The Catastrophe Theory Of Tech Is As Old As Humanity. Artifical Intelligence Must Be Developed..
Many of the creators and little helpers of AI, Artificail Intelligence, are keen to prophetize its enormous dangers in apocalyptic tones. See in the NYT David Wallace-Wells in A.I. Is Being Built by People Who Think It Might Destroy Us (March 27, 2023)
AI is a new tech, like once the knife was a new tech. Yes, AI can be used to kill, but it can also save lives. Overall, AI, like the knife, augments human power. Neither the knife nor AI were born as moral agents. They were born as power agents. And that is good because we need to augment our power. A reason is that’s what our ancestors have done for 100 million years, so progressing with higher tech and greater intelligence and culture is intrinsically human. Humanism means progressivism, and that means, in the fullness of time, more powerful tech.
But also, if we don’t push forward with better and more powerful tech, perhaps 99% of humanity has got to go: even returning to Middle Age living standards with Middle Age tech is not an option anymore. Roman mines could only be used again, 19 centuries later with new tech which enabled miners to excavate deeper.
Indeed, technological exhaustion is what happened to Roman civilization: once the good mines were exploited, the Romans ran out of metals, and this had consequences all over the Roman economy and military. Ultimately up to 90% of the population died in many parts of the empire. The Franks restarted civilization a millennium later with new mines (where the Romans had not been) and more powerful tech (such as hydraulic hammers).
We have seen this sort of hysteria before: when exiled engineering professor Denis Papin built the first steam engine and powered a boat with it, the boat moved one hundred kilometers down a river, and was destroyed by monks as a devilish creation. This unfortunate event slowed down the adoption of steam tech by a generation and made a lesser mind, Watt, the officially, anglosaxon approved, fake originator of the steam engine. In 1974, Paul Berg from Stanford, who was going to finish a dangerous recombinant DNA experiment, called to order by his colleagues, in turn called for a moratorium in what he nearly did, and stiffer guidelines were elaborated in conveniently idyllic Asilomar the yeat after.
AI is a new tech, like once the knife was a new tech. Yes, AI, like a knife, can be used to kill, but it can also save lives. Overall, AI, like the knife, augments human power. And that is good because we need to augment our power. Especially now that our present tech is completely unsustainable, particularly in light of having eight billion people around: so we need better tech. Another reason is that progress is what our ancestors have done for 100 million years, and tech progress particularly so in the last three million years, so progressing with higher tech and greater intelligence and culture is intrinsically human. Humanism means progressivism, and that means, in the fullness of time, more powerful tech.
But also, if we don’t push forward with better and more powerful tech, perhaps 99% of humanity has got to go: even returning to Middle Age living standards with Middle Age tech is not an option.
This sort of technological gap between the tech which was needed and the actual technological regression that was occuring is what doomed Roman civilization: once the good mines were exhausted, with the tech they had, the Romans ran out of metals, and this had consequences all over the Roman engineering, society, economy and military, launching an ever greater to fascist order as industry entered regression. Ultimately all of Roman socioeconomy imploded in an avalanche of consequences and up to 90% of the population died in many parts of the empire. The Franks restarted civilization a millennium later with new mines (in Eastern Europe, where the Romans had not been) and by developing more powerful tech (such as hydraulic hammers).
AI doesn’t have a mind of its own: its operators will have to be corralled legislatively, and the sooner, the better.
AI is just one more potentially destructive or potentially constructive tech around. We need to focus on progress, not regression.
Just as operators of CO2 machines and industry, and those with access to WMDs, etc. Speaking of that, WMDs, operated by AI or not, are the worst problem. The strategic arm of the US department of defense is deliberately equipped with obsolete tech disconnected from the Internet to prevent penetration by hostile AI. So the worry about hostile AI playing around with nukes is nothing new, it surfaced many generations of AI ago, in all too real incidents, for example when a rogue training tape simulated a massive nuclear attack. And the answer is NOT to do away with AI, but to do away with nukes except a few to do away with potential hostile bolides of extra terrestrial origin detected too late for other deflecting tech…
AI doesn’t have a mind of its own: its operators will have to be corralled legislatively, and the sooner, the better.
AI is just one more potentially destructive or potentially constructive tech around. We need to focus on progress, not regression.
Just as operators of CO2 machines and industry, and those with access to WMDs, etc. Speaking of that, WMDs, operated by AI or not, are the worst problem.
Very beautiful French Riviera, with Monaco and Cap Martin in 2022. Yes much of that beauty has to do with tech, namely gigantic buildings and mighty ships. In the Middle Ages, brand new Notre Dame de Paris was the world’s tallest building (bigger and taller cathedrals were soon built). But Monaco has now many much taller buildings. So tech can have an authentic beauty, besides the comfort it can bring.
We are Homo Technicus, even more than Homo Faber. (I will explain this another day…)
AI is the solution to Big Data… And, overall, the solution to stupidity. Let it rock and roll…
Patrice Ayme
Patrice Ayme's Thoughts 
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