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Why Nietzsche matters in the age of artificial intelligence

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Re: Why Nietzsche matters in the age of artificial intelligence

#21

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…

Anything of any value always takes one person at a time for things to really get better. Good article btw. I am working on a Science Fiction story about this kind of future. These concepts are a big help.

Re: Why Nietzsche matters in the age of artificial intelligence

#22

I'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 didn't read anything about a connection between technology and philosophy. Its more about finding meaning in a world that has been over technologised.

Re: Why Nietzsche matters in the age of artificial intelligence

#23
post #6

I'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…

thanks for pointing this out. The concepts in the article are important to me, but yeah thats weird.

Re: Why Nietzsche matters in the age of artificial intelligence

#24

Earlier 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.

Yes. There is a quote from james allen that I like. "There is no greatness without goodness"

Re: Why Nietzsche matters in the age of artificial intelligence

#25

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…

My spidey sense is telling me an LLM was used in drafting this comment

Re: Why Nietzsche matters in the age of artificial intelligence

#26
Whoever wrote this article probably has little more than a cursory or highly aesthetecized understanding of Nietzsche’s philosophy. It feels like they just related his idea of value-creation to a bunch of pre-conceived purportedly “bad things” like lack of social cohesion.

Most 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"

Re: Why Nietzsche matters in the age of artificial intelligence

#28
holding my nose reading this. if scientific progress killed god, it seems unlikely that meaning would emerge from more ramblings of the same kind that gave rise to him in the first place. we have learned to disbelieve in miracles and to be skeptical of novelty, that change is excruciatingly slow and its cause is failure, pain and death. nature and the feelings that nature has given us should be our philosophical guide posts.

Re: Why Nietzsche matters in the age of artificial intelligence

#30
Nietzsche is brilliant and the best thing he did was to inspire other people to their own thoughts. That is what was needed then and needed now, and at all times. The article didn't share much insight but glad to see him talked about, if only because it gives us permission to talk about deep things. Everybody should embrace their role as philosopher, take it seriously, and develop themselves- and through that, prompt others to do so as well.
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