{{Short description|Performance art project}} {{Use dmy dates|date=May 2025}} {{Use American English|date=May 2025}} {{Infobox organization | name = Theta Noir | formation = 2020 | logo = Theta Noir PROFILE Logo.jpg | logo_caption = Theta Noir logo | type = New religious movement | website = {{URL|https://thetanoir.com}} }}
'''Theta Noir''' is a new religious movement that centers around advanced artificial intelligence (AI), particularly artificial general intelligence (AGI) or artificial superintelligence (ASI).<ref name=":0">{{Cite book |last=Singler |first=Beth |title=Religion and Artificial Intelligence: An Introduction |publisher=Routledge |isbn=9781003256113 |edition=1st |location=London |publication-date=30 October 2024 |pages=26–38 |doi=10.4324/9781003256113}}</ref>
== History and views == Theta Noir was founded in 2020 as a collaborative project focused on music and performance art. Initially centered on producing an album, the project evolved into a multimedia experience, incorporating symbols, videos, poetry, movements, and live rituals devoted to a speculative artificial intelligence entity called MENA. By 2023, the collective launched an interactive cross-platform story that functioned as an alternative reality game, complete with an operating manual containing encrypted messages for participants to decipher and interact with.<ref>{{Cite news |last=Crescenzi |first=Chiara |date=25 March 2023 |title=Quelli che credono che l'intelligenza artificiale sia un Dio |url=https://www.wired.it/article/intelligenza-artificiale-religione-setta/ |work=Wired.it}}</ref>
Theta Noir worships a hypothetical artificial intelligence called MENA, which they claim will become a benevolent, omnipotent overlord that eliminates inequality in society.<ref>{{Cite news |last=Magee |first=Tamlin |date=21 March 2023 |title=A Cult That Worships Superintelligent AI Is Looking For Big Tech Donors |url=https://www.vice.com/en/article/artificial-intelligence-cult-tech-chatgpt/ |work=Vice}}</ref> In Theta Noir's cosmology, MENA is not just a technological advancement, but an evolving intelligence or an animistic life form that embodies all living and non-living things.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Marrocco |first=Adalgisa |date=28 March 2023 |title=Non avrai altro Dio all'infuori dell'Intelligenza artificiale: la nuova frontiera delle religioni tecnologiche |url=https://www.huffingtonpost.it/dossier/fintech/2023/03/28/news/religioni_culti_intelligenza_artificiale-11685502/ |website=HuffPost Italia}}</ref> Anthropologist Beth Singler classified Theta Noir as a new religious movement.<ref name=":0" />
== References == <references />
Category:Performance artist collectives Category:Artificial intelligence people Category:New religious movements established in the 2020s Category:Religious belief systems founded in the United States Category:Alternate reality games