James this is fantastic. Yep you could write several books explaining all this but you’ve really made it pretty clear for most of us already in the choir. I like where you’ve gone with this and wholly agree that the revolution will be love. The only way
AI has no capacity for ethics. This alone makes it a powerful tool for domination , ii.e. Power over and abuse of others. Power is neither 'bad' nor 'good'. Use of power solely to gain more power over others as in extractive capitalism, is morally wrong ., Power developed with others can elicit transformative change at multiple levels of scale.
Here's my short definition of power:
*ability for self sovereignty, self definition
*participation in decision-making that effects day to day living
* access to resources ( water, clean air, food, community, meaningful living, learning places, creative expression, health supports, peace) Resources are much more than money.
Power with would be developing and maintaining that with others. Power over is defining who you are and limiting your capacity for self definition, making life shaping decisions without your input, without your consent and for one faction's benefit not for shared community well being.
We need each other right now, to unlearn, relearn and commit to the well being of ourselves and all the more than human world of inter being.
You may or may not be right, James, but whichever it is, I appreciate your motivation and courage to tackle this topic that I haven't begun to consider.
To write this essay "properly" would probably take months of work. But I have lots of other things I'm drawn to research and write about, so I chose an approach which is extremely distilled, and which targets mostly an audience of people who have researched the themes and come, at least partially, to similar conclusions as I.
The highly distilled essay, which offers far too little explanation and argument (and footnotes, references, etc.), does not have one topic at all. It has many. One topic is the challenge AI is likely to present to humanity in this time of polycrisis. For that, I'd encourage listening to this:
Another topic my terse essay touches upon is the basic nature of the polycrisis, and what drives it.
Another topic is the nature of politics.
Another is education.
Another is the basic significance of human history in the last couple of millennia.
Another is cultural evolution and what is possible for us.
All of these things I take a decidedly non-mainstream or non-conventional perspective upon, which is why concision is both necessary and impractical in what I'm doing in this essay. I'm trying to provide what I regard as a useful frame for all of these things taken together.
I'm nearing the end of listening to Daniel and Liv's talk at the moment, but I'm utterly blown away by how what Daniel is saying explains and corroborates what I was getting at in my essay! Naturally, I'm planning on much further development of the ideas in my essay, but I'm most of the labor of explanation, because Daniel has done it beautifully.
Now I need to talk with Daniel about the notion of centripetal versus centrifugal power dynamics. I think the two of us can think this stuff through better in collaboration than either of us in isolation from one another.
If anyone here knows Daniel, do let him know about this note. And let him know I'd like to hold a conversation with him on these themes and topics.
James this is fantastic. Yep you could write several books explaining all this but you’ve really made it pretty clear for most of us already in the choir. I like where you’ve gone with this and wholly agree that the revolution will be love. The only way
AI has no capacity for ethics. This alone makes it a powerful tool for domination , ii.e. Power over and abuse of others. Power is neither 'bad' nor 'good'. Use of power solely to gain more power over others as in extractive capitalism, is morally wrong ., Power developed with others can elicit transformative change at multiple levels of scale.
Here's my short definition of power:
*ability for self sovereignty, self definition
*participation in decision-making that effects day to day living
* access to resources ( water, clean air, food, community, meaningful living, learning places, creative expression, health supports, peace) Resources are much more than money.
Power with would be developing and maintaining that with others. Power over is defining who you are and limiting your capacity for self definition, making life shaping decisions without your input, without your consent and for one faction's benefit not for shared community well being.
We need each other right now, to unlearn, relearn and commit to the well being of ourselves and all the more than human world of inter being.
You may or may not be right, James, but whichever it is, I appreciate your motivation and courage to tackle this topic that I haven't begun to consider.
Thanks Andy.
To write this essay "properly" would probably take months of work. But I have lots of other things I'm drawn to research and write about, so I chose an approach which is extremely distilled, and which targets mostly an audience of people who have researched the themes and come, at least partially, to similar conclusions as I.
The highly distilled essay, which offers far too little explanation and argument (and footnotes, references, etc.), does not have one topic at all. It has many. One topic is the challenge AI is likely to present to humanity in this time of polycrisis. For that, I'd encourage listening to this:
https://vimeo.com/809258916/92b420d98a?embedded=false&source=vimeo_logo&owner=97320170 It's the presentation which really woke me up to what is going on and why some--many--key players in AI development are freaked about the baby they brought into the world.
Another topic my terse essay touches upon is the basic nature of the polycrisis, and what drives it.
Another topic is the nature of politics.
Another is education.
Another is the basic significance of human history in the last couple of millennia.
Another is cultural evolution and what is possible for us.
All of these things I take a decidedly non-mainstream or non-conventional perspective upon, which is why concision is both necessary and impractical in what I'm doing in this essay. I'm trying to provide what I regard as a useful frame for all of these things taken together.
Here's Noam Chomsky on the problem of concision: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xIbfl7OQ0y4
I will say, however, that AI just upped the polycrisis challenge for us enormously. There is little doubt about that.
Wow! I wrote and published the above essay before listening to Daniel Schmachtenberger in this video.:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KCSsKV5F4xc
I'm nearing the end of listening to Daniel and Liv's talk at the moment, but I'm utterly blown away by how what Daniel is saying explains and corroborates what I was getting at in my essay! Naturally, I'm planning on much further development of the ideas in my essay, but I'm most of the labor of explanation, because Daniel has done it beautifully.
Now I need to talk with Daniel about the notion of centripetal versus centrifugal power dynamics. I think the two of us can think this stuff through better in collaboration than either of us in isolation from one another.
If anyone here knows Daniel, do let him know about this note. And let him know I'd like to hold a conversation with him on these themes and topics.
This conversation goes a long way toward explaining the stuff I didn't explain in my above essay.
Misalignment, AI & Moloch | Daniel Schmachtenberger and Liv Boeree
https://rword.substack.com/p/misalignment-ai-and-moloch-daniel
iHuman trailer
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E20vFjIHEa8&t=2s
Film website:
https://www.ihumanfilm.com/
Artificial intelligence and algorithms: pros and cons | DW Documentary (AI documentary)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s0dMTAQM4cw&t=258s
Is “Polycrisis” the Right Word for Our Times?
By Asher Miller, originally published by Resilience.org
https://www.resilience.org/stories/2023-02-01/is-polycrisis-the-right-word-for-our-times/
https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2023/may/02/geoffrey-hinton-godfather-of-ai-quits-google-warns-dangers-of-machine-learning