Humanity in Crisis When 'Encountered' by Constant Change
When humans are unable to keep up with change, they suffer
Humans have a limited capacity and speed to adapt to changes happening in physical world (nature) and cultural world (society).
Agree?
Our bodies take time to adapt. So do our brains. It is a very slow and gradual process.
Humanity takes time, though not as slow as our bodies, to adapt to cultural changes. For example, social media became prominent in the 2010s and its disturbing impact emerged in the mid-2010s.
Common man also started noticing in the 2020s and policymakers also had had enough and started to act at around 2025.
Australia and Spain banning social media.
So, humans took around 10-15 years to respond appropriately to social media.
Katharina Buchholz
What’s different with AI
AI will evolve rapidly than we can catch up. There lies the problem.
We won't have time to adapt. Think of Covid virus mutating every few months instead of decades.
You take a year to prepare for Scenario X and by the time you try to implement it we are already riddled with Scenario Y.
Preparing and implementing a Strategy will take much longer than AI changing Scenarios.
Humans figure out later
Humans have always figured out later how to tackle the 'technology' they invented.
It's like building a nuclear bomb first and then figuring out when and why to use it.
We’re in that phase where people have huddled in the Los Alamos village of San Francisco, trying to gather fissionable Plutonium and Uranium in the AI labs.
In five years, an Oppenheimer from Silicon Valley will regret their invention.
The other side of the story
Yes, AI might find a cancer cure or reverse aging. But mostly that's the carrot to manipulate the gullible masses to get what they want.
Yes, nuclear fission gave us alternative energy sources, but also brought us closer to Midnight. We’re now just 85 seconds away from Midnight.
Yes, social media blessed us with birthday and anniversary reminders but also beset teenagers and adults alike with mental illnesses (read The Anxious Generation by Jonathan Haidt).
What it boils down to
The more powerful the tool or technology is, the more intense the consequences on either side of the spectrum.
Both the Good people and the Bad people can use it for making the world a better or worse place.
Accepted.
Now ask yourself this one simple question and tell me honestly:
Are Good people really interested in changing the world for better?
No, they are busy and overwhelmed in living their own daily lives.
Similarly, Good people in the AI field, who wanted to develop safer AI and more aligned technology left. Either being fired or fleeing to study poetry.
Good people usually lack the stamina (for lack of a better word) to argue or fight. They just abandon it and run away to nature. To hell with it!
Business Standard
It's mostly the Bad people using powerful tools and technology for nefarious ends. So, the likelihood of a highly intelligent machine being exploited by bad actors is greater.
Mike Thomas
My dilemma with LSD
Once upon a time, on my quest to know more and become whole, I thought of taking LSD or Ecstasy just once. I seriously researched about it. Then I accidentally came across the views of some of my heroes on taking psychedelics.
Some were of the view that the glimpse you get from psychedelics is a motivator to achieve the same but eternal high through meditation. Some said there is no need and to stay away.
I agree with J. Krishnamurti on this: if 'it' can be experienced, then 'it' isn't the truth.
Truth is from another dimension and beyond senses.
The point I am trying to make is that people who want to use a potent drug (AI) for some apparent good reasons will be far fewer than the people misusing the drug (AI). And soon those same people will be used by the potent drug (addiction aka extinction).
My hope
The common man won’t be able to keep up with such rapid and massive changes. Someone rightly said, “There will be blood on the streets.”
I hope Good people, from the comfort of their homes and desktops with powerful GPUs, start a revolution right now to stop the Bad people.
But what can we do - as a reader and writer?
Read more. Talk more. Spread more.