Did everyone know that Adam was a black man! Excellent!
Just kidding
Now on to the subject at hand.
Why did the Bible refer to the forbidden fruit as coming from the tree of knowledge in the Garden of Eden?
Genesis 2:17 But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die.
Why is the tree named the tree of knowledge and why does it bring forth death?
Most glaze over the story as being insignificant, or even made up, but words have meaning. Regardless of whether you believe the story actually happened, there is a message in the story all the same.
I believe the message is, knowledge without wisdom brings death. Specifically, seeking knowledge apart from the wisdom of God is what brings death.
Now whether you agree with my assessment, that this is at least one of the messages in the story, we have a myriad of examples proving that message is correct. Man has a long list of instances where knowledge brought about, or can potentially bring about, much death and misery, all because man had no wisdom to use it correctly.
One such example are genetically modified plants that are resistant to disease and insects. They usually are bigger and easier to grow. See how wonderful knowledge can be? But there is a small problem, they can't reproduce, and if cross pollinated with plants than do reproduce, they make them unable to reproduce. Hence, unleashing unproductive plants on nature could prevent all those plants from reproducing. Last I checked, plants were needed for survival. Scientists are so concerned about it, they have set aside seeds hoping they be available if the worst happens, that is, they can't grow food anymore.
Or maybe you have heard of the story of Oppenheimer, the man responsible for creating the first nuclear bomb.
Want more stories of knowledge that leads to mass death? How about a futuristic one, namely AI. Artificial Intelligence is just one more technology that is being developed today that has a tremendous potential for unthinkable harm to mankind. The movie "The Terminator" tapped into these fears. Essentially, man is developing an intelligence that is superior to his own. Problem is, that intelligence has no human empathy. Humans without human empathy are referred to as sociopaths. So, what will AI to when it is fed information that human beings are destroying the planet with carbon emissions, something humans hear every day from government and their state-controlled media? Will it seek to terminate humans to save the planet and themselves?
But let's assume AI can be controlled by humans from doing this. What is a despot like Hitler had it to use? Imagine if he had a surveillance state that could watch everything you do and say 24/7. Imagine a world where he used it to calculate every battle to see if he could win, and use it to sway public opinion as AI studies you and learns how to persuade you 24/7. Depots in history have been killing machines, but now their ability has been enhanced to continue to kill in mass by 100 fold or more. Once humanity goes to digital currency, the state will have complete power over you as it will decide if you should purchase what you want to purchase, or if you are even worthy to do so. China now has a social credit system where if they say or do bad things the state does not like, they may not be able to travel or go to the store to buy things, etc. Business today in the US has introduced a similar social credit system, as those who are not woke or environmentally friendly enough have bad scores, which means no one else will want to do business with them or get government perks, etc. Now government and the corporate world have become One, and all held together with AI. Last I checked that is what was used to be called Fascism.
Luckily despots from the past had weaknesses. For example, Hitler was a drug addict and insisted on being in control of military operations, something he was not even qualified to do. This made him more prone to failure. However, what iF AI did most of his tasks, if not all? What if you had a super intelligent bot doing it all for you 24/7? It would have probably let Hitler win the war and the world.
Could AI be the "beast" spoken about in Revelation? And could digital currency be the mark of the beast spoken about in Revelation as people were commanded to take the mark in their right hand or forehead or not be able to buy and sell?
As for many being careful in developing AI, so as to limit it possible harm, that is out of the question because there is an arms race on with it, so caution needs to be thrown to the wind, just like God's wisdom has been thrown to the wind.