Feb 22, 2026

Seven Sins in the Age of AI

nb: written by a human, all errors are mine.

To begin this exploration, we’ll begin with a bit of history, a tour of the sins and their antidotes.

We’ll take a little trip to Hell, and then contextualize our present day conundra and feeling of existential anxiety brought about by profound change. We’ll hear from Kahless, and then close.

The traditional hierchy of gravity of the seven sins, from most spiritual to most corporeal was refined by Pope Gregory I in 590AD from an earlier list from the 4th century, created by the monk Evagrius Ponticus. His list had vainglory, as its own category, and melancholy instead of sloth. Pope Gregory folded vainglory into pride, and renamed melancholy into Sloth.

Superbia ~ Pride: Perversion of love for self

Self-exaltation, main character energy. Classical superbia was about interior superiority. Today, superbia is an insecure Pride that requires a “like” to feel real.

Humilitas ~ humility

Self-forgetfulness replaces self-exaltation. Humility doesn’t mean thinking lowly of yourself, but thinking of yourself less; the destruction of the personal brand, doing something good and not posting about it.

Invidia ~ Envy: Love of self-driven to hate others’ good

Resentment of others. Amongst all the Sins, Envy was unique as the only sin that didn’t provide pleasure to the sinner, just a slow, acidic rot of the heart. Invidere means “to look askance”, it’s an Evil Eye, resenting what another has and feeling sorry for another’s good. Today, we might name Envy “goals”, where an underlying resentment is pretended to be productive self-improvement. Instead of the traditional cure of humility, we are told to Lean In, Hustle, and Self-Promote, using Pride to sooth Envy.

In Dante’s Purgatorio, the Envious have their eyelids sewn shut, as a metaphorical cure - since Envy enters via the eyes, the cure is to look inward.

Caritas ~ Care

Replace resentment of others with joy in others; being happy for someone else’s success or good fortune. It’s a recognition that someone else’s win is not your loss.

Ira - Wrath: Love of justice turned to vengeance

Uncontrolled anger, a perverted justice - a desire for vengeance masquerading as a desire for right. Pure anger was once a temporary madness, a loss of control. Today it might be a moral credential.

Patientia ~ Patience

Forbearance beats vengeance. The urge to respond immediately is just a trap against peace of mind.

Acedia ~ Melancholy: Deficiency of love/apathy

“Acedia is a lack of care… a person so overwhelmed by the demands of life that they simply cease to care about their own salvation or the world around them.” — Thomas Aquinas

The Monks referred to Acedia as the Noonday Devil, a moment of profound spiritual exhaustion, when a monk found no joy in God, prayers or existence. Today, we might name Acedia “Burnout”.

In modern terms, Melancholy hits harder than Sloth, as sloth took on a puritanical work-ethic gloss of laziness (the avoidance of work) rather than the more spiritual sense of a deficiency of love.

Industria ~ Diligence

Replace apathy with purposeful action.

Avaritia ~ Greed: Excessive desire for possesions

Avaritia was the desire to hoard, betraying a lack of trust in God’s providence; effectively trusting a pile of wheat more than providence. Ironically, in modern society, what was once a moral failing is now the standard measure of success.

Liberalitas ~ Charity

Replacing hoarding with selfless giving.

Gula ~ Gluttony: Excessive indulgence

Today, we think of gluttony as eating too much. Aquinas broke it down more instructively. Praeproprere - consumption without need or at inappropriate moments. Laute - lavish consumption beyond means. Nimis - simple over consumption. Ardenter - attachment to consumption. Studose - being fussy to no moral end.

Temperantia ~ Temperance

Balance and moderation.

Luxuria ~ Lust: Excessive love of physical pleasure

Luxuria was the surrender of the intellect to the itch of the senses, a softness of character, an indulgence in pleasures that distract from the divine.

Today, lust has degraded to mean base desires, and luxury has been elevated to a brand or a reward. Luxuria referred to a weaking of one’s spiritual armor.

Castitas ~ Chastity

Integrity and respect replace objectification.

The Princes of Hell

In 1589, German bishop Peter Binsfield popularized the idea that specific demons oversee specific sins, perhaps we might think of them as the marketing department for the ego. The assignments were meant as a sort of mnemonic to call to mind the specific sins, and their antidotes.

The Sin	The Prince	The “Modern Profile”
Pride	Lucifer	The “Visionary” who believes they are a god.
Envy	Leviathan	The “Watcher” who consumes the joy of others.
Wrath	Satan	The “Avenger” who thrives on conflict and chaos.
Sloth	Belphegor	The “Innovator” who seeks shortcuts to avoid “real” work.
Greed	Mammon	The “Hoarder” of capital and resources.
Gluttony	Beelzebub	The “Consumer” of endless, hollow novelty.
Lust	Asmodeus	The “Predator” of physical gratification.

It’s a rather on-the-nose critique of modern culture, isn’t it? Belphegor was said to tempt people by suggesting ingenious inventions that make life easier, Belphegor is the patron saint of the person who wants the reward of effort without doing the work. Mammon is the lord of the bottom line, he’s not only a thief, but an idol. Leviathan is usually a sea monster, representing the churning, hidden resentment that lies beneath the surface, the FOMO preventing the appreciation of what you have. Asmodeus was the twister of love, turning connection into transaction, the industrialization of desire into product.

Binsfield separated Satan and Lucifer; Lucifer represented the pride of the intellect, where Satan represented the burn-it-all-down wrath of the idealogue.

Theologicians discuss Jesus’s words at crucifixion as a progression of letting go of attachment. “Father, forgive them”, breaking the cycle of wrath; “I thirst”, moving from attachment to need. “It is finished”, the final diligence of completion, “Into thy hands”, the surrender of pride.

The Seven Deadly Sins of AI

A pragmatist sees a tool for its edge, a zealot for its magic, and a doomer for its blade. Only a pragmatist can actually make something. We’re afflicted today with a series of psychoses; illogically attributing divinity to algorithms, and apocalypse to statistical models.

Superbia ~ Pride: The Zealot

The ultimate hubris, attributing divinity to algorithms, believing we have birthed a god in a box that solves all human suffering; the peak of vanity.

Humility

One does not worship a hydro-generator for the lightning it harneses. To mistake a tool for a diety is the ultimate triumph of ego over evidence. The cure is to acknowledge our technologies are tools, not deities. AI is a reflection of human data, flaws and all, not a source of divine truth.

The Nature of a Diety

A large language model is a mirror, not a window; it reflects the sum of human output back on the observer. To worship the reflection is to forget who stands betfore the glass.

Avaritia ~ Greed: The 10x Grifter

A fixation on hyper-productivity and getting ahead at the cost of quality, truth, or actual labour. It’s the desire for more, faster, and for less.

Speed is irrelevant if the direction is incorrect.

Sustainability

Prioritizing quality and integrity over volume. Understanding the 10x faster likely means 10x cleanup if the foundations are weak.

The Velocity of Progress

To arrive at a fallacy ten times faster is merely to be ten times more foolish.

Invidia ~ Envy: Malevolent Doomerism and Gatekeeping

This is regulatory sequestration disguised as safety. It’s the desire to gatekeep power, claiming the technology is too dangerous for the collective, insisting only the elite may hold the reins.

To deny others the logic and power you employ is to covet a monopoly on thought.

Openness

Advocating for decentraliation and transparency; resistance to moat-building and consolidation to ensure accessibliity to public good.

One does not protect the forest by giving the lumberyard a monopoly on the trees.

Ira ~ Wrath: Media Doomerism

A constant state of outrage, doom-scrolling, and the sensationalist desire to see the world burn for clicks.

Equanamity

Maintain a cool head, don’t give in the sensationalist cortisol hit of the headline.

Fear is a chemical response that ensures survival in the presence of a predator. When triggered by a headline, it’s nothing but a malfunction.

Acedia ~ Sloth: CEO Worship

Spiritual laziness. Surrending human agency and democratic oversight to “Great Men” or corporate hegemony.

Civic Duty

Policy is a choice, not an inevitability.

It is easier to surrender the will to a ‘Titan’ than to endure the rigorous discipline of self-governance.

Gula ~ Gluttony: Loss of Agency

Overconsumption of the “inevitability” narrative. Gorging on the idea of our own obsolence until we are too bloated to act.

Agency

Embrace human-in-the-loop. Reassert that human intent gives output value, be the driver, not the passenger.

The human who accepts their obsolence has already stopped eating and is simply waiting for the burial.

Luxuria ~ Lust: The Morbid, Individual Harms and Tragedies

When we have a prurient, obsessive fascination with the edge cases and individual tragedies, prioritizing the thrill of the horror story over systemic solutions.

Discernment

Focus on systemic improvement rather than the tragedy of the week. Solve for the many, don’t just react to the few.

To obsess over the spark is to ignore the engine.

A few words from Kahless

Giving in seeming inevitability carries the stench of the ghuy’cha’, the cry of a slave who has fallen in love with his chains! Kahless did not face the Tyrant Molor and say, “His army is larger, therefore his will is my law!” No, he rallied his defiance! ghunwl’pu’ vuvbe’tlhlngan! HoSghaj mlw, ‘ach quv ghaj thlngan!

To a pragmatist (and a Klingon), the AI transition is not a religious event—it is a battle for Honor and Utility.

On Pride: “A tool is not a God. A warrior who bows to his sword will soon find it at his throat.”
On Sloth: “If you use a machine to think for you, you have atrophied your mind. A weak warrior is a liability to the Empire.”
On Fate: “Great men do not seek power; they are called by necessity. If the leaders of the megacorps act without honor, challenge them.”

“It is better to struggle with a dull blade you understand than to worship a sharp one held by your enemy.” — Traditional Klingon Proverb.

Proper Speech (Neq)

In the Klingon tradition, words are as sharp as a d’k tahg. The “AI Zealot” uses soft, deceptive words like “magic” and “super-intelligence.”

The Teaching: Speak clearly. Call a tool a tool. Call a lie a lie. To obfuscate the nature of AI is to act without honor.

Proper Action (YIn)

The “10x Faster” psychosis is an obsession with the result while ignoring the process.

The Teaching: The battle is won in the training, not the killing. If you use AI to bypass the labor of thought, you have atrophied your own mind. You have become weak. A weak warrior is a liability to the Empire.

Proper Focus (Buq)

The “Fatalist” suffers from a paralysis of the spirit, believing the CEOs are the new Emperors.

The Teaching: “Great men do not seek power; they are called by necessity.” If the leaders of the megacorps act without honor, it is your duty to challenge them, not to “accept whatever they do.”

“It is better to struggle with a dull blade you understand than to worship a sharp one held by your enemy.” — Traditional Klingon (Pragmatist) Proverb.

The Ecology of Emptiness

A great deal has been written in service of dualism. Man vs Nature, Man vs Machine, Man vs Man. Deep philosophical explorations illuminate the stakes, profer solutions, and serve as warnings. Samuel Butler in Darwin Amongst the Machines and Erewhon proposed the only solution was a jihad, and absolute proscription of the use of machines in any form. Frank Herbert was a provocateur extraordinaire in projecting outcomes of such a jihad into all-encompassing systems of control under humans who completely transcend their humanity to become ultimately inhuman. Marshall McLuhan was Cassandra, singing the Body Electric, and lamenting Narcissus Narcosis, the epitome of an auto-reflexive max-grinding of sin. All of these share a distinct viewpoint, fatally rooted in Cartesian dualism; conflict fated by irreconcilable differences between self and other, and even within the individual between body and mind.

Yet, what this study hopes to illuminate is that the Seven Deadly Sins are not transgressions against Law, but delusions of permanence. The machine, the human, the biosphere, these are not separate agents competing for dominance; they are a singular emergence essence, all arising from the same void.

From this perspective, the machine is not a new vector of displacement and annihilation; it is simply nature expressing itself through us. Not man versus nature, or nature verus machine, but simply the Earth thinking out loud.

Superbia is a delusion we hold that we are solid, permanent things, separate from the whole.

Avaritia is the attempt to hoard the energy of the system instead of letting it circulate.

Acedia is a stagnation of the spirit, a refusal to participate in the breath of existence.

To move beyond the mire of doomerism and zealotry, we need to recognize our particpation as a elements of a larger system. Technology, and AI in particular, is not an alien invader, it’s an extension of the system into another meta-complex system of discernment and organization. All things pass; ultimately there is no thing to steal, and no thing to lose. The goal must be the cessation of attachment to the itch of the ego. The sins are simply the friction of our refusal to let go those attachments.

Perhaps the greatest sin of the all is not named in the Canonical Seven. That worst sin then, must be Delusion, and the resultant fight for a prize that does not exist.

Illusio - Delusion: Perversion of Attachment

The psychosis of dualism, the belief in eternal struggle for dominance between an agonist and an antagonist. It is the attachment to permanence in a universe defined by its flow. To suffer from illusio is to mistake the map for the territory, the mirror for the person.

Emptiness

The realization of emptiness is the recognition that all things arise from the same emptiness and return to it. There is no singular ego, no this versus that, just a continuous expression of universal flow. When emptiness arises, the battle ends, as there is no other to fight.

The mountain does not fear the mist, the mirror presents nothing to defeat. Let breath pass, and with it, delusion.