this post was submitted on 05 May 2025
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Fuck AI
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"We did it, Patrick! We made a technological breakthrough!"
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This is almost word for word what's been said about every new technology or social trend for my entire life. "This new thing is worse than everything that has ever come before and the Apocalypse is nigh."
Sorry. After hearing this over and over and over and over again all my life I just don't take this kind of moral panic seriously.
You know the Boy Who Cried Wolf? That's basically the situation we're in, the boy has been crying wolf (technology is going to kill us!) for decades and decades with every new invention. Now you don't believe the boy anymore.
But the wolf still comes at the end of the story. Don't forget that.
"The story" is the key part of this, however.
I think another thing you're missing is that while advances in technology historically didn't bring about the apocalypse, they have on numerous occasions been the catalyst for major social upheaval and disaster. Society and culture has to adjust to these kinds of changes to what is possible, and that is not always pretty.
I'm not "missing" anything, Sparky. I've lived through quite a few such changes, and it wasn't pretty.
I just don't see anything special about this particular one that renders the moral hue and cry. Like I said at the start: there's plenty of real reasons to target AI. People deluding themselves into a cult is not one of them, since people have been deluding themselves into cults even before the historical record, likely.
The difference with these AI cults is that the AI is essentially standing in for the cult leader. A cult leader that can speak to millions simultaneously in one-on-one personal conversations is something new that is going to have real world consequences.
[greater than the] sum of the parts, my friend.