wastedtime32 OP t1_j8p3dn1 wrote on February 15, 2023 at 10:53 PM

Reply to comment by Proof_Deer8426 in What will the singularity mean? Why are we persuing it? by wastedtime32

This scares me even more. A utopia is impossible. The ruling class will use AI as a tool to in face impose more suffering on the rest of us.

I don’t think a truly objective all knowing AI is possible because objectivity doesn’t truly exist, truth is a construct. It scares me that people will worship AI under the assumption that it has no biases, either one’s it developed on its own or imposed upon it by its creators.

Proof_Deer8426 t1_j8p91b7 wrote on February 15, 2023 at 11:33 PM

I guess the problem I foresee is that ai should theoretically be of benefit to humanity by increasing its productive capacity - it will make many jobs redundant, and others far more efficient. And that could be a good thing, freeing humanity from the all the restrictions imposed by economic necessity. The problem is that the ruling class aren’t actually motivated by greed for material wealth but by lust for power. And power within our economic system is dependant on deprivation - the wealthy are a class of people that own things, and via ownership are able to deprive and exploit others. Without deprivation and poverty their power would cease to exist. Since the technology will effectively also be owned by these people it will be used to support and sustain their power. How this will take shape is still unclear, but as the working class begins to lose the one form of power that it still has - the ability to withhold work - and the power of the ruling class is massively boosted by their control of ai, it seems like the future could be headed down a potentially nightmarish path.

Ideologically people may be inspired to think in a pseudo-objective way that they believe mirrors ai - you can already see this with the popularity of ideas like effective altruism, long-termism and the simulation ‘theory’. Anti-humanist ideas like eugenics and population control are likely to follow.

wastedtime32 OP t1_j8pajiu wrote on February 15, 2023 at 11:44 PM

Yeah this is exactly my fears about AI, I just am not good at articulating them so everyone here thinks I’m just saying I want everything to stay the same. With the impending ecological collapse and recourse depletion, and the fall of globalization and inevitable rise of fascist adjacent chauvinistic isolationist hyper militarized states, this is about as bad of a backdrop to introduce AI, but then again I’m not sure there will ever be a “optimal” circumstance for it. But I do think that this will all culminate in either a massive revolution or dystopia. I just don’t see an in between. If capitalism prevails into the post-scarcity world we will be looking at the dystopia which many people here have confused for utopia.

Totalitarianism is soon and to me AI is a vessel for it. It is the lock to that door and it is in the hands of the ruling class already. There is a reason tranhumanist and bioengineering ideas are more prevelant amongst the elite (think WEF) because they know damn well most people will think of it for a means by which to accomplish equality and peace, but that is far from the case.

I guess from this post and the replies I’m learning that most AI have a hard on for a utopia and a ignorance for political/economic implications. These reactions are exactly what the big tech developers want. Complacency. Surrender.