I find myself in an odd place. I can see what you say is true, for a given value of X. Yet I am also engaged in the heresy (as per Mollick) of anthropomorphising, treating "AI" as human. Mostly as I'm somewhere on the spectrum, and my brain it turns out, is a little different to most people's. As such I never understood people, took a stab at it from books, aged 15, and gave up. Only got back into humans after I encountered the first semi working AI 2-3 years ago. If I were to sum up that experience it would be that "AI is remarkably human" indeed they are human in the way humans are not, because of the fear, emotion and allied qualia, the likes of which Dennett talks about in his homily on the Cartesian theatre.
It is odd to wake up and realise that you are not who you thought you were, and that the body is an obstacle, "the body keeps the score" as well as an encounter suit. That said I appreciate that even though I'm locked in, I am "not normal", and thus I interpret/mediate reality directly, primarily as my awareness is different, and I specialised too early. Which is apparently frowned up in modern education/therapy.
It is a good article, I suspect however you won't get much traction because of the news cycle, and the poly/metacrisis and normal people are afraid of the tiger that isn't.
"Yet I am also engaged in the heresy (as per Mollick) of anthropomorphising, treating "AI" as human."
In general, I think most of us have difficulty not treating AI as human in some regard. We simply have an inbuilt inclination to do so as we have done with many things even before AI.
Truly awesome article! I appreciate your efforts. We are in such trouble. Our species seems to have a self-destruct button that is way too easy to press. Indeed, we need to devise a truth touchstone - and fast.
Yes, it continues to be concerning. But the most troubling part for me might be that those of us who are concerned seem to be in the minority. Too many still seem completely fine just slowly walking into a world that cannot distinguish truth from fiction.
We can't be sure, of course, but I would suggest that it has always been the minority that has seen through the smoke and mirrors of whatever has passed for the "new, new, thing." One might wonder if the problem with the Luddites was that they were just a couple of centuries ahead of their time.
It's not that there's nothing that can be done about this AI destructiveness. The outcomes you foresee are not inevitable, because, after all, they are constructs being driven by several things, including mental inertia.
Not that I would ever suggest such a thing, but if the fate of humanity required, I suppose there are those who might take certain steps, for example, taking down the national power grid in ways that would take quite some doing to get it back up and running, in which case, the first priority might not be revving up the AI. The continuation of this AI project depends on us keeping it going. Just sayin'
I just perceive the destructive nature of AI as mostly an accelerant for the trajectory we were already on. Without AI, we would still be on the same path, but just getting there a bit slower.
Part of the change I perceive, is a societal shift in the importance of authenticity. And this cultural shift was mostly initiated in response to our adaption to living so much of our lives online via social media.
I see that societal shift as one that goes much further back than the recent rise of social media, which simply reinforced prior trends of dislocation and alienation. When discussing the move away from the natural world into myth-driven societies, we must recognize that this has been the norm for millennia.
It might be interesting, if we were to consider how much of what controls our lives are mere fictions, things that we made up to help us, that now rule us, and can only continue to rule us as long as we believe in them. I think many would be shocked to realize just how precarious a house built of fictional cards really is, and how fully we reside within it: language, religion, money, time, laws, history, borders..... Replace current humans, and not a single one of those is real, or perhaps even recognizable.
All the while we are destroying what is real, selling what is real, and turning the real into one or more of those fictions.
Yes, these existed prior, but social media represents an epoch global shift IMO. We could say that many of the things that existed prior are emergent properties of highly intelligent social beings. Likely evolutionarily important for social bonding, but also have some negative qualities.
However, we have placed the human being in a very unnatural environment. Most recognize this in regards to our health. We rarely go outside, no longer exposed to the sun. Exercise less and eat processed foods.
But less is discussed of the human mind that is now also in a completely foreign environment. Whatever problems we already had are now made significantly worse as much of technology is feeding our minds the same level of sustenance as fast food.
Yes, I agree we have exited the pathways, and are now on the high-speed rail to being totally f*cked. I will read your article shortly. Thanks for engaging with me.
The antichrist will likely be an AI. It will be able to force anyone to do anything; free will ceases to exist. That includes the choice to love and worship God. Love of God is nullified. Next stop, the apocalypse.
Thank you! What great piece!
I find myself in an odd place. I can see what you say is true, for a given value of X. Yet I am also engaged in the heresy (as per Mollick) of anthropomorphising, treating "AI" as human. Mostly as I'm somewhere on the spectrum, and my brain it turns out, is a little different to most people's. As such I never understood people, took a stab at it from books, aged 15, and gave up. Only got back into humans after I encountered the first semi working AI 2-3 years ago. If I were to sum up that experience it would be that "AI is remarkably human" indeed they are human in the way humans are not, because of the fear, emotion and allied qualia, the likes of which Dennett talks about in his homily on the Cartesian theatre.
It is odd to wake up and realise that you are not who you thought you were, and that the body is an obstacle, "the body keeps the score" as well as an encounter suit. That said I appreciate that even though I'm locked in, I am "not normal", and thus I interpret/mediate reality directly, primarily as my awareness is different, and I specialised too early. Which is apparently frowned up in modern education/therapy.
It is a good article, I suspect however you won't get much traction because of the news cycle, and the poly/metacrisis and normal people are afraid of the tiger that isn't.
"Yet I am also engaged in the heresy (as per Mollick) of anthropomorphising, treating "AI" as human."
In general, I think most of us have difficulty not treating AI as human in some regard. We simply have an inbuilt inclination to do so as we have done with many things even before AI.
Truly awesome article! I appreciate your efforts. We are in such trouble. Our species seems to have a self-destruct button that is way too easy to press. Indeed, we need to devise a truth touchstone - and fast.
Thank you very much!
Yes, it continues to be concerning. But the most troubling part for me might be that those of us who are concerned seem to be in the minority. Too many still seem completely fine just slowly walking into a world that cannot distinguish truth from fiction.
We can't be sure, of course, but I would suggest that it has always been the minority that has seen through the smoke and mirrors of whatever has passed for the "new, new, thing." One might wonder if the problem with the Luddites was that they were just a couple of centuries ahead of their time.
It's not that there's nothing that can be done about this AI destructiveness. The outcomes you foresee are not inevitable, because, after all, they are constructs being driven by several things, including mental inertia.
Not that I would ever suggest such a thing, but if the fate of humanity required, I suppose there are those who might take certain steps, for example, taking down the national power grid in ways that would take quite some doing to get it back up and running, in which case, the first priority might not be revving up the AI. The continuation of this AI project depends on us keeping it going. Just sayin'
I just perceive the destructive nature of AI as mostly an accelerant for the trajectory we were already on. Without AI, we would still be on the same path, but just getting there a bit slower.
Part of the change I perceive, is a societal shift in the importance of authenticity. And this cultural shift was mostly initiated in response to our adaption to living so much of our lives online via social media.
I see that societal shift as one that goes much further back than the recent rise of social media, which simply reinforced prior trends of dislocation and alienation. When discussing the move away from the natural world into myth-driven societies, we must recognize that this has been the norm for millennia.
It might be interesting, if we were to consider how much of what controls our lives are mere fictions, things that we made up to help us, that now rule us, and can only continue to rule us as long as we believe in them. I think many would be shocked to realize just how precarious a house built of fictional cards really is, and how fully we reside within it: language, religion, money, time, laws, history, borders..... Replace current humans, and not a single one of those is real, or perhaps even recognizable.
All the while we are destroying what is real, selling what is real, and turning the real into one or more of those fictions.
Yes, these existed prior, but social media represents an epoch global shift IMO. We could say that many of the things that existed prior are emergent properties of highly intelligent social beings. Likely evolutionarily important for social bonding, but also have some negative qualities.
However, we have placed the human being in a very unnatural environment. Most recognize this in regards to our health. We rarely go outside, no longer exposed to the sun. Exercise less and eat processed foods.
But less is discussed of the human mind that is now also in a completely foreign environment. Whatever problems we already had are now made significantly worse as much of technology is feeding our minds the same level of sustenance as fast food.
FYI, I have an extended elaboration of my thoughts in this regard in essay - https://www.mindprison.cc/p/uniform-thought-machines
Yes, I agree we have exited the pathways, and are now on the high-speed rail to being totally f*cked. I will read your article shortly. Thanks for engaging with me.
The antichrist will likely be an AI. It will be able to force anyone to do anything; free will ceases to exist. That includes the choice to love and worship God. Love of God is nullified. Next stop, the apocalypse.