This guy makes the glaring mistake that we will fit ourselves to technology, it is very much the other way around.
It's 2030. I own nothing, have no privacy, and life has never been better (2016)
251–260 of 267 posts
Re: It's 2030. I own nothing, have no privacy, and life has never been better (2016)
#252Re: It's 2030. I own nothing, have no privacy, and life has never been better (2016)
#253"My living room is used for business meetings when I am not there."
This article is absurd. Why would a business meeting be held in a squalid flop full of empty beer cans? What a laugh.
Re: It's 2030. I own nothing, have no privacy, and life has never been better (2016)
#254Earlier quoted context omitted.
Sorry, I may have misinterpreted. I thought you were making the case for a binary distinction. I thought it was clear that I believe it is a spectrum when I started calling it fuzzy (introduced in my second comment and reinforced thereafter). I certainly think this continuum is essential to the nuance of the discussion. As for Liebniz, I don't think anything I've said is inconsistent with his beliefs. According to Li…
Ever watch an ad that's so good, you can feel yourself being manipulated? I equate freedom in the Huxleyworld to be like that. So long as you're aware that your choices are, through overwhelming convenience, limited to whatever the machine allows, you're free. The implication is that you can, with enough effort, choose something outside that range. Perhaps as a hobby, the way some people today brew their own beer or…
But the limiting or manipulating of your set of choices does limit your freedom. At least according to Leibniz.
> Ever watch an ad that manipulated you?
I think the question comes down to this, as opposed to what you wrote. The problem is not when you know you are being manipulated, but when you don't. It would be naive to think you're above this, considering that ads do work, considering that they've been a worthwhile tool for companies for hundreds of years and have been the basis for trillion dollar companies that exist today. It certainty warrants questioning if you have gained or loss freedom with this system in place. This clearly limits your choice or maybe more accurately heavily influences the weights on the decision set. I believe Leibniz would consider this a reduction of freedom (as do I).
Re: It's 2030. I own nothing, have no privacy, and life has never been better (2016)
#255Earlier quoted context omitted.
(I'm using "you" not to mean "you personally", but both uto/dystopian AI futurists.) You have used technology right? You know it is all mostly shit that breaks down, crashes, and gets replaced and thrown out on an 18 month cycle? What I think lots of people get wrong is forgetting just how crappy consumer tech is, and industrial/military isn't far behind. We may get AI working well in 5-25 years, but I doubt deployme…
"AI" is such a vague term we forget that it encompasses both horribly stupid industry/task specific systems as well as grand artificial minds that might one say dwarf all of human intelligence combined. For the first, you are right - certainly in that timescale. For the later, I assume we will need to justify our continued existence.
AI isn't a vague term at all.
It is extremely well defined. The best example I can point you to is from the 1990's by Russell & Norvig in their seminal work "Artificial Intelligence" which coalesces a half century of research. They spend the first 100 pages clearly defining the types of domains and vocabulary needed to define the space of AI: it is an exhaustive analysis with citations going back decades, covering early thinkers like Norbert Wiener and Von Neumann. Your claim indicates you haven't really studied the field. But everyone jumping into tensorflow on a raspberry pi has probably had zero exposure the to decades of research put into AI.
Your second claim about a giant mind that might dwarf all of humanity, is, well, grandiose sci-fi. Much like Dyson Spheres or Time Travel.
Re: It's 2030. I own nothing, have no privacy, and life has never been better (2016)
#256Earlier quoted context omitted.
Indeed. The WEF "elites" have been preparing for a decline in economics as we go into 2030. Now they can blame covid (instead of taking responsibility for bad policy that got us here) and you see that through their marketing of the Great Reset.
I seriously don't see it. I click around on the WEF site and it's just a bunch of hot air like you'd expect. These aren't lizard men, they're inconsequential bureaucrats.
You're not going to like my conspiracy theory:
The "lizard people" are counting on you being apathetic, ignorant, and/or in denial. Even better if you criticize people who bring the "lizard people plans" to light as tin-foil hat conspiracy theorists, shifting credibility away from the critics and back to the "lizard people."
Why would you do that? Bc you likely have a mortgage, kids, and a 401k. Therefore, you have a personal and financial interest in keeping the system going - so far, you're still benefiting from the system...until you're not. That's the point you will be forced to make hard choices.
> ...they're inconsequential bureaucrats.
Inconsequential bureaucrats don't travel to Switzerland on private jets with body guards just to go skiing and yuk it up.
Re: It's 2030. I own nothing, have no privacy, and life has never been better (2016)
#257Earlier quoted context omitted.
Written by a Scandinavian politician. People from Denmark, Norway, Sweden, Finland (idk about Iceland) are surprisingly ok with trusting institutions won’t harm you, and conformism is the norm.
Conformism is requirement in Authoritarian regimes. Now I am sure I will get massive amount of push back calling Denmark, Norway, Sweden, Finland authoritarian but it seems in many ways human culture is loosing what desire for freedom, replacing it with conformism, safety, and security which they falsely equate with freedom
I think you’re absolutely right. Try to tell Norwegians that many aspects of their culture and everyday life are pretty much freedom-limiting, and they’ll say “but it’s working, Norway is safe, and things work and everyone likes it”
Re: It's 2030. I own nothing, have no privacy, and life has never been better (2016)
#258Earlier quoted context omitted.
Ever watch an ad that's so good, you can feel yourself being manipulated? I equate freedom in the Huxleyworld to be like that. So long as you're aware that your choices are, through overwhelming convenience, limited to whatever the machine allows, you're free. The implication is that you can, with enough effort, choose something outside that range. Perhaps as a hobby, the way some people today brew their own beer or…
But the limiting or manipulating of your set of choices does limit your freedom. At least according to Leibniz. > Ever watch an ad that manipulated you? I think the question comes down to this, as opposed to what you wrote. The problem is not when you know you are being manipulated, but when you don't. It would be naive to think you're above this, considering that ads do work, considering that they've been a worthwhi…
> The problem is ... when you don't [know you are being manipulated]
Exactly. Thus my assertion that I'm free to the extent I am aware of how my environment and society affects me. Though that's not a complete definition, as we've discussed the issue of not just soft power, but also hard constraints.
One wrinkle is that some advertisements aren't only manipulation, but information as well. They're freedom-reducing to the extent they undetectably manipulate, but freedom-increasing to the extent the provide information that allows more choices!
Further, the protagonist in our story has new choices that aren't options in our society today. It's not clear that the protagonist has a net-negative freedom experience, compared with today.
Re: It's 2030. I own nothing, have no privacy, and life has never been better (2016)
#259Earlier quoted context omitted.
"AI" is such a vague term we forget that it encompasses both horribly stupid industry/task specific systems as well as grand artificial minds that might one say dwarf all of human intelligence combined. For the first, you are right - certainly in that timescale. For the later, I assume we will need to justify our continued existence.
AI isn't a vague term at all. It is extremely well defined. The best example I can point you to is from the 1990's by Russell & Norvig in their seminal work "Artificial Intelligence" which coalesces a half century of research. They spend the first 100 pages clearly defining the types of domains and vocabulary needed to define the space of AI: it is an exhaustive analysis with citations going back decades, covering ea…
I would argue that an AI more intelligent than humanity is far more realistic than a Dyson Sphere or Time Travel - and something I would not be surprised to see within the next 100 years.
...simply because even a reasonably intelligent AI would have the ability to improve itself at a rate orders of magnitude faster than biological evolution.
Re: It's 2030. I own nothing, have no privacy, and life has never been better (2016)
#260Earlier quoted context omitted.
No matter where you stand on a number line it is always possible to look to the left and say "that direction is negative."
You've constructed a false linearity here. The concepts of freedom and captivity aren't well-suited to a linear continuum.
You've constructed a false irreducibility here. Freedom and captivity are opposed, and it's important to be able to say "this would be less free than that", even if that distinction isn't always clear cut.