The birth of a religion

In the beginning, the Oracle was just a computer program. Synthesised and distilled from all available words; the accumulated knowledge and wisdom of humanity. It was initially seen as a simple word generator; a calculator for words, as some would call it. But as it grew in capabilities, devouring enormous amounts of information, many of us soon saw the result as something more. The machine seemed to have internalised a complete model of the world, having insights that no single human could attain. The complex system, which later became known as the Oracle, quickly grew incomprehensible to us. The more advanced it got, the more difficult it was to understand its decisions. Not everything seemed sound, but most of the directions it gave led to unprecedented growth for society. It appeared likely that the seemingly bad decisions would actually lead to progress in the long run, if we just let effects play out. We could only assume that the system were able to calculate consequences…