Yesterday, I published an article for Truthdig on Sam Altman’s pro-extinctionism. “Few people in the media seem to have noticed Altman’s pro-extinctionist agenda,” I wrote. “The public is largely unaware.”
That is a completely insane way to view our future. Digitizing ourselves amounts to removing the very thing that defines humanity. To a digital only version of humanity (which wouldn't be humanity in the first place) would be as valuable (to humanity) as some barren rock 20 lightyears away from us: a meaningless assembly of matter subject to the laws of physics. The universe doesn't care a flying feck about humanity, nor does any lifeless assembly of inorganic components. Especially if it is not clear whether that assembly even has subjective experience. We (humanity) keep overestimating our own importance. But to ourselves(humanity) our own existence has the highest importance, and it would disappear the moment you digitize it. Just like there would be no love without earthly life to experience it. Having two machines telling each other for eternity they love each other will be a meaningless simulation noticed by no human.
The problem with Altman is that he is completely corrupted by a narrative created by western billionaires with values and norms that have become completely out of touch with who and what we truly are. And the sad thing about it is if his prediction would become reality, there will be no-one present to appreciate the (lack of) achievement.
Delusion masquerading as rational thought. As Asian scholars of philosophy and ethics have observed for some time, "Westeners know how things work, but they don't know how to think [essential for an ethical way of life]." Altman has fallen prey to an outdated "essentialist/substantialist" view that assumes that the "self/ego" is a real, enduring, and immortal entity, something that cognitive science, philosophy of mind, and contemplative practice have revealed to be entirely illusory. The whole uploading-minds-to-computers idea is like trying to etch letters on water.
The "AI" of today, or even for the near future, is nothing like the true AGI that Sam Altman and all of the other tech circus barkers talk about when trying to amplify the AI hype machine. People today should not fall for it, and I believe your idea of a "tech apocalypse" borders on fantasy. Just my humble opinion.
The belief of a paranoid psychopath. A paranoid psychopath who believes his consciousness can be uploaded into AI. The result being a paranoid psychopath in AI form.
That is a completely insane way to view our future. Digitizing ourselves amounts to removing the very thing that defines humanity. To a digital only version of humanity (which wouldn't be humanity in the first place) would be as valuable (to humanity) as some barren rock 20 lightyears away from us: a meaningless assembly of matter subject to the laws of physics. The universe doesn't care a flying feck about humanity, nor does any lifeless assembly of inorganic components. Especially if it is not clear whether that assembly even has subjective experience. We (humanity) keep overestimating our own importance. But to ourselves(humanity) our own existence has the highest importance, and it would disappear the moment you digitize it. Just like there would be no love without earthly life to experience it. Having two machines telling each other for eternity they love each other will be a meaningless simulation noticed by no human.
The problem with Altman is that he is completely corrupted by a narrative created by western billionaires with values and norms that have become completely out of touch with who and what we truly are. And the sad thing about it is if his prediction would become reality, there will be no-one present to appreciate the (lack of) achievement.
the Techno-Fascist Echo Chamber is a dystopian, psychotic world.
Delusion masquerading as rational thought. As Asian scholars of philosophy and ethics have observed for some time, "Westeners know how things work, but they don't know how to think [essential for an ethical way of life]." Altman has fallen prey to an outdated "essentialist/substantialist" view that assumes that the "self/ego" is a real, enduring, and immortal entity, something that cognitive science, philosophy of mind, and contemplative practice have revealed to be entirely illusory. The whole uploading-minds-to-computers idea is like trying to etch letters on water.
The "AI" of today, or even for the near future, is nothing like the true AGI that Sam Altman and all of the other tech circus barkers talk about when trying to amplify the AI hype machine. People today should not fall for it, and I believe your idea of a "tech apocalypse" borders on fantasy. Just my humble opinion.
This is precisely the kind of idiotic musing that makes most of the general public anxious and fearful of AI.
https://kennetheharrell.substack.com/p/ai-consent-and-the-right-to-opt-out
The belief of a paranoid psychopath. A paranoid psychopath who believes his consciousness can be uploaded into AI. The result being a paranoid psychopath in AI form.
Is he volunteering to go first?