies of immense power, far greater than that of nuclear fission or fusion. Through the misuse of vibratory energy, they will overreach themselves and set forces in motion that they cannot control. By that time, earth humanity will have reached out into the solar system through the on-going space conquest.
In all this, the greater part of humanity will suffer itself to be drawn into the life-style of the materialistic race, as science and technology become more and more incomprehensible to the man in the street. The direct coupling of man and computer – the implantation into the brain of microprocessors linked by ratio to the Internet – will allow those in power to program human minds. The Western occult brotherhoods and other leaders of the materialistic humanity will exercise increasing domination over mankind in general. As for the spiritual race, its members will gather in communities based on Christian brotherhood and freedom. Their own science and technology will take quite other forms from that of the materialistic race. They will do all in their power to help and protect those who seek to escape from the work of dark technology. It will remain possible for the members of the materialistic race to join those who follow the spiritual path of evolution.
