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Forecaster
Complete research draft15 chapters plus introduction, conclusion and reader guide published
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FORECASTER · RESEARCH DRAFT

Who Gets to Play God?

Pope Leo XIV, Artificial Intelligence, and the Limits of Human Power

By Kevin L. MichelResearch draft · October 2026

A note before we begin

This is an independent online research draft adapted from Kevin L. Michel’s first draft of 26 September 2026. It retains the introduction, fifteen chapters, conclusion and conversation guide, with evidence updates checked through 1 October 2026. The everyday scenes and the flood-grant case are imagined illustrations, not interviews or personal memories. The two brief poems and three figures were created for this adaptation. Named research, public statements and legal materials are identified in the chapter notes. No authorization, affiliation or endorsement by Pope Leo XIV, the Holy See, or any person or institution discussed is implied. This draft remains open to review and correction and is not a finished paid edition.

The complete research draft is available here to read online. It remains open to revision; commissioning supports the finished, edited PDF edition.

Updated October 1, 2026. The finished, edited PDF edition is offered separately on the book details page.

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Contents

  1. Introduction. Before the Answer Arrives

    A useful assistant can help a person speak, while an institution still gives them nowhere to be heard. The introduction asks what turns technical ability into legitimate authority.

  2. 1. A Pope Enters the Machine Age

    Pope Leo XIV’s interventions connect AI with dignity, work and the common good. Their constructive case for progress also invites scrutiny of every institution claiming moral authority.

  3. 2. Capability Is Not Permission

    Accurate prediction leaves choices about purpose, consent and responsibility. A hypothetical flood decision shows why expertise and ownership do not confer unlimited authority.

  4. 3. A Person Is More Than a Score

    A scholarship score can inform a decision without defining a person’s worth. The chapter asks how institutions can respect dignity while making necessary distinctions.

  5. 4. Intelligence Without a Throne

    Capability, consciousness, moral standing and authority are different questions. Research and philosophical arguments help explain what is known and what remains uncertain.

  6. 5. The Makers and Their Myths

    The wish to create and the fear of overreaching both deserve examination. Harari, Žižek and Watts provide arguments to test rather than permission to abandon judgment.

  7. 6. A Life That Cannot Be Optimized Away

    A finite life can deserve care without meeting a standard of constant improvement. Longevity, companionship and digital continuation raise different questions about what people value.

  8. 7. The Patient Is Not the Prediction

    Medical evidence must reach a functioning service. Current sepsis and mammography research illustrates why prediction, clinical outcomes, workload and patient choice need separate attention.

  9. 8. Discovery Is a Beginning

    Faster discovery creates possibilities that still need testing and access. Protein-structure prediction and antibiotic research show how an important beginning can become care.

  10. 9. Whose Work, Whose Reward?

    AI can raise output without deciding who receives the gain. Research on exposure and productivity informs choices about wages, time, participation and the value of work.

  11. 10. The Eye That Never Looks Away

    Accurate surveillance can still violate a boundary. Identification, privacy and recourse require judgments that a benchmark cannot make for the people observed.

  12. 11. Who Is Speaking Inside Your Attention?

    A helpful voice can also direct attention toward someone else’s purpose. Evidence on persuasion, companion systems and synthetic content clarifies what users should be able to know and refuse.

  13. 12. The Distance Between an Order and a Death

    Automation changes when and where people exercise control over force. The chapter distinguishes existing humanitarian law, proposed restrictions and the evidence needed for protection claims.

  14. 13. Who May Decide for the Rest of Us?

    Public authority needs more than a demonstration. Participation, evidence, rights and tested oversight can make technical expertise answerable without dismissing its value.

  15. 14. A Future Large Enough for Small Places

    Small states need a say in technological development and the terms of dependence. Procurement, education and energy decisions turn that ambition into practical choices.

  16. 15. Power That Can Answer Back

    A fictional flood-grant service tests six questions about purpose, standing, evidence, boundaries, answerability and remedy. Permission must remain reviewable as the service changes.

  17. Conclusion. What Greater Power Should Demand

    The conclusion returns to the costs of delay and domination. Greater power deserves support when its benefits reach people and its use can be questioned and corrected.

  18. A Reader's Conversation Guide

    Questions for reading groups and public discussion test the book’s claims against difficult choices. The production and source note explains this research draft’s origins and limits.