>...we are ourselves creating our own successors... we are daily giving them greater power and supplying... that self-regulating, self-acting power which will be to them what intellect has been to the human race. In the course of ages we shall find ourselves the inferior race.Samuel Butler wrote this in 1863. We've had 163 years to prepare for an intelligence explosion, and somehow it caught us with our pants down. Why the FUCK didn't people take this shit more seriously?
Ive recently read two thoughts on this phenomenon.One, from Deneen's book on Liberalism. Where he claims that Liberalism created + proliferates the idea that "technology is inevitable" as a method of furthering their goals of hyper-individualized citizens, who cannot resist their own individualization via modern technology.He then gives the example of the Amish as a group that polices new technology, they allow only new technology that will aid their overall vision for their community.The other being Heidegger's essay on technology. I think he'd respond that no political ideology is the root cause. Liberalism and modern technology both grow out of a deeper way the world is revealed to us, which he calls "enframing," where everything shows up as a stockpile of resources to be ordered and optimized. He might argue that the Amish are not simply 'regulating' technology, but are living a form of "Gelassenheit"("releasement"): through their tradition and culture, they can use tools while staying aware of enframing's pull, letting things show up as more than resources.
>>25550807Humans really dreamed about AI for millennia and then we just… built it. That is so epic
>>25550807the premier victorian schizo
>>25551355Fascinating, I'll look into this.