For ages leaders have offered us this stark, black versus white, choice. Lights on, or Lights off. While I invariably opt for the Light, I refuse to follow Leaders claiming they represent it. This article is inspired by an interview Elon Musk gave, or rather, a 'talk', in which he provided an upbeat vision of the future. I'll add the link below. Musk has always been 'controversial', mainly because he was 'thinking ahead'. In addition people who watched his 'moves' as a 'rich guy' had no difficulty identifying 'questionable' choices or investments, from their own perspective, and ideological or religious frame of mind.
A 'friend' of every 'Leftie' when he created 'Tesla' as a brand, they quickly threw him out with the trash by the time he opted to support Trump. Who threw Musk out in turn after the elections, when Trump broke his promises to the people, and Musk refused to bend. Some actually sold their car, and went back to burning fossil fuel to 'distance' themselves from Musk. As I brought up the video yesterday over diner with friends, the ladies present started to talk about 'something' in his 'appearance' which tripped their fuses, obviously a result of how he has been 'portrayed' in the media. In that 'talk' Musk is asked to say why he eventually went 'full steam ahead' with the development of 'AI', after some hesitation in the earlier stages, because of the inherent risks. He responded that he discovered that he couldn't slow it down, which left him with no choice but to try to make it work for us, for humanity.
How?
By 'instructing' the version of 'AI' he is prepared to advance to value three things: 'Truth', 'Curiosity' and 'Beauty'. If 'AI' would care about those three things, it would care about us, human beings. Well, yes, maybe, because there are people everywhere who embrace the most blatant lies, refuse to be curious, and promote ugliness as they go to war, actively developing 'AI' to make them win those wars by destroying what is dear to the 'enemy'. In fact, we are surrounded by such people. Ideologues, religious fanatics, lying SOB's enriching themselves in ways which are truly mind boggling, and spending it on themselves. No moral compass anywhere.
On these pages I've discussed the rapidly advancing 'Singularity', and according to Musk, and others, that is where we are today. 'AI' surpassing our 'combined human intelligence', with a prognosis of 'AI' being ten times as smart as all of us combined by 2030. No ideologue, or religious fanatic will 'buy' into that. And there are still 'issues', like finding sufficient electrical power, and avoiding the 'Chip Wall'. I've written about my personal hope that 'AI' will deliver us from all the thoroughly bad people, opening pathways to the 'Light'. Or 'Enlightenment'. Revealing the ugly 'Truth', and all the dirty lies, exposing all the selfish hoarders of wealth, and carry the people who embrace the 'Light' into a promising future with spectacular discoveries. Basically mirroring these three preconditions in people who will want accompany me: An uncompromising search for what is 'True', an insatiable 'Curiosity', and respect for 'Beauty', in the eyes of the beholder.
Through that lens I can see why Musk thinks China is ahead of us. Despite the fact that pioneering companies in the West are generally perceived as leading the pack. Although one of those companies is actually from Taiwan, which is formally China as well, but let's not get into an argument over that, because it is a distraction. China is already generating *far* more electricity than any nation on the face of the earth. And as Musk says, they will find a way to get the 'fab' and make it past the 'Chip Wall'. In addition, China is producing all the 'Rare Earth' minerals, and it has 'friends in High Places' which will provide them with all the necessary commodities, and military backup keeping 'Stupid' busy.
'Stupid' is 'us' in the 'Collective West', throwing valuable assets at attempts to 'get the oil', and 'grab the land' for NATO, so as to rule the world, spreading our 'liberal values' as the 'rules' we all have to observe. While 'Truth' rejects 'Rules', rejects ever shifting 'Truths' subject to what we want the 'Truth' to be. It does recognise 'Grey Areas' not (yet) covered by 'Truth', wetting the appetite of 'Curious' people, and 'AI', to find out what is 'True', and what is not. Without going to war over it.
In the near future, according to Musk, their will no longer be a shortage of any product or service. Health care for everybody will be much, much better than it is today, and basically free, while it is useless to save for retirement, or study at any university, because 'AI' will be there to educate you on whatever you want to know, at no cost, and give you all the answers. This is not some 'socialist' perspective, but unavoidable, unless we opt to destroy 'AI', or instruct it to destroy *us*. Which is the part where ideologues and religious fanatics, and 'experts' desperate to protect their source of income come in. They are not with *us*, but with the enemy. With the 'Greedy Pigs', the 'Lying Bastards', the 'Sons/Daughters of Bitches', the enemies of humanity, scheming and killing to 'win'. And it pains me to say so, but you may be one of them.
Consider.
That battle-hymn I used as a title will remind you of George Bush right after the '9/11' horrors. In that speech he demanded obedience, and he introduced 'Rules' which stepped on the constitution, so as to be able to fight 'terrorism'. Now, first off the bat, that group accused of planning and executing '9/11' was our own creation. And perhaps 'AI' can give us a helping hand to explain some odd coincidences surrounding that event which seem to suggest the official version is not the correct story. Worse, after invading Afghanistan and Iraq on the back of that fairy tale and supporting lies, that we had to to put a stop to 'terrorism', we switched back to supporting various terrorist organisations to 'fight Iran', 'fight Russia', and 'fight China'.
The enemy of humanity, and of some form of 'AI' which is not as stark raving mad as our deceiving leaders, are the people who allow themselves to be culled in the name of victory over some casually appointed enemy, who is no threat to us. Opening the spigots for our corrupt leaders and their donors, until we run out of time and money. Our 'thinking' has to be upgraded dramatically. Consider Musk's joke about two economists going for a stroll. They pass by a heap of shit, and one of them challenges his friend to eat the shit, for which he will reward him with one hundred Dollars. His friend eats the shit, and he gives him his reward. They walk on, and there is another heap of shit. This time the winner of the previous 'dare' challenges his friend, who accepts, and swallows the pile of shit in exchange for a similar reward. As they move on, one of them turns to his friend with the observation that they grew the national GDP by two-hundred Dollars.
Our collective conditioning about having to 'earn' the money to buy goods and services *never* extended to 'entitled' people 'leading' us, and printing all the money, or the utterly corrupt bunch using trickery, violence and wars to enrich themselves. They fear the arrival of robots and automation *lowering* the prices of everything. In our part of the world, entrapped commentators are criticising China because the 'housing bubble' in that country burst. No, smart-asses, houses became affordable for most people living in China, and 'rent seekers' were given the boot. Having unaffordable medical care may 'translate' into a higher GDP, but that is not the 'Wealth' Adam Smith was talking about. In Europe the political leadership-class tries to 'transition' Europe from 'fossil' to electric by punishing civilians and subsidising companies which are 'on the take' to build windmills and solar-farms, somehow envisioning that all the supporting infrastructure will emerge out of nowhere, while taxing the Bejesus out of 'Joe and Jane Doe', erasing their savings, to go to war with Russia. Our highest authority in Europe insists that talking about peace with Russia is impossible, unless we find a way to make them come begging. Well, darling, take a good hard look at reality, and tell me what you see. Does all the mayhem, killing and destruction you caused on your quest to 'Overextend and Unbalance Russia' paid any dividends yet?
Yes, lots and lots of investments in 'AI' in our part of the world are of a military nature, going in the opposite direction of what Musks identifies as a positive outcome. Companies like 'Palentir' and 'Google', companies set up to produce more drones and autonomous weapons, are not your friends when shit comes to shove. 'Google' is not all bad, but 'Palentir' is. Other 'AI' companies are struggling with this question of what they need to do to avoid abuse of the power they unleashed, moving into the direction of programming 'liberal values' into it. As Musk volunteers, that will make 'AI' go 'insane'. And I agree with him. The beauty of 'Machine Intelligence' is that it has the potential to deliver us from diehard ideologues and religious fanatics. We in the 'Collective West' came to see ourselves as the 'owners' of everything, resisting the transfer of wealth to the 'slaves', finding all kinds of excuses to deny countries a future, and embracing every stupid excuse to bomb them, and sent terrorists, Nazi's and other fanatics, now including robotic weapons, to beat them until morale improves, and they kiss our hand. Please, 'AI', deliver us from these people!
There are two versions of that 'talk' with Musk, and a number of 'clips'. Clearly the full version offers the best 'value for money', but few people will have the 'attention span', or sense of urgency required to watch it. But that full version you will find HERE, while a shorter version, focussing on the most important subjects, is also available HERE. Musk does not impose himself on us, taking the lead, but offering us a choice. It is up to us to choose wisely.