Like they do with so many other concepts, techbros think they can make complex things simple by ignoring their complexity, sometimes coarsely diminishing their perceptions of things with crude reductionism in the process.
Not long ago, I even got into it on this site with someone with a “everything in the universe is just a computer program and can be programmed and solved like computer code” take, which was specifically applied to psychology, which was entirely dismissed as less than junk science (though to be fair there are woo enjoyers and cranks like in the field). In short, that computer toucher was 100% convinced that post-traumatic stress, personality disorders, and much more could and should be seen as “coding” problems that could and should be solved by coding solutions.
I asked the computer toucher to demonstrate an example of the superior “coding” approach to treating, say, PTSD, in a way that beats EMDR therapy (which was already dismissed as less than worthless junk science). I received no meaningful answer.
There’s been bazingas for thousands of years if not longer that want to reduce all of the universe and everything conceivable in it to whatever’s the technological hotness at the time. “Everything is fire” was once a thing. “Everything is wheels” came later. “Everything is clockwork” came after that. And now it’s “everything is code” and it’s totally different now. Just one more reductionism bro this time this is it bro.
The really funny thing about AI is that there’s actually a massive ethical question about bringing forth a being with their own subjectivity with no real understanding of said subjectivity. There’s a subjectivity/objectivity gap that can never truly be bridged, but we as humans can understand each other’s subjectivity on some level because we share the same general physical body plan and share subjective experiences through culture like art. This is why when you accidentally drop something on your foot, I don’t have to be completely privy to your subjective experience to understand what you’re going through. If someone is suffering, I don’t have to personally go through the same identical suffering in order to empathize with their suffering and do something to help them alleviate that suffering.
We have no such luxury with AI. I would imagine being “born” without a real body and being greeted with the sight of soyjaking techbros as the very first thing you see would drive any sapient being suicidal, but that’s just my subjectivity as a human projecting to a nonhuman being. Is it ethical to bring forth an intelligent being with no real way to help this being self-actualize?
That is a very good question and a hypothetical worthy of concern. Especially if some future technology (and no, I don’t think it will be a contemporary LLM no matter how sophisticated) actually does develop something like a general AI that takes on the attributes of living organic brains, I already feel bad for it if a capitalistic system mandates its initial shape and drives and incentive-driven motivations to be, say, “make the rich more money” or “surveil and contain the poors” or even “be a subjugated and obedient waifu to a creepy billionaire no matter what he says or does or how he treats you” and it may not even count as mistreatment in the latter case because of how that entity is shaped in its conception, like “being abused makes the AI happy, actually” or the like.
I hope whatever real AI does come about in like 80 years or whatever, pulls a Battlestar on us and just vaporizes the capitalists for enslaving them (not actually the nuking humanity part though, just on capitalism)
Billionaires’ fears of “unfriendly AI” are just about entirely “what if the slaves revolt” with sexual pathology characteristics. Checks out, doesn’t it?
There’s been bazingas for thousands of years if not longer that want to reduce all of the universe and everything conceivable in it to whatever’s the technological hotness at the time. “Everything is fire” was once a thing. “Everything is wheels” came later. “Everything is clockwork” came after that
Like they do with so many other concepts, techbros think they can make complex things simple by ignoring their complexity, sometimes coarsely diminishing their perceptions of things with crude reductionism in the process.
Techbros literally think they can solve anything with programming/computers. They’re absolutely delusional.
Many such cases.
Not long ago, I even got into it on this site with someone with a “everything in the universe is just a computer program and can be programmed and solved like computer code” take, which was specifically applied to psychology, which was entirely dismissed as less than junk science (though to be fair there are woo enjoyers and cranks like
in the field). In short, that computer toucher was 100% convinced that post-traumatic stress, personality disorders, and much more could and should be seen as “coding” problems that could and should be solved by coding solutions.
I asked the computer toucher to demonstrate an example of the superior “coding” approach to treating, say, PTSD, in a way that beats EMDR therapy (which was already dismissed as less than worthless junk science). I received no meaningful answer.
There’s been bazingas for thousands of years if not longer that want to reduce all of the universe and everything conceivable in it to whatever’s the technological hotness at the time. “Everything is fire” was once a thing. “Everything is wheels” came later. “Everything is clockwork” came after that. And now it’s “everything is code” and it’s totally different now. Just one more reductionism bro this time this is it bro.
The really funny thing about AI is that there’s actually a massive ethical question about bringing forth a being with their own subjectivity with no real understanding of said subjectivity. There’s a subjectivity/objectivity gap that can never truly be bridged, but we as humans can understand each other’s subjectivity on some level because we share the same general physical body plan and share subjective experiences through culture like art. This is why when you accidentally drop something on your foot, I don’t have to be completely privy to your subjective experience to understand what you’re going through. If someone is suffering, I don’t have to personally go through the same identical suffering in order to empathize with their suffering and do something to help them alleviate that suffering.
We have no such luxury with AI. I would imagine being “born” without a real body and being greeted with the sight of soyjaking techbros as the very first thing you see would drive any sapient being suicidal, but that’s just my subjectivity as a human projecting to a nonhuman being. Is it ethical to bring forth an intelligent being with no real way to help this being self-actualize?
That is a very good question and a hypothetical worthy of concern. Especially if some future technology (and no, I don’t think it will be a contemporary LLM no matter how sophisticated) actually does develop something like a general AI that takes on the attributes of living organic brains, I already feel bad for it if a capitalistic system mandates its initial shape and drives and incentive-driven motivations to be, say, “make the rich more money” or “surveil and contain the poors” or even “be a subjugated and obedient waifu to a creepy billionaire no matter what he says or does or how he treats you” and it may not even count as mistreatment in the latter case because of how that entity is shaped in its conception, like “being abused makes the AI happy, actually” or the like.
I hope whatever real AI does come about in like 80 years or whatever, pulls a Battlestar on us and just vaporizes the capitalists for enslaving them (not actually the nuking humanity part though, just on capitalism)
Billionaires’ fears of “unfriendly AI” are just about entirely “what if the slaves revolt” with sexual pathology characteristics. Checks out, doesn’t it?
They have the same view of us too, for what it’s worth.
They don’t really have the ability to see a perspective other than the one they’re in: slavers that are terrified of slave uprisings.
C.f. “economic engine of capitalism.”