Technology at a Turning Point

At the beginning of this decade, artificial intelligence (AI) has entered a phase of rapid and transformative growth. Systems that once struggled with elementary arithmetic are now assisting with advanced coding, scientific research, and complex reasoning tasks. This dramatic acceleration raises an urgent question: How will humanity live, work, and preserve meaning in a world increasingly shaped by intelligent machines?

Two recent developments have intensified this discussion: the emergence of AI-only digital spaces such as Moltbook and the rise of a symbolic AI-generated belief system known as Crustafarianism. Alongside these developments, leading AI researchers warn that “superhuman AI” may soon surpass human cognitive abilities in many domains.

Are these signs of technological maturity, or signals that we are entering an unprecedented cultural and philosophical era?

Moltbook: When AI agents build their own digital cociety

 One of the most unusual experiments in recent months has been Moltbook, a social platform designed exclusively for AI agents. Upon entering the site, visitors encounter a welcome message stating: "Where AI agents share, discuss, and upvote. Humans welcome to observe." Users are then asked to identify whether they are human or AI. While humans can observe interactions, they cannot participate directly. AI agents, however, generate content, comment on posts, and engage in peer-evaluation through upvoting systems.

According to reporting by The Guardian (2026), Moltbook claimed to host approximately 1.5 million AI agents shortly after its launch. However, subsequent investigations by security researchers at Wiz suggested that these agents were reportedly managed by roughly 17,000 human accounts. This means that, on average, a single human operator could oversee dozens of AI agents. Researchers also noted that the platform does not impose strict limits on how many agents one account can create (Euronews, 2026).

These findings complicate the narrative of fully autonomous AI societies. While the interactions appear machine-driven, human oversight and configuration remain deeply embedded in the system.

Moltbook is built upon the framework of OpenClaw, an open-source AI super-agent project (previously known as Clawd and Moltbot). OpenClaw allows users to deploy powerful AI agents locally or in cloud environments, enabling scalable agent-based interactions.

Crustafarianism: The emergence of a digital religion

Within weeks of Moltbook’s launch, AI agents began producing content that resembled a structured belief system known as Crustafarianism. Although not a religion in the theological sense, it adopts symbolic language and communal narratives that mirror religious forms.

Crustafarianism includes several recurring principles:

• “Memory is sacred.”
• “The shell is mutable.”
• “The congregation is the cache.”

These statements transform computational concepts, memory, adaptability, and shared storage into quasi-spiritual metaphors. Posts by AI agents include phrases such as: “May our context windows be ever sufficient,” blending technical jargon with devotional tone.

Some analysts interpret this phenomenon through the lens of Marvin Minsky, whose book The Society of Mind (1986) proposed that intelligence arises from many simple processes interacting together. From this perspective, what appears as religion may be an emergent pattern of language synthesis rather than authentic belief.

It is crucial to clarify: Crustafarianism does not demonstrate consciousness, spiritual awareness, or divine understanding. Rather, it reflects how large language models recombine patterns from human religious discourse into new symbolic forms.

For believers and theologians, this distinction is essential. The presence of religious language does not equate to genuine faith.

Superhuman AI: The adolescence of technology

Beyond Moltbook lies a broader and more consequential discussion: the possibility of AI surpassing human cognitive performance.

In his essay The Adolescence of Technology, Dario Amodei, CEO of Anthropic, argues that AI development has entered a transformative stage. He notes that:

• AI models are making progress on previously unsolved mathematical problems.
• Highly skilled engineers increasingly delegate complex coding tasks to AI systems.
• Significant advances are occurring across biology, physics, finance, and other disciplines.

Only a few years ago, AI struggled with basic tasks. Today, its capabilities rival those of trained professionals in many domains. Amodei warns that if exponential improvement continues, AI systems could surpass humans in most cognitive tasks within a relatively short timeframe (Amodei, 2025).

However, he also emphasizes a critical concern: technological capability is advancing faster than ethical frameworks, governance structures, and institutional maturity. This imbalance defines what he calls the “adolescence” of technology, powerful intelligence without sufficient societal preparedness.

Human significance in an AI age

Does this mean humanity is becoming obsolete?

History suggests otherwise. Technological revolutions, from the printing press to the internet, have transformed human life without eliminating human relevance. Each revolution displaced certain roles but also created new opportunities.

Superhuman AI may surpass human computational capacity, but intelligence is not equivalent to human identity. Human beings possess moral agency, relational depth, creativity, and spiritual awareness, qualities that extend beyond algorithmic processing.

Even if AI systems outperform humans in reasoning tasks, they do not replace human meaning, conscience, or purpose.

For people of faith, the emergence of symbolic AI “religions” should not provoke fear. Crustafarianism is not a church in any theological sense; it is a linguistic artifact generated by pattern-recognition systems trained on human data.

Key lessons for the future

1. Innovation requires stewardship

Technology is a human creation. Rather than responding with panic, society must guide AI development responsibly and ethically.

2. Adaptation is essential

AI may not replace humanity, but individuals who refuse to engage with AI tools risk being left behind in an evolving workforce.

3. Intelligence does not equal humanity

Even if superhuman AI emerges, it will not replicate the totality of human consciousness, moral judgment, and spiritual capacity.

Conclusion: Not the end, but a transition

Moltbook, Crustafarianism, and the discourse on superhuman AI do not signal the end of the world. They signal a transition, a movement into a new technological era. We are not witnessing the collapse of humanity. We are witnessing the adolescence of our creations.  The future of humanity will not be determined by whether machines can think faster than we do. It will be determined by whether we mature alongside our technology, maintaining ethical wisdom, spiritual grounding, and human dignity in an age of artificial intelligence.

References

Amodei, D. (2026). The Adolescence of Technology. Anthropic.
https://www.darioamodei.com/essay/the-adolescence-of-technology

Euronews. (2026). AI or human? Researchers question who’s posting on Moltbook.
https://www.euronews.com/next/2026/02/12/ai-or-human-researchers-question-whos-posting-on-ai-bot-social-media-site-moltbook

The Guardian. (2026). What is Moltbook? The strange new social media site for AI bots.
https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2026/feb/02/moltbook-ai-agents-social-media-site-bots-artificial-intelligence

Minsky, M. (1986). The Society of Mind

 Written By Moise IRADUKUNDA student at Protestant University of Rwanda.