It seems to me that our overlords are driving the West towards a fully automated, entirely authoritarian future which delivers greater and greater material wealth - at least for the 1% (the rest of us appear destined to become serfs, living in a virtual reality pods). The million dollar question is how the people will react. If the Dutch farmer's protests are anything to go by, the answer is: not well. But pivoting away from the AI hellscape means giving up our dependency on material wealth, and finding wealth instead in other things, like relationships and work that gives satisfaction. Can we do it?
While I agree that our glorious and benevolent leaders are pushing us toward an authoritarian future, I would just add nuance to that argument by saying we're also driving *ourselves* in the tech/overlord direction. A billion people choose to use Facebook, to watch the cartoon network, to sign up for ChatGPT, whatever. One of humanity's greatest strengths/weaknesses is a relentless push towards the further technological-ification of everything.
I too wonder where this all ultimately ends up. We shall see.
One of the most amazing blessings of living in Asia is that I don't have to see campaign adds on the telly. Seriously, it's a life saver. But yeah sure, it's like a concept I mentioned a few articles back, of "kayfabe." The political world right now is just a reality show with nobody really in charge of anything. Like banning gas stoves, as if that's really the most pressing problem we face right now... Or any kind of problem... We've spent more time talking about gas stoves in the last week than we've spent in the last five years talking about the tens of trillions in unfunded social security liabilities. OK.
I'm with you in that I expect that it's going to get worse before it gets better. Plan accordingly.
It seems to me that our overlords are driving the West towards a fully automated, entirely authoritarian future which delivers greater and greater material wealth - at least for the 1% (the rest of us appear destined to become serfs, living in a virtual reality pods). The million dollar question is how the people will react. If the Dutch farmer's protests are anything to go by, the answer is: not well. But pivoting away from the AI hellscape means giving up our dependency on material wealth, and finding wealth instead in other things, like relationships and work that gives satisfaction. Can we do it?
While I agree that our glorious and benevolent leaders are pushing us toward an authoritarian future, I would just add nuance to that argument by saying we're also driving *ourselves* in the tech/overlord direction. A billion people choose to use Facebook, to watch the cartoon network, to sign up for ChatGPT, whatever. One of humanity's greatest strengths/weaknesses is a relentless push towards the further technological-ification of everything.
I too wonder where this all ultimately ends up. We shall see.
One of the most amazing blessings of living in Asia is that I don't have to see campaign adds on the telly. Seriously, it's a life saver. But yeah sure, it's like a concept I mentioned a few articles back, of "kayfabe." The political world right now is just a reality show with nobody really in charge of anything. Like banning gas stoves, as if that's really the most pressing problem we face right now... Or any kind of problem... We've spent more time talking about gas stoves in the last week than we've spent in the last five years talking about the tens of trillions in unfunded social security liabilities. OK.
I'm with you in that I expect that it's going to get worse before it gets better. Plan accordingly.