AI breaks old sources of meaning the same way Nietzsche said the death of God broke inherited morality. When external structures collapse (roles, labels, certainty), meaning has to be generated from within. Identity becomes what you return to repeatedly (actions, habits, resonance), not what you’re labeled as. Morality becomes drift-resilience — maintaining coherence when everything shifts. Nietzsche isn’t telling us…
Why Nietzsche matters in the age of artificial intelligence
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Re: Why Nietzsche matters in the age of artificial intelligence
#22I'm so torn about this article. On the one hand, it's great to see technologists engaging more with philosophy—arguably the technological landscape we currently have would h ave been much better if they had done so more deeply and more frequently. On the other hand, this is a pretty shallow article and does not, on my read, offer anything to anyone even vaguely familiar with technology and Nietzsche's philosophy. A m…
Re: Why Nietzsche matters in the age of artificial intelligence
#23I'm so torn about this article. On the one hand, it's great to see technologists engaging more with philosophy—arguably the technological landscape we currently have would h ave been much better if they had done so more deeply and more frequently. On the other hand, this is a pretty shallow article and does not, on my read, offer anything to anyone even vaguely familiar with technology and Nietzsche's philosophy. A m…
I hate to be the one to say this, but this article reads as though it was written by an LLM. The shallowness is one reason. Another is the lack of any individual voice that would suggest a human author. And there are the unsupported citations and references: The sentence “The World Economic Forum’s 2023 Future of Jobs report estimates 83 million jobs may be displaced globally, disproportionately affecting low- and mi…
Re: Why Nietzsche matters in the age of artificial intelligence
#24Earlier quoted context omitted.
I mean… what is the assumed replacement, then? Residual moral sensibilities from our obsolete judeochristian heritage?
Just as a random proposal, not even lightly thought out. In priority order with realistic exceptions: - do your best to be not dead, safe, and healthy for the next few years - do your best to make those around you not dead, safe, and healthy for the next few years - do your best to treat others around you how you would wish to be treated - do your best to treat others around you how THEY would wish to be treated.
Re: Why Nietzsche matters in the age of artificial intelligence
#25AI breaks old sources of meaning the same way Nietzsche said the death of God broke inherited morality. When external structures collapse (roles, labels, certainty), meaning has to be generated from within. Identity becomes what you return to repeatedly (actions, habits, resonance), not what you’re labeled as. Morality becomes drift-resilience — maintaining coherence when everything shifts. Nietzsche isn’t telling us…
Re: Why Nietzsche matters in the age of artificial intelligence
#26Most of his work deals with the psychological and historical origins of morality/philosophy, as well as how it might change as a result of herd dynamics. This doesn’t mean he thinks AI destroying morality or mediating it is a good thing or that some Nietzschian “ubermensch” needs to create a universal AI morality. His whole point is that morality is not universal truth but comes in flavors (master vs slave morality). He doesn’t really even think truth or egalitarianism/democracy has any inherent value (all ideas this article seems to negate).
In my opinion the biggest Nietzschian idea we can pontificate on in relation to AI is the concept of “The Last Man”, which describes Nietzsches prophesized end state of humanity in the post death-of-God era — men just want to be safe, satiated, and friendly to each other (which we are in):
“No shepherd and one herd! Everybody wants the same, everybody is the same: whoever feels different goes voluntarily into a madhouse. Formerly, all the world was mad,’ say the most refined, and they blink. We have invented happiness, and they blink"