How God, Orwell & AI Reveal the Power of the Written Word
"During the covid lockdowns, I took an online course in coding. I learnt how to build my first website and a simple app but also learnt just how steep a learning curve it would be to become a great developer.
Fast forward today, and I just watched experienced senior developers and software start up founders on Y-Combinator talk about how they build their apps today and one thing they all had in common? Words, Simple written words, Prompts.
AI is changing the game: you don’t need to be a coding expert to build powerful tools anymore. If you can describe what you want clearly, AI can help make it real."
Introduction: From Divine Commands to Digital Prompts
"In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God." This profound opening from the Gospel of John reveals something essential about the nature of reality itself: it responds to language.
The universe, according to this ancient text, was spoken into existence through divine utterance. Fast-forward through millennia of human civilization, and we find George Orwell warning us that "the slovenliness of our language makes it easier for us to have foolish thoughts."
Today, as we stand at the threshold of an AI-dominated era, a new truth emerges: the most vital form of writing in our time is prompting—the art of crafting language that speaks to machines in ways that unlock their vast potential.
The thread connecting these three moments in history is profound: language has always been the interface between mind and reality.
What has changed is not the fundamental power of words, but the entities that respond to them. Where once people believed God responded to prayer, where Orwell showed us how societies respond to propaganda, we now discover that artificial intelligences respond to prompts.
The same linguistic principles that shaped theology and totalitarianism now look determine who thrives in the age of AI.
The Divine Word: When Reality Responded to Sacred Language
In the beginning was the Word—not the alphabet, not the sentence, but the primordial act of speaking reality into existence. This foundational concept in Judeo-Christian thought establishes language as more than communication tool; it positions words as creative force itself. When Genesis describes God saying "Let there be light," it presents speech as the mechanism through which possibility becomes actuality.
This divine model of language established humanity's first understanding of words as commands that shape reality. Prayer, incantation, and sacred utterance were humanity's earliest attempts at prompting—efforts to use precise language to elicit specific responses from divine intelligence.
The careful formulations of liturgy, the exact repetitions of mantras, the memorized precision of scriptural recitation—all represented early experiments in optimizing language for maximum effect with a responsive higher intelligence.
Religious traditions developed sophisticated understandings of how different types of language produced different results.
The Hebrew concept of "davar" encompasses both word and deed, suggesting that speech and action are fundamentally unified.
Islamic tradition emphasizes the power of divine names, with each of Allah's ninety-nine names serving as a specific key to unlock particular aspects of divine response.
Christian mystical traditions developed elaborate prayers designed to achieve communion with God through precisely crafted language.
These traditions understood what modern prompt engineers are rediscovering: that the entity you're addressing matters less than understanding how that entity processes and responds to language.
Whether seeking divine intervention or AI assistance, success depends on crafting language that aligns with how the receiving intelligence interprets and acts upon linguistic input.
The printing press didn't just democratize access to sacred texts—it democratized access to the linguistic formulations that previous generations had believed could move heaven and earth.
Suddenly, the precise words that monks and priests had used to commune with the divine became available to anyone who could read.
This technological shift foreshadowed our current moment, where the linguistic techniques once reserved for religious elites are becoming essential skills for anyone seeking to harness artificial intelligence.
Orwell's Prophetic Vision: Language as the Ultimate Technology
George Orwell saw what others missed: language doesn't just describe the world—it creates the world in which we live.
His insights about linguistic manipulation have become prophetic blueprints for understanding how words shape reality at scale. "The slovenliness of our language makes it easier for us to have foolish thoughts," he warned, recognizing that imprecise thinking begins with imprecise language.
In "1984," Orwell envisioned Newspeak not merely as censorship but as cognitive engineering.
By eliminating words, the Party eliminated the thoughts those words made possible. By simplifying grammar, they simplified the complexity of thinking itself.
The genius of this system wasn't in telling people what to think, but in making certain thoughts literally unthinkable by removing the linguistic tools required to formulate them.
Orwell's essay "Politics and the English Language" reads like a manual for prompt engineering written decades before AI existed.
He advocated for precision, clarity, and purpose in language use, warning that "the invasion of one's mind by ready-made phrases...can only be prevented if one is constantly on guard against them."
His rules for good writing—never use a metaphor you've seen in print, never use a long word where a short one will do, if it's possible to cut a word out, always cut it out—sound remarkably like modern advice for crafting effective AI prompts.
But Orwell went further, recognizing that language mastery represented political power itself. Those who could craft precise, persuasive language could shape public opinion, policy, and ultimately reality.
His warnings about doublethink and doublespeak identified how linguistic manipulation could make people accept contradictions, forget inconvenient truths, and embrace whatever narrative served those in power.
What Orwell couldn't have predicted was that the "those in power" wouldn't necessarily be governments or corporations, but anyone who mastered the art of communicating effectively with artificial intelligence.
In our era, the ability to prompt AI systems effectively has become a new form of literacy that determines access to knowledge, creativity, and problem-solving capability.
Orwell's insight that "language is power" has evolved into a new reality: prompting is power. Those who can craft effective prompts can harness artificial intelligence to write, analyze, create, and solve problems at superhuman scale. Those who cannot remain limited to purely human capabilities in an increasingly AI-augmented world.
The AI Revolution: When Machines Began Responding to Human Words
We now live in the first era in human history when non-divine, non-human intelligences respond systematically to human language. Large language models represent a fundamental shift in the ecology of communication: for the first time, humans can use natural language to direct artificial minds that can understand context, follow complex instructions, and generate sophisticated responses.
This development represents the democratization of what was once considered divine prerogative—the ability to speak reality into existence through words alone. When someone prompts an AI to "write a business plan for a sustainable coffee company targeting millennials," they are, in effect, speaking a new business concept into textual existence. When they ask AI to "explain quantum mechanics using analogies a ten-year-old would understand," they are commanding the creation of educational content tailored to specific needs.
The art of prompting has emerged as the critical skill for harnessing this new form of responsive intelligence. Like religious practitioners who learned that certain prayers yielded better results, or political communicators who discovered which phrases moved public opinion, prompt engineers are developing sophisticated techniques for eliciting optimal responses from AI systems.
Effective prompting requires understanding how AI systems process language, what kinds of instructions they follow best, and how to structure requests for maximum clarity and effectiveness.
The most skilled practitioners know that asking an AI to "write something about climate change" yields vastly different results than instructing it to "write a 500-word persuasive essay arguing for renewable energy investment, targeted at skeptical business executives, using economic rather than environmental arguments, with three specific data points and a compelling call to action."
This specificity echoes the precision that religious traditions demanded in sacred language and that Orwell advocated in political writing. The difference is scale and accessibility: while only priests could perform elaborate rituals and only skilled writers could craft effective propaganda, anyone can learn to prompt AI systems effectively.
The democratization of this power has profound implications. Students who master prompting can access personalized tutoring on any subject.
Entrepreneurs can generate business plans, marketing copy, and strategic analysis. Writers can overcome creative blocks and explore new styles. Researchers can synthesize vast amounts of information quickly.
The limiting factor is no longer access to information or even to sophisticated analytical capabilities, but rather the ability to communicate effectively with artificial intelligence.
Convergent Patterns: The Eternal Principles of Effective Language
Across these three domains—divine communication, political persuasion, and AI interaction—remarkably consistent principles emerge for using language to achieve desired outcomes. Whether addressing God, crowds, or algorithms, effective communication requires precision, clarity, and understanding of how the recipient processes linguistic input.
Religious traditions developed elaborate taxonomies of prayer types—petitionary prayers that asked for specific outcomes, contemplative prayers that sought communion, liturgical prayers that maintained community connection.
Each type required different linguistic strategies, different levels of formality, different appeals to divine attributes. Modern prompt engineering has developed similar taxonomies: creative prompts that inspire novel outputs, analytical prompts that demand logical reasoning, instructional prompts that teach or explain concepts.
Orwell's rules for effective political writing translate directly to effective prompting: be specific rather than vague, use concrete rather than abstract language, eliminate unnecessary words, and always keep your purpose clearly in mind. His warning against "ready-made phrases" applies equally to prompt writing—generic, clichéd prompts yield generic, clichéd outputs.
The concept of "knowing your audience" extends from human communication to AI interaction. Just as effective preachers understand their congregation and skilled politicians understand their voters, effective prompters understand the capabilities, limitations, and behavioral patterns of different AI systems. Some models respond better to conversational prompts, others to formal instructions. Some excel at creative tasks when given freedom, others need detailed constraints to perform well.
The iterative refinement that characterizes effective prayer, persuasive writing, and skilled prompting follows similar patterns. Religious practitioners learn to adjust their prayers based on perceived responses or lack thereof. Political communicators test and refine their messages based on audience reaction. Prompt engineers iterate on their instructions based on AI outputs, gradually refining their approach until they achieve desired results.
Most importantly, all three domains recognize that language is never neutral. Every word choice carries implications, every structure suggests priorities, every omission shapes meaning. Whether crafting a prayer, a political speech, or an AI prompt, the user's worldview, assumptions, and intentions are embedded in their linguistic choices.
The Modern Imperative: Prompting as Essential Literacy
In our current moment, the ability to prompt AI systems effectively has become as fundamental as reading and writing were in previous eras.
This skill determines who can access the vast problem-solving capabilities of artificial intelligence and who remains limited to purely human capacities.
The parallels to historical literacy transitions are striking. When writing systems first developed, those who could read and write gained enormous advantages in commerce, governance, and knowledge preservation.
When printing made books widely available, literacy became essential for full participation in society. Today, as AI systems become ubiquitous, prompt literacy is becoming the gateway to enhanced human capability.
But prompting is more than technical skill—it's a new form of critical thinking. Effective prompters must clearly articulate their goals, break complex problems into manageable components, and communicate with precision and purpose. They must understand not just what they want to accomplish, but how to structure their request so that an artificial intelligence can understand and fulfill it effectively.
This skill set builds directly on the linguistic insights that religious traditions and political communicators have developed over centuries. The careful attention to word choice that characterized prayer and propaganda now serves prompt engineers seeking to elicit optimal responses from AI systems. The understanding of audience and context that enabled effective preaching and persuasion now enables effective human-AI collaboration.
Educational institutions are beginning to recognize prompting as a core competency, but the transition is still in its early stages. Just as previous generations had to learn to read and write to participate fully in society, current and future generations must learn to prompt effectively to harness the capabilities that artificial intelligence makes available.
The stakes are significant. Those who master prompting can amplify their intelligence, creativity, and productivity through AI collaboration. They can access personalized education, generate professional-quality creative work, and solve complex problems by leveraging artificial intelligence as a thinking partner. Those who don't develop these skills risk being left behind as AI integration accelerates across every domain of human activity.
Conclusion: Speaking Power in the Age of Artificial Intelligence
From the divine Word that spoke creation into existence, through Orwell's warnings about language as a tool of power and control, to our current era where prompting determines who can harness artificial intelligence effectively, the fundamental truth remains constant: language is power, and the skilled use of language determines who shapes reality.
What has changed is not the principle but the scale and accessibility of this power. Where once only priests could claim to speak to God and only skilled propagandists could shape public opinion at scale, today anyone can learn to communicate effectively with artificial intelligence systems that possess vast knowledge and capabilities.
The democratization of this linguistic power represents both unprecedented opportunity and significant responsibility. AI systems amplify human capabilities, but they also amplify human biases, assumptions, and limitations.
The quality of their outputs depends directly on the quality of the prompts they receive, making skilled prompting not just a personal advantage but a societal necessity.
The future belongs to those who understand that prompting is not merely a technical skill but the latest evolution in humanity's ancient relationship with responsive intelligence.
Whether seeking divine intervention through prayer, social change through persuasion, or enhanced capability through AI collaboration, success depends on mastering the art of precise, purposeful, and effective language.
In this new era, the most powerful individuals and organizations will be those who treat prompting with the same seriousness that previous generations brought to prayer and propaganda—recognizing it as the key to unlocking capabilities that can reshape industries, solve complex problems, and extend human potential in ways we are only beginning to understand.
The Word has always been powerful. Today, the word is prompt, and those who master it will inherit the earth.