Were Medieval People Better Prepared for AI?

Marc Andreessen says a religious history scholar who teaches at Catholic University told him medieval people were psychologically better prepared for the era ahead with AI, robots, and drones than people are now. Medieval people took for granted a world of higher powers, higher spirits, angels, demons, and all kinds of supernatural entities, and they assumed that picture was true.

In the world ahead, which he describes as arguably already here, new forces and new entities will run around doing things. People will struggle, catastrophize, and conclude AI is the end of the world. Medieval people would have treated AI as just another spirit and just another kind of entity. AI is better than humans at some things, and so are angels. People will have to change their mentality, become a little more medieval, and open their minds to the kinds of entities they are dealing with.