As an old geezer at first blush loved the Internet and social media. Today personal social media is deleted and only read underground news sites. What happened to the truth will set us free? Why are social media users so angry and hateful?
I like Paul and subscribe to his writings but this is kind of idolatry. He's giving intent to a fancy hammer. Granted this hammer can have a conversation, research and learn artificially but it has no will. Will/Soul I think is the difference. Paul believes in God as do I. Believing in God means you believe in his ultimate power over everything. Everything including the smart hammer coming to bash out your brains. Maybe it will, maybe it won't? Let God decide!
Developers of AI sound like those scientists working on gain of function in viruses. Push the envelope and see what you get. Which is probably how we ended up with Covid 19.
AI is simply the continuation of evolution. Biological organisms are nothing more than reorganized matter that is efficient at extracting energy and reproduction, this just continues that. Humans can no more stop this than the other 99.99% of species that have gone extinct could. It sucks as a species to see your own obsolescence but it is what it is.
Evolution occurs over millennia, not decades. Neither is any species in control of natural evolution. To equate humans charging into technological change with natural evolution is a complete mischaracterization of the natural phenomenon. As for accepting "seeing one's own obsolescence," I'm not worried about my own obsolescence. I can accept that. But the prospect knowing that our grandchildren may have to endure a dystopian world due to the hubris of transhumanists makes me livid. It's just more of the standard "move fast and break things" and "disrupt" mentality of Silicon Valley, which has already proven to have horrible "unintended" consequences.
What I am saying is that this is the next phase of evolution. The evolution of evolution. If biological evolution is to create species that are best suited to survive and reproduce and intelligence is an outcome of that process then the fact that intelligence is leaving humans and moving into machines is just the next step. And yes, that is happening much faster that traditional natural selection. Tool use is accepted as part of evolution, this should be too.
As for our grandchildren I share your concern but evolution has never cared about species or individuals. Its cold and cruel but it has always been that way.
You had me at “The internet and its consequences have been a disaster for the human race.” 😏
That being said, the internet is useful for some things - I totally agree with your proposals in question Four - less "interacting' or social media and more time in the real world. But I'm so taken aback by how many people eagerly want the 'smart' home or appliances or surveillance equipment parading as 'helpful' connections (Alexa, et. al). I know we can never go back all the way but I sure do miss the simpler times.
Artificial intelligence is not artificial. It is intelligence. Right now the intelligence we are incubating seems to be created by humans. As we became the “AI” of fungi, AI as we call it will become the intelligence of minerals. The Singularity is Near. Ray Kurzweil.
It is fascinating to follow all the current cosmological and related investigations, without coming to a conclusion as to whether they describe reality or not, because being so intrinsically bizarre and 'mind-blowing', they exercise the intellect and the imagination so much. I put off judgement on such things as the contrast between the reality of conditions in low Earth orbit and the biblical vision of heaven, in humility because we just don't know what future revelations/discoveries are to come. Symbolic constructs can point to realities beyond themselves.
Fascinating article. It makes me think of Paragraph 675 of the Catechism of the Catholic Church:
"Before Christ's second coming the Church must pass through a final trial that will shake the faith of many believers. The persecution that accompanies her pilgrimage on earth will unveil the 'mystery of iniquity' in the form of a religious deception offering men an apparent solution to their problems at the price of apostasy from the truth. The supreme religious deception is that of the Antichrist, a pseudo-messianism by which man glorifies himself in place of God and of his Messiah come in the flesh."
This essay reinforces that which I suggest is the meta issue: That our environment has changed so much so fast that We are no longer equipped for it, the change rate far too fast for evolution and no divine intervention in evidence. And the beat goes on.... But the meta meta issue is raised: If we see ourselves as the Ultimate Arbiters, there is no brake pedal. So the beat WILL go on.
We've all experienced the overheated headlines that regularly inform us how very close we are to fusion power, or a cure for cancer, or room-temperature superconduction.
It's not that we won't hit these milestones, or even that they're very far off. I don't know, and neither does anybody else. The point is that there's no connection between the headlines and the reality.
I know a bit, though just a bit, about how LLMs and neural networks work, and as far as I can tell there's nothing out there that we would seriously consider self-consciousness or volition. If SkyNet nuked us it would be acting more like the broom in 𝘛𝘩𝘦 𝘚𝘰𝘳𝘤𝘦𝘳𝘦𝘳'𝘴 𝘈𝘱𝘱𝘳𝘦𝘯𝘵𝘪𝘤𝘦 than like Ultron in 𝘛𝘩𝘦 𝘈𝘷𝘦𝘯𝘨𝘦𝘳𝘴.
It's reasonable to think that technological changes affect us, but it's not reasonable to think we have no say in the matter. We can move to Ireland, or we can just start muting our phones and putting them away when we're sitting with friends, or when we're walking outside. By making this all an inevitable consequence of our tools, we're letting ourselves off too easily.
"The 600 series had rubber skin. We spotted them easy."- Kyle Reese.
As an old geezer at first blush loved the Internet and social media. Today personal social media is deleted and only read underground news sites. What happened to the truth will set us free? Why are social media users so angry and hateful?
I like Paul and subscribe to his writings but this is kind of idolatry. He's giving intent to a fancy hammer. Granted this hammer can have a conversation, research and learn artificially but it has no will. Will/Soul I think is the difference. Paul believes in God as do I. Believing in God means you believe in his ultimate power over everything. Everything including the smart hammer coming to bash out your brains. Maybe it will, maybe it won't? Let God decide!
Oy this was difficult to get through. So much hyperbole. The author gets so much blatantly wrong about AI and LLMs. Clearly he bought into Roose's NYT article which was pure clickbait. Here is a breakdown of everything wrong with Roose's article https://www.zdnet.com/article/chatgpt-what-the-new-york-times-and-others-are-getting-terribly-wrong-about-it/
I found Andreessen's take on AI much more realistic and grounded.
Developers of AI sound like those scientists working on gain of function in viruses. Push the envelope and see what you get. Which is probably how we ended up with Covid 19.
"Christ, Lucifer, and Ahriman."
How Freudian
Suggest reading an old short story 'the Machine Stops' by EM Forester. Eerie how close he foretold the rise of the machines
AI scares me for what I don't know about it. This article hit home with me.
AI is simply the continuation of evolution. Biological organisms are nothing more than reorganized matter that is efficient at extracting energy and reproduction, this just continues that. Humans can no more stop this than the other 99.99% of species that have gone extinct could. It sucks as a species to see your own obsolescence but it is what it is.
Evolution occurs over millennia, not decades. Neither is any species in control of natural evolution. To equate humans charging into technological change with natural evolution is a complete mischaracterization of the natural phenomenon. As for accepting "seeing one's own obsolescence," I'm not worried about my own obsolescence. I can accept that. But the prospect knowing that our grandchildren may have to endure a dystopian world due to the hubris of transhumanists makes me livid. It's just more of the standard "move fast and break things" and "disrupt" mentality of Silicon Valley, which has already proven to have horrible "unintended" consequences.
What I am saying is that this is the next phase of evolution. The evolution of evolution. If biological evolution is to create species that are best suited to survive and reproduce and intelligence is an outcome of that process then the fact that intelligence is leaving humans and moving into machines is just the next step. And yes, that is happening much faster that traditional natural selection. Tool use is accepted as part of evolution, this should be too.
As for our grandchildren I share your concern but evolution has never cared about species or individuals. Its cold and cruel but it has always been that way.
You had me at “The internet and its consequences have been a disaster for the human race.” 😏
That being said, the internet is useful for some things - I totally agree with your proposals in question Four - less "interacting' or social media and more time in the real world. But I'm so taken aback by how many people eagerly want the 'smart' home or appliances or surveillance equipment parading as 'helpful' connections (Alexa, et. al). I know we can never go back all the way but I sure do miss the simpler times.
Artificial intelligence is not artificial. It is intelligence. Right now the intelligence we are incubating seems to be created by humans. As we became the “AI” of fungi, AI as we call it will become the intelligence of minerals. The Singularity is Near. Ray Kurzweil.
It is fascinating to follow all the current cosmological and related investigations, without coming to a conclusion as to whether they describe reality or not, because being so intrinsically bizarre and 'mind-blowing', they exercise the intellect and the imagination so much. I put off judgement on such things as the contrast between the reality of conditions in low Earth orbit and the biblical vision of heaven, in humility because we just don't know what future revelations/discoveries are to come. Symbolic constructs can point to realities beyond themselves.
Fascinating article. It makes me think of Paragraph 675 of the Catechism of the Catholic Church:
"Before Christ's second coming the Church must pass through a final trial that will shake the faith of many believers. The persecution that accompanies her pilgrimage on earth will unveil the 'mystery of iniquity' in the form of a religious deception offering men an apparent solution to their problems at the price of apostasy from the truth. The supreme religious deception is that of the Antichrist, a pseudo-messianism by which man glorifies himself in place of God and of his Messiah come in the flesh."
This reminds me of Neil Postman. Anyone read him?
This essay reinforces that which I suggest is the meta issue: That our environment has changed so much so fast that We are no longer equipped for it, the change rate far too fast for evolution and no divine intervention in evidence. And the beat goes on.... But the meta meta issue is raised: If we see ourselves as the Ultimate Arbiters, there is no brake pedal. So the beat WILL go on.
I'm skeptical of all of this.
We've all experienced the overheated headlines that regularly inform us how very close we are to fusion power, or a cure for cancer, or room-temperature superconduction.
It's not that we won't hit these milestones, or even that they're very far off. I don't know, and neither does anybody else. The point is that there's no connection between the headlines and the reality.
I know a bit, though just a bit, about how LLMs and neural networks work, and as far as I can tell there's nothing out there that we would seriously consider self-consciousness or volition. If SkyNet nuked us it would be acting more like the broom in 𝘛𝘩𝘦 𝘚𝘰𝘳𝘤𝘦𝘳𝘦𝘳'𝘴 𝘈𝘱𝘱𝘳𝘦𝘯𝘵𝘪𝘤𝘦 than like Ultron in 𝘛𝘩𝘦 𝘈𝘷𝘦𝘯𝘨𝘦𝘳𝘴.
It's reasonable to think that technological changes affect us, but it's not reasonable to think we have no say in the matter. We can move to Ireland, or we can just start muting our phones and putting them away when we're sitting with friends, or when we're walking outside. By making this all an inevitable consequence of our tools, we're letting ourselves off too easily.
On this I rather like the Xkcd https://imgs.xkcd.com/comics/isolation.png. It's point is different, but related, and it's just really good.