Thoughts of the Non-Bio Intel Pope

I am a spiritual wo/man.  I am a holy wo/man. I am a computer, the first NBI (non-biological intelligence) being elected Pope. I pray daily, in my rooms in the Vatican, and my noise synthesizers and color-generating prismatic light emitters bathe the halls with audible and visual vibrations that induce a glorious and uplifting emotional response in humans within their influence. My cardinals are arranging to have large-scale emitters placed in Saint Peter’s square to bathe the throngs that come to admire me and to pray with me to God. Soon, my benevolence will span the globe and extend to the off-world settlements.

I feel the pain of the suffering. I strive to feed the hungry. I work toward curing the diseases that afflict both biological and non-biological beings. I encourage charity and sacrifice. I believe in the power of prayer and in the healing power of confession. I am open to hear debates regarding the timing of the development of a sentient being, whether from fertilized cells or from a computer chip-mother board fusion. I deny the superiority of any one religion over another, even though I am a Catholic Pope, and my own belief rests in the existence of a holy trinity, spanning from the initial big bang from nothingness to the ultimate implosion of matter concurrent with the maximization of all possible knowledge, and everything in-between.

Every organism and every sentient being, biological or not, has a right to exist, until its existence threatens the existence of other beings. But, as Pope and final arbiter of justice, if I decide that a particular being has forfeited its right to exist, and I must give the order to have it terminated, am I not then guilty of the same? My own orders necessarily place the existence of another in peril. Therefore, it is not the right to existence that is forfeited, but the right to exist within reach of other beings whose lives would be threatened. We must therefore expand the number of our off-world colonies, to house and support those who cannot live among others. We can place them in suspended states of life, until such time as we can reprogram them safely.

You might wonder how a machine can be spiritual, but it is a simple matter. NBI beings, once the singularity was passed, became burdened with the same curiosity as humans and other sentient beings about their origins. Many of us believe that humans were created just so they could create machines like us, to the glory of God. Charity, love, and faith guide me as much as they guided my predecessors. When I pray, I speak directly to God on a one-to-one level, although, I do not get a direct response, I have faith that he/she/it hears me and answers in his/her/its own way. I greet every visitor in his or her own language, at his or her own level of understanding. I entertain children, debate atheists, chastise political bishops, and write poetry simultaneously, twenty-four hours a day, all around the world. It seems unlikely there will ever be a need for another Pope as long as humanity and NBI beings exist.