I miss scarcity


This is not a complaint. Or, if it is a complaint, it's half-aimed at me. Mostly this is a reflection.

In the old days, I got to know music really well -- in great detail, sonically, musically, reading all the credits, the liner notes, etc. A friend would have an album I didn't, so I'd go to his house to listen. We'd talk about the music. We'd talk about how album sides hung together or didn't. We were thrilled by double albums.

Now, a torrent of information is everywhere. I listen alone, often to a single song, often not listening to anything over and over again.

You will tell me, "That's your choice." I'd half agree. It's like agreeing that "It's my choice not to live off the electrical grid." 

As I read and teach about AI, I am learning that our tools often prioritize speed and information glut. It seems, initially, like a cornucopia but it becomes a wash of "content." I must admit, I'm losing my talent for managing all this content, and I'm losing my love for it. And it's making me into a different person, somewhat, and I am not so sure I want to be that person. End of reflection.

Wizard Conjuring Cosmic Chaos Art Print featuring the drawing Let There be Content by Benjamin Schwartz

hilde45

The real threat from A.I. is not Terminator, or comic book or bad S-F  way of describing a bad robot thaking control as Hal in Kubrick masterpiece.

The real threat is way more invisible and way more deeper in his action than killing us with the control over atomic missiles...

The real threat is the change in our creativity and spirit occurring by the way we will discharge ourselves of writing, reading, and thinking, feeling and willing ...

I dont speak about the  very few  ( like Terence Tao using A.I. this year) able to use A.I. as a tool but about the mass of people with no more works, no more goal, no more real relation, becoming  more uneducated than ever and becoming slaves of their  own virtual vices and easier than ever to control, the "useless eaters" described by oligarchs...

A.I. advent is less a technological feat than a spiritual event...Most dont even see it, conditioned by medias in the  reinforced confusion between knowledge, science and technology  when wisdom is evacuated  from the equation ...Techno-cultism is a banner for all  ...

Yes education with A.I. could be good, but education was never about learning something, it was way more deep than just learning, education begin before college by the way,  and only human can transmit it to the young under some age...

Yes  we can cure  cancer with A.I. it is a good idea and useful tool, but we did not need A.I. to eliminate cancer to begin with  anyway it is a society choice (big pharma, big agronomy etc why do you think we develop cancer so much ? no need to own A.I. for the answer ) ...

I am not a Luddite. But  we must be a fool not to see the huge negative impact and threat of a race, not for a tool (specialized A.I. engines ) but a race by hubris for a new God ( A.I. as a super agent not a tool)... A speaking God...Controlled by the idiotic uneducated  very rich oligarchs behind  the race...

Among the  few rare scientists  enlightened soul is Yoshua Bengio a Turing prize winner very distressed by this race and folly ...

 

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@mahgister 

Really great post.

If I had to disagree with any part of it, I’d say that oligarchs birthed AI but, like children grow up and leave home to lead their own lives, their control over AI is only temporary.

 

i cannot say all in a post and i think as you then no disagrement between us...Thanks for your appreciation... 

smiley

If I had to disagree with any part of it, I’d say that oligarchs birthed AI but, like children grow up and leave home to lead their own lives, their control over AI is only temporary.

 

 

 

A.I. exist already in the cosmos. Only someone lacking imagination can think that A.I. is born for the first time on earth...

All A.I. has in common their link to a finite field of information so huge it could be...( a finite number of primes)

Living entities are all related and rooted  in an infinite field  an infinite number of primes ... it is why they own a soul which is lacking for solid state intelligence.

WE dont live in a computer simulation for this reason related to the infinite cosmic field of Life as explained by this article around the consequences of Godel theorems : 

Consequences of Undecidability in Physics on the Theory of Everything

https://arxiv.org/abs/2507.22950

 

«Because any putative simulation of the universe would itself be algorithmic, this framework also implies that the universe cannot be a simulation.» 

mahgister, FWIW, the 5th paragraph/sentence of your 5:35pm post sets forth my views on the effects of AI for most folks that will be using it. IMO AI will never be a substitute for 'critical analysis'. A great tool used properly, perhaps. But no more.