Artificial intelligence officially gets scary

[Clinamenic]

I think we'll be absolutely fucked once consciousness is demystified. Look at the way the people in power behave, and have always behaved.

True, but I’m not convinced this is necessarily a problem, or at least a permanent one. It seems like unprecedented wealth inequality is compossible with unprecedented societal prosperity. If having a god class of elites is the price humanity pays for greater fulfillment for the middle bulk of humans, is that not a reasonable arrangement?

 

[Clinamenic]

what's next, selective breeding? übermensch?

Almost inevitably. But to my understanding we are still creating the most basic of tools for purposes of genetic engineering, although I’m hardly versed on the state of the field.

 

[Clinamenic]

Beyond genetic engineering, I think once consciousness is demystified, we can finally have proper hive minds.

 

[Leo]

what could possibly go wrong?

 

[Clinamenic]

Beyond genetic engineering, I think once consciousness is demystified, we can finally have proper hive minds.

This could be what form communism turns out to take.

 

[Clinamenic]

This could be what form communism turns out to take.

The dissolution of the individual and the irrelevance of ownership and privacy.

 

[Clinamenic]

It all fits together. LSD as a catalyst for temporary ego loss, perhaps the inspiration for Fisher’s so-called Acid Communism.

A communally telepathic hive mind species cosmoforming its own fractally complex metaverse, an artificial cosmos perhaps not unlike our “natural” one.

 

[Clinamenic]

Which then starts the iteration from zero, a new matrix for a new universe, ad infinitum.

 

[Clinamenic]

Transvirtual samsara

 

[Leo]

True, but I’m not convinced this is necessarily a problem...If having a god class of elites is the price humanity pays for greater fulfillment for the middle bulk of humans, is that not a reasonable arrangement?

you might not realize how scary that sounds.

 

[Clinamenic]

Everything about this is scary, though. Unless you see through it all.

 

[Leo]

we're about due for a modern update of Faust, right?

 

[Clinamenic]

Also that “god class” scenario is a very conservative estimate in regards to the potential for decentralized digital governance and ownership. Apparently Colorado has experimented with quadratic voting.

 

[Clinamenic]

we're about due for a modern update of Faust, right?

Actually I’m thinking about reading Faust next, as I’m unfamiliar with the story. I’ve seen the film though, just don’t remember most of it.

 

[Leo]

do you seriously trust "a god like class of elites" to do the right thing?

 

[Leo]

Are Bill Gates and George Soros in that class?

 

[Clinamenic]

Not really, but maybe “god class” is an exaggeration. I expect the system to be far too complex for a central entity to control. That said, they may exercise power on a level that is orders of magnitude higher than the average human. In any case, profit isn’t antipathetic so much as it is apathetic, hence why I expect a blend of utopia and dystopia.

 

[Clinamenic]

Are Bill Gates and George Soros in that class?

I expect a class considerably higher than they are, and a system even more considerably more complex than our current system.

 

[Clinamenic]

Eventually I suspect “private universes” will be a technology accessible to the middle class.

 

[Leo]

In any case, profit isn’t antipathetic so much as it is apathetic, hence why I expect a blend of 3% utopia and 97% dystopia.

yeah, ok, I get it now.