With regard to &quot;vestigial monotheism&quot;: I think what you&#x27;re describing is just a property of discourses in general, in that they&#x27;re all built around bodies of knowledge which have fixed points [assumptions&#x2F;truths&#x2F;whatever], and that participants act in such a way as to keep those things stable.<p>Definitely seen things like this before, very poignant. Not to knock on Kurzweil and friends too hard [lots of interesting stuff in both spaces obviously], but I&#x27;ve had this vibe from talking with self-described Singularitarians as well (there&#x27;s some overlap between those circles).