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21 December 2018

Comments

Russ

George,

Do China's AI developers have the same hopeful views shared by Max Tegmark and Nick Bostrom? I am reading AI Superpowers by Kai-fu Lee, a well connected Silicon Valley, and China Entrepreneur. Lee argues powerfully that due to the rapid advances in AI development, dramatic changes will be happening much sooner than many of us expect.

I am shocked by how unprepared this nation is for the advances in machine intelligence and machine learning. AI is being integrated into our lives, and few pay any concern. All of these useful devices are shaping our lives, but they have a huge potential downside which few give any thought about the longer term consequences.

Watching the stupid, uninformed questions our political elites slung at the tech giants in the recent hearing, and it is clear that our policymakers do not understand the technology nor its implications. Regulations and policies put in place by technology illiterates will only make the problem worse. We all need to be scared long before the singularity occurs.

Scott O

All of this topic gives more respect to the wisdom of our nation's founders. They could not even begin to imagine the new horrors of what modern technology could/would bring to human-kind, but they fully understood the unchanging human condition that would happily usher in the collective will to have a central authority that would, as a necessity, crush the individual. Our country was birthed at a particular time and place in history that could well prove to be a singular event of its own.
There is no point in fear as it weakens the soul and clouds the mind. As Jesus wept over Jerusalem, so should we weep over what is being pissed away by ignorant and arrogant fools who consider themselves the 'betters' over the 'common' man. And the also the millions of citizens who would trade away hard and bitterly fought God-given rights for a pottage of newly minted social justice rights they will never actually obtain.
Life here is still very good - especially compared to most other times in history. I would hope the dismay over the wholesale rot of our Republic doesn't preclude the enjoyment of the many blessings we have here and now. Certainly it's important to follow and chronicle the multitude of radical changes racing at us every day. My opinion is that the two most important sea changes are the acceptance of the general public to the idea of being tracked and watched in real time combined with the soon-to-come elimination of hard currency. There are plenty of other 'improvements' that play a part, but I feel that in our country these tech based changes will be the lion's share of our falling into Winston Smith's nightmare.

scenes

I think I would invent a simpler matrix in 1d.

. AI fizzles out and is used to put radiologists and income tax examiners out of work.
. AI is steered in a forceful manner by elites as a control loop
. AI wakes up and does something mysterious

Which is more a matter of degree than anything else.

Watching the death of the West and the rise of the hysterical Left under the rather loose control of an urban bureaucratic, media, financial class, I'd vote for Door Number Two at this point. The likelihood of an individualistic and dispersed nation (as opposed to state) was frittered away in the post WWII era I think.

Given the normal state of post-tribal humanity, that of centralization of power, it's probably more fair to think of Paul/M/RCross/etc. as mouthpieces for the normal state of things rather than as stooges. It's ironic to think of mobs as putting extreme structure in place, but that doesn't seem to be an uncommon thing historically.

George Rebane

The forces of social organization. The more chaotic the social environment becomes, the more people limit their trust and devote their support to smaller more familiarly composed organizations - international coops, nation-states, regions, provinces, tribes, clans, extended families, nuclear families, ... . It was ever thus.

Bonnie McGuire

Thank you Scott O (7:35) and others for your intelligent observations. Have a wonderful Christmas. 🎄🎶

Scott O

Just in case anyone thinks I'm a bit paranoid -
https://www.zerohedge.com/news/2018-12-21/amazons-creepy-facial-recognition-doorbell-will-surveil-entire-neighborhood-peoples
How innocent. Who doesn't want a safer neighborhood?

George Rebane

ScottO 759pm - Paranoid, nah! Just you wait until such 'doorbells' will be mandated on all houses, with, of course, an AI-monitored video feed to one or more NSA outfits and the local constabulary. They just want to be able to identify the bad guys that may be coming to your front door - and you're not a 'bad guy', are you?

Scott O

re "bad guys" - The way that works is they will end up keeping track of everyones' positions and movements and figure out who is 'good' and 'bad' later on as the political climate dictates.

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