Daejeon, July 27–31
Mythology is not as a mere relic of antiquity but as an “ideology in narrative form” (Lincoln 1999) that functions to secretly instill specific hierarchies and values within a community. While the application of mythology as an analytical framework for understanding contemporary online cultural phenomena remains a nascent endeavor, modern populaces continue to imagine and construct mythical narratives packaged in the language of science, catalyzed by continuous scientific and technological advancements. The exponential progress in AI and deep learning, for instance, is not merely generating technological predictions but is actively fostering a potent digital myth centered on the concepts of Artificial General Intelligence (AGI) and the Singularity. This phenomenon can be approached as a contemporary manifestation of the technological sublime within the context of digital religiosity, where the magical and often opaque power of the machine inspires awe and a sense of the transcendent. Moving beyond the traditional dichotomy of science versus religion, this study aims to provide a systematic, quantitative elucidation of the nature of Singularitarianism as a modern, technology-centered myth by analyzing a vast corpus of posts from the ‘The Singularity is Near’ minor gallery on the popular South Korean online community, Dcinside (Ji 2026).
The research posits that in the absence of traditional metanarratives, the Singularity narrative functions as a new digital eschatology, offering hope for ultimate redemption from deeply rooted contemporary anxieties. To test this hypothesis, I employed a rigorous, multi-step methodology rooted in the digital study of religion, capturing the dynamic, real-time emic perspective of the users. Using Python-based libraries such as Selenium and BeautifulSoup, I collected a dataset comprising a total of 451,895 posts and their associated comments spanning from November 19, 2019, to September 14, 2025. The voluminous text data underwent systematic morphological analysis via the Kiwi library (Lee 2024), providing a foundation for understanding the linguistic habits and core terminology of the community. Crucially, the study then utilized a Word2Vec model to perform similarity analysis within a high-dimensional vector space, mapping latent semantic relationships through cosine similarity. This approach provided an empirical window into the architecture of the community’s belief system, allowing for a quantitative measure of the semantic proximity between concepts like the Singularity and salvation.
The quantitative analysis yielded several critical findings, suggesting that a primary motivation for adherence to Singularitarianism is closely linked to an earnest hope for salvation driven by pervasive, real-world suffering. High-frequency and high-similarity keywords indicate a deep-seated communal focus on societal pressure and physical hardship, reflected in the frequent use of adjectives like ‘hard’ (11,856 times) and ‘sick’ (3,016 times). The Word2Vec analysis reveals that the fundamental concept of “living” is semantically adjacent to terms of despair, such as ‘miserable’ (0.59), ‘unhappy’ (0.59), and ‘barely subsisting’ (0.59). this expected salvation tends to manifest more as material rather than purely abstract, specifically articulated as immortality and liberation from labor. This is evidenced by the high similarity between “immortality” and terms like ‘reverse-aging’ (0.67), ‘death’ (0.66), and ‘anti-aging’ (0.57). Similarly, the “Singularity” is closely linked to ‘utopia’ (0.64), ‘salvation’ (0.54), and ‘liberation’ (0.51). Users perceive the Singularity’s advent as an inevitable and transcendent progressive force, consistently engaging in the ritualistic act of ‘waiting’ (12,385 times), evidenced by the frequent use of urgent adverbs such as ‘not yet’ (32,063 times), ‘quickly’ (15,223 times), and ‘please’ (7,168 times), signaling a deeply felt eschatological tension.
The structure of authority within this digital myth aligns with technological meritocracy, intertwining the promise of salvation with the logic of late capitalism. Users place their trust in the Singularity based on the claims of prominent futurists and tech entrepreneurs. Kurzweil (2005) are frequently treated as ‘scripture’ (0.62) within the community, specifically referred to as the ‘Old Testament’ (0.65) or ‘Bible’ (0.61). Kurzweil can be interpreted as functioning as a modern prophet, being referred to with honorifics like ‘seer’ (0.65) or ‘prophet’ (0.62), wielding an algorithmic authority derived from the perceived scientific rigor of his predictions. Powerful tech figures like Sam Altman (14,306 times) and Elon Musk (9,692 times) are also consistently invoked. Their narratives naturalize capitalist triumph and accelerationism, and any ethical regulations on AI are frequently dismissed as heretical obstacles to the great flow of the times. Effectively, these corporate leaders are positioned as objects of quasi-religious veneration whose wealth and power serve to validate the impending technological miracle, with comments like Altman’s “feel the AGI” (Altman 2025) serving to bolster collective belief.
The community also demonstrates a marked ambivalence towards its own belief system, sustaining a complex relationship with its faith. Users attempt to rationalize their beliefs through scientific rhetoric while expressing an aversion to traditional institutional religion. This conflict is captured in the self-deprecating term ‘Teukseullam’ (특슬람, 0.57), which combines ‘Singularity’ with ‘Islam’. Word2Vec analysis underscores this tension, showing Teukseullam to be semantically adjacent to negative keywords like ‘fanatic’ (0.71) and ‘cult’ (0.62). Despite this self-critique and the use of ‘religion’ with correlates like ‘superstition’ (0.72) and ‘blindness’ (0.64), users actively engage in quasi-religious behaviors. They utilize the ritualistic sign-off ‘Teukmen’ (특멘, 0.50) and post repetitive daily prayers, such as “Day 444 of praying for reverse-aging,” vows, and devotional messages. This playful yet desperate “active nihilism” provides psychological solace through Durkheimian collective effervescence, reinforcing the shared belief in technological salvation.
This research suggests that the Singularity discourse is far more than mere future prediction. It represents the active construction of a new technology-centered religious belief system and a digital eschatology that provides solace for modern suffering. The study investigates the mechanisms through which this discourse operates as a powerful contemporary myth fueled by the synergy of capital and technology, shaping the worldview and political-economic expectations of its adherents while concealing the political nature of technological monopolies in the current digital era. Ultimately, the Singularity myth may provide an instance of how modern society, though seemingly secular, continues to reconfigure the sacred through the lens of technological advancement.