Today, the entire attention of experts and the media is riveted on the shifting world order. Analysts are vying with one another to discuss the fragmentation of the globalized world and its inevitable transition into civilizational macro-regions. This is a fundamental, visible process that underpins modern wars, sanctions, and alliances.
Yet, behind the noise of geopolitical clashes, the world has almost missed an event of a massive, tectonic nature. We are talking about a historic document—an encyclical (a solemn papal letter) by Pope Leo XIV.
Many commentators were quick to dismiss it as mere routine reflections on Artificial Intelligence (AI). But the Vatican was not talking about technology. The Pope addressed the very foundation of human civilization, declaring a turning point that surpasses the proclamation of the medieval Crusades in its significance. This document proclaims that humanity stands on the precipice of a new technological slavery capable of permanently erasing free will.
The Executioners and Slaves of the Digital Age
The primary threat of Artificial Intelligence does not lie in it replacing humans in the workplace or spinning out of control in the spirit of sci-fi movies. The threat is that AI is beginning to construct the human being—their consciousness and mindset.
Even today, a chilling proportion is taking shape within the development of the human community:
- 90–95% of the global population risks turning into objects of digital programming. Their consciousness, habits, daily actions, career tracks, childhood dreams, and the very level of their cognitive development will be entirely dictated by AI algorithms. People will cease to think independently, having delegated this function to gadgets and networks.
- 1–3% of the «digital elite» will retain and continue to develop genuine human intelligence. It is this tiny sliver that will stand above artificial intellect, managing it and deciding which way to steer the controlled masses.
«This is nothing less than a second slavery,» the encyclical effectively sounds. «In antiquity, there were slaves and slave owners. In this brave new world, there will be those who think with their own heads using AI, and the vast majority, whose future and desires are synthesized by a machine.»
From the perspective of Christianity and Christ’s covenant regarding the freedom of the human soul, such segregation is an absolute evil aimed against the very nature of man as an individual.
The Tower of Babel Syndrome
Pope Leo draws a deep historical parallel between the current digital architecture and the Tower of Babel. What is the Tower of Babel in a sociological sense? It is a rigid, artificial hierarchy that the top (the elite) built exclusively from the «top-down,» attempting to determine the lives of all strata down to the very bottom from a single point. But this construct is historically doomed to collapse because it ignores the baseline interests of the «bottom»—that is, the majority of people.
We are witnessing this crisis of the Tower of Babel right now at key nodes across the planet, where the governance system has locked horns with reality.
1. The Impasse of Western Democracy (The Example of the EU and the UK)
Even within traditional democracies, awareness of a systemic failure is brewing. Within the ranks of Europe’s ruling parties, there is a growing understanding that the problem lies not with specific leaders (such as Macron, Starmer, or Merz), but with the system itself. The main contradiction of modern times is the conflict between the bottom and the top.
The establishment shapes policy based on its clan, elite, or global priorities. Meanwhile, local communities, which form local councils, live by entirely different needs. The whole of Europe is convulsing from this internal friction today: the «bottom» demands one thing, while the «top» pushes through something entirely different, turning the state machinery into an isolated Babel.
2. Russia’s Historical Lesson: The Destruction of Communities
This very same paradox explains why in 1917 Russia chanted the slogan «All Power to the Soviets!» and rejected the model of Western liberal democracy embodied by the Constituent Assembly. Traditional Russian society—peasant and factory communities, as well as entrepreneur communities and the military estate—was alienated by the partisan talking shops of politicians. Since 1905, the people had been building their own system of direct democracy from the ground up: worker, soldier, peasant, and local Soviets (Councils). It was the local communities that formed these Soviets, sending their representatives to the Congress of Soviets, which in turn appointed the Government. This living, bottom-up initiative was supported at the time by the military general staff and General Staff intelligence, who were weary of the incompetent Provisional Government under wartime conditions.
However, the vital power of the Soviets did not last long. In the 1937 constitution, Stalin dismantled this system, effectively replacing it with a Western analogue—voting by party lists for the Supreme Soviet. The lower-level Soviets remained merely as bottom-tier structures of the state system, frequently serving as mere window dressing, while the party bureaucracy reigned supreme at the top, ultimately burying the USSR.
Today, a neo-imperial «Tower of Babel» has been erected in Russia, which the ruling elites in the Kremlin are trying to bring to an absolute scale. Genuine local self-governance has been purged, and all key decisions are made on Staraya Square (in the Presidential Administration) and inside the Kremlin.
In Ukraine, under wartime conditions and the leadership of Zelensky, an analogous but even more grotesque tower has been built, completely dependent on an external, foreign architect. In both cases, the «bottom» is entirely cut off from state governance.
Musk’s Alternative and the Challenge for the Church
How do we dismantle this digital Babel before it permanently walls humanity into castes of slaves and technocrats?
The way out lies both in the reform of state systems and in a radical shift of the educational and social paradigm. Elon Musk, by the way, speaks about this regularly: the modern education system must be changed immediately. The system of standardized testing, aimed at the mechanical memorization of facts, turns children into ideal bio-robots—the very ones AI will replace first.
Instead, we must nurture in children what is inaccessible to algorithms:
- The capacity for critical and independent thinking;
- Creativity and constructive exploration;
- The ability to dream and set metaphysical goals.
Pope Leo’s encyclical is a manifesto for a return to the human being. And it poses a serious challenge for Europe. Effectively, the Vatican has asserted itself as a civilizational center—both spiritual and political—for the European macro-region.
The Pope’s encyclical is also a challenge for Russia, including the Russian Orthodox Church. Drawing historical parallels, the Pope proves that spiritual institutions must not become part of a state «Tower of Babel,» servicing the interests of the elites’ bureaucracy, as has happened with the modern church in both Russia and Ukraine.
The task of traditional confessions today is to return to the human being, to stand up in defenсe of their sovereignty and free will from the ground up. It is necessary to restore people’s right to individuality, so that the human community can control artificial intelligence and its own destiny, rather than becoming passive raw material for the algorithms of a new digital empire.
