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You can't escape AI anywhere you go.
There has been a structural shift in all parts of the social order. AI has been layered upon every market sector, consumer product, and ideological debate.
My writing has shifted from the world of platforms and devices to models and research labs. The thought space I occupy is filled by hype, slop, and noise to cut through on the way down to the truth.
Our current obsession with AI centers around two fears, Replacement and Purpose.
Note: these are fears.
Note also: they are unfounded.
From the brilliant L. M. Sacasas,
"It seems to me that we would be better off if we were less preoccupied with the question of human uniqueness, if we took for granted that we are creatures of (a) certain sort making their way in the world with a distinct set of capabilities and potentialities, and that we ought to exercise these capabilities and develop these potentialities not because they make us special but because they make us happy..."
As we find our jobs increasingly being replaced by the "--topian" marriage of robotics and artificial intelligence, we will have the choice to throw up our hands in existential dismay at our seeming lost purpose and found replacement... or to hope in a future with humanity as a change-agent in this new world of evolving intelligence.
Fear drives strange behaviors in creatures with as Paleolithic instincts as our own. Incessant discussions about this technology create a vicious cycle of recapitulation and potential doomsaying.
To that end, I'm going to be shifting some of my thoughts in this space from AI and the integral shifts happening around this underlying, foundational tech to the micro-instances of humane tech, social stories, and imminent innovations shaping individual areas of life.
I guess, challenge accepted.
*Inspired by Aboard