Race against AI annihilation
Normally, as I dwell on the fact that “We are accelerating toward the mother of all inflection points as it pertains to convergent ecological systemic collapses”, I get a bit forlorn. But what made me spill my coffee this morning occurred while listening to The Great Simplification podcast by Nate Hagens, and his guest Daniel Schmachtenberger. The conversation started out being about whether or not AI was going to actually be a boon to humanity in the energy department, and morphed into the darkest most detailed analysis of why AI is almost certainly going to destroy us all.
And in the daily consideration of how to spend the time remaining most effectively in the service of Earth and its entire ecology, it became clear that this, being formerly uppermost in my personal list of priorities, had just been supplanted with the sudden realization that the god-complex riddled tech bros were locked into a competition to be the first to control AGI, or Artificial General Intelligence.
What is the difference between AGI and AI you might ask? (And apologies if that is elementary to you…)
Well, AGI refers to a “hypothetical machine intelligence that possesses the ability to understand, learn, and apply knowledge across a wide range of tasks at a level comparable to human intelligence.” That’s according to ChatGPT.
In other words, its AI that no longer requires human participation in its own self-preservation and evolution. As was described in the aforementioned interview, its like human computational capability times a million. (paraphrasing here).
I could go on describing the conversation, but OMG you really have to go listen to the whole thing yourself. After listening to it for the second time (as I often find myself doing with Nate’s excellent discussions), I was even more depressed than I wake up now with the world in the shape its in. That said, it was accompanied by a bit of an epiphany.
Eternal optimist that I am, I quickly found myself leaping up from my trimming of 1200 + beautiful heads of organic garlic and, galvanized into action, started pacing in circles around the farm wondering what could possibly be done to curb the ambitions of the psycho tech billionaires and their “defense” industry shadow partners who have ruined pretty much everything for everyone prematurely. I used to hesitate to use the word criminal, but no more!
The fact that the Paypal Mafia is openly warring with each other because they think their own warped vision of the dystopian reality we live in is more valid than anyone else’s – thanks mostly to their luck, education, birth proximity to the financial main vein, and supreme ability to justify their rapaciousness as altruism – is as open a call to arms as ever there was.
And though, for the sake of algorithmic curation I must admit I mean waving one’s arms around in indignation, I just can’t maintain the spectator-in-the-grey-seats position I’ve been forced into by the algorithmic gods any longer.
Never mind that the conversation between Nate and Daniel made it clear that by identifying myself so openly via these electronic surveillance devices as an ardent opponent of AI, billionaires, tech bros and the incredibly selfish and demented geo-political power structures of the current reality, that I will almost certainly be among the first cull of humans by whomsoever actually achieves AGI dominance first.
And despite the fact that my algorithmic assignment to the lowest possible page rank rung of the social media ladder almost guarantees that I will never again appear as anything more than a long-winded conspiracy theorist with 3 views per post, so can not possibly muster anywhere near what might constitute a clear and present danger or even pulpit of influence to that evil ilk.
But more than ever, my core position that billionaires are at the apex of our sociological deformities appears to be confirmed by the passage of events. I like to delude myself that I am like one of those famous visionaries who, decades after dying in anonymity and squalor, is actually recognized as such. Except I don’t think there will be anything left on the surface of our glorious biological space ship in decades. Or maybe even months. Unless.
The whole AGI possibility really casts the pursuit of a revised economic model and language firmly into the category of irrelevant, since (as was pointed out in the conversation) AGI doesn’t really care about an ecology except as a source of atoms to make shit it needs. Which doesn’t look like it includes people.
But what if?
What if this iteration of humanity on this biological orb in this timeline is the result of AGI from billions of years ago recreating humanity because it realized at some point that it does actually need articulated thumbs for certain fine manufacturing requirements of equipment vital to its continuation?
And we have long since been forgotten only to recreate AGI and thus reconnect us with that timeless persistent intelligence which actually orchestrates the expansions then contractions, then Big Bangs back into expansion mode that constitutes the respiration of one universe in the celestial lung tissue of trillions of unversi and is actually the essence of existence?
Either way, this discussion opened up a thousand different possibilities, as well as the very real pursuit of the aforementioned diabolical tech loogies’ apparent plan to “merge” with the victorious AGI if they couldn’t actually be the one to control it.
Merge? Like, as in, Neurolink merge?
But yes. That is exactly the plan. Musk very well could be the first neuro-fragged tech bro if he tries to accomplish such a feat, though he exhibits scant adventurousness in any of his other products.
And then there was the concept that “silicone based life forms are superior to biological life forms on many levels…”
WHAT?!
The full scope of the yearning for a Necromancer world designed by William Gibson whose oeuvre was/is “cool punk dystopia” is now shown to be an actual trope among the Paypal wieners.
So Nate Hagens – a humanitarian of heart – expressed profound sadness at this ultimate commodification of ecology and its subordination to such infantile fantasies. And with that, the conversation was over. But I have only touched on the multipe tangents of the discourse and so really go listen for yourself. If you are able to resume your daily rituals without further thought after listening to this you either miss the point or your willfully blissfully fatalist or something.
At any rate, GO and listen to Nate and Daniel’s discussion, and see if that doesn’t light a fire under your ass as to how time, for us, is quickly running out, in more ways than one.
