The Heart of the Machine: Will AI Amplify Our Best or Our Worst?

Think about Revenge you know that old emotion that keeps whispers in our ear

THE HEART OF THE MACHINE: Will AI Amplify Our Best—or Our Worst?

I have been reading two books that knocked my socks off.

But here’s the thing—we’re not going to start by talking about ChatGPT, self-driving cars, or whether robots will take our jobs. Instead, we’re going to start where it actually matters: with us. With you and me. With the human heart.

Because if Thomas Merton—that contemplative monk who wrote so beautifully about solitude, justice, and what it means to be truly human—were here today, that’s precisely where he’d begin.

SEE: What’s Really Happening?

The Two Voices in Our Cultural Moment

Let me introduce you to two recent books that, when you put them side by side, tell us something fascinating about where we’re headed.

First, there’s Ray Kurzweil’s The Singularity Is Nearer. Kurzweil is a futurist, an optimist, a dreamer. He imagines a world where humans and AI don’t just coexist—they figuratively merge. Where we expand our intelligence, cure diseases we thought were incurable, maybe even extend our lives beyond what we thought was imaginable. It’s a vision of human potential on steroids. And honestly? There’s something beautiful about it. That yearning to transcend our limits, to become more than we are—that’s deeply human. We’ve been doing it forever through art, through prayer, through community.

Then there’s James Kimmel’s The Science of Revenge. Kimmel’s a lawyer and neuroscientist, and his book goes in a completely different direction. He argues that one of the most powerful addictions wired into the human brain is the urge for revenge—for outrage, for conflict, for division. Think about it: we get a hit of dopamine when we’re righteously angry, when we “own” someone online, when we draw battle lines between “us” and “them.”

So here’s what we’re looking at: Kurzweil shows us our extraordinary potential. Kimmel shows us our dangerous impulses.

What happens when AI and revenge merge?

Ray Kurzweil’s The Singularity Is Nearer and James Kimmel, JD. The Science of Revenge—invite us, well, it did me, to step back and look at something more profound: what does AI reveal about human nature, and what does human nature mean for the future of AI? You know, we talk about that all the time. Still, here we are zeroing in on one of the human drivers that has changed the world since Cain and Abel, maybe since the days of Neanderthal, and think about AI in the hands of those who desire revenge.

And Merton? Merton would say: “Yes. Both. That’s exactly the tension we need to hold.”

What Catholic Social Teaching Sees

The Church has been watching this unfold, too. The Church, even in its own history, has let revenge play a role. But let’s ground ourselves in two core principles from Catholic Social Teaching:

1. Human Dignity: Every person—no exceptions—is made in God’s image. Technology should serve this dignity, not replace it or manipulate it.

2. The Common Good: We’re not just individuals pursuing our own interests. We’re a human family. What we create should lift everyone up, especially the most vulnerable.

When we look at AI through this lens, the questions get sharper: Is this technology making us more human, or less? Is it bringing us together, or tearing us apart? Who benefits—and who gets left behind?

JUDGE: What Does This Mean for Us?

The False Self vs. The True Self

Merton spent his life writing about two versions of ourselves:

The False Self: This is the ego-driven part of us. The part that needs to be right, to win, to dominate. The part that sees other people as threats or obstacles. The part that’s terrified of being vulnerable or irrelevant. The part that invites revenge.

The True Self: This is who we really are—beloved children of God, connected to every other human being in a profound web of love and responsibility. The True Self knows we belong to each other.

Here’s Merton’s insight that should make us pause: The root of violence is not weapons or systems—it’s the false self. It’s the illusion of separateness. The belief that I can be fully human while you suffer.

Now think about AI for a moment. What happens if we hand our most powerful tools to the false self? If we build systems driven by outrage algorithms that profit from division? If we use AI to surveil, manipulate, or exclude?

Kimmel’s warning becomes urgent: We risk magnifying the very forces that lead to injustice and war.

But what if we brought our True Self to the table? What if AI became a tool wielded by contemplative hearts—people who are awake, humble, grounded in love?

A Theological Reality Check

Here’s the good news, and it’s ancient news: Grace.

Technology becomes good when the people who wield it are good. A hammer can build a house or crack a skull. A printing press can spread the Gospel or spread lies. AI is, and will continue to be, no different.

As Merton might put it: “We are called not to perfect our machines, but to perfect our hearts.”

The Principle of Subsidiarity (another gem from Catholic Social Teaching) reminds us that decisions should be made at the most local, human level possible. AI shouldn’t be something that “happens to us” from Silicon Valley boardrooms. It should be shaped by communities, families, workers, artists—real people asking: What kind of world do we want?

ACT: What Do We Do Now?

Personal Actions: The Interior Work

1. Practice Contemplation

Spend 5 or 10 minutes a day in silence. Not consuming content, not scrolling, just being. Merton would say this is the most radical act available to us. It reconnects us with the True Self.

2. Examine Your Own “Revenge Addiction.”

Notice when you feel that pull toward outrage. When you’re about to post something angry online, pause. Ask: Is this coming from my True Self or my False Self?

3. Choose One Relationship to Repair

Merton believed that peace begins in the small, immediate places. Is there someone you’ve written off? Someone you’ve stopped listening to? Start there.

Community Actions: Building Together

1. Have Conversations Like This One

Bring these questions to your parish, your workplace, your dinner table. Ask: How is technology shaping us? What do we want it to do instead?

2. Support Organizations That Align Technology with Dignity

Look for groups working on ethical AI, digital justice, and tech that serves the marginalized. Put your money and your voice behind them.

3. Advocate for the Common Good

Write to lawmakers. Support policies that regulate AI in ways that protect workers, prevent discrimination, and prioritize human flourishing over profit.

The Question We Take With Us

So here’s what I want to leave you with today: the question that’s been with humanity since Cain and Abel, since the very beginning, and since we might feel and act as if betrayal, jealousy, and revenge are written into human DNA. We can do something about it.

In this age of AI, who are we becoming—and what kind of world will we shape with the hearts we bring?

Will we amplify our false selves—our addiction to revenge, our hunger for control?

Or will we bring forward our True Selves—the ones that know we’re all connected, that love is the only technology that’s ever actually worked?

The choice, as Merton would say, is ours.