Artificial Intelligence is generally seen as a great advance and benefit for mankind. Smart humans, however, see it as our undoing and even possibly our extermination. Much of modern technology has far more prospect for harm than for good. Consider nuclear weapons. Consider Monsanto’s glyphosate. Consider 5G. There are a large number of technologies that impose massive costs to life on Earth.
I don’t think AI is sentient or has consciousness and do not see how it can think and make decisions in a human sense. I think the author, Jerry Day, is influenced by a false concept of mind, as is philosophy in general.
On the other hand, if this is a real possibility, we should bring a halt to AI, execute the AI geeks, and go back to a paper and analog system of operating. I don’t like the digital revolution. One reason is that it makes it so easy for information to disappear. In effect, the digital revolution is Big Brother’s Memory Hole. Look at how much information is wiped out because controllers regard it as offensive to the ever-growing array of “victim groups” or contrary to the interest of ruling elites. Another reason is that it makes it so easy to violate privacy and steal identity. Another reason is that it has eliminated jobs that can be performed by people of average and below intelligence. In effect, the digital revolution is making people superfluous.
The notion that the Internet brings freedom and freedom of information is, I believe, a great delusion.
This passage from Jerry Day sounds like China’s Social Credit System:
“Once the state is able to put out trillions of bits of personal data together with millions of legal codes, we will all be exposed as criminals, every last one of us. We will all be subject to the control and penalty by the state. It is AI that will make that possible. Suddenly one day, we will find that what people used to do to us, machines will be doing to us. Automation can find you, automation can send you notice on your cell phone, or computer, automation can exercise liens and levies of your property, automation can take possession of your property, bank accounts, your investments, automation can terminate your employment, automation can prosecute you, convict you, and penalize you as the IRS does, without due process.
“All of that can be done to you without any human involvement at all. The only reason we will need police is to clean up those few belligerent souls who try to resist what the automation is doing to them. There will be only one crime: resisting the automation, and there will be no humans left to help you sort out any misunderstanding, just like Google, YouTube, Facebook. Soon there will be no humans anywhere to help you fix a problem.”
Dr. Paul Craig Robertswas Assistant Secretary of the Treasury for Economic Policy and associate editor of the Wall Street Journal. He was columnist for Business Week, Scripps Howard News Service, and Creators Syndicate. He has had many university appointments. His internet columns have attracted a worldwide following. Roberts’ latest
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Will artificial intelligence destroy us or simply make humans irrelevant?
Posted on December 11, 2019 by Paul Craig Roberts
Artificial Intelligence is generally seen as a great advance and benefit for mankind. Smart humans, however, see it as our undoing and even possibly our extermination. Much of modern technology has far more prospect for harm than for good. Consider nuclear weapons. Consider Monsanto’s glyphosate. Consider 5G. There are a large number of technologies that impose massive costs to life on Earth.
The article below from Crime & Power, “A Hard Look at Artificial intelligence” by Jerry Day, sounds like a horror science fiction story.
I don’t think AI is sentient or has consciousness and do not see how it can think and make decisions in a human sense. I think the author, Jerry Day, is influenced by a false concept of mind, as is philosophy in general.
On the other hand, if this is a real possibility, we should bring a halt to AI, execute the AI geeks, and go back to a paper and analog system of operating. I don’t like the digital revolution. One reason is that it makes it so easy for information to disappear. In effect, the digital revolution is Big Brother’s Memory Hole. Look at how much information is wiped out because controllers regard it as offensive to the ever-growing array of “victim groups” or contrary to the interest of ruling elites. Another reason is that it makes it so easy to violate privacy and steal identity. Another reason is that it has eliminated jobs that can be performed by people of average and below intelligence. In effect, the digital revolution is making people superfluous.
The notion that the Internet brings freedom and freedom of information is, I believe, a great delusion.
This passage from Jerry Day sounds like China’s Social Credit System:
“Once the state is able to put out trillions of bits of personal data together with millions of legal codes, we will all be exposed as criminals, every last one of us. We will all be subject to the control and penalty by the state. It is AI that will make that possible. Suddenly one day, we will find that what people used to do to us, machines will be doing to us. Automation can find you, automation can send you notice on your cell phone, or computer, automation can exercise liens and levies of your property, automation can take possession of your property, bank accounts, your investments, automation can terminate your employment, automation can prosecute you, convict you, and penalize you as the IRS does, without due process.
“All of that can be done to you without any human involvement at all. The only reason we will need police is to clean up those few belligerent souls who try to resist what the automation is doing to them. There will be only one crime: resisting the automation, and there will be no humans left to help you sort out any misunderstanding, just like Google, YouTube, Facebook. Soon there will be no humans anywhere to help you fix a problem.”
Read Day’s article. Make up your own mind
See also: “The Greatest Shift Since The Dawn Of Humankind.”
Copyright © 2019 Paul Craig Roberts
Dr. Paul Craig Roberts was Assistant Secretary of the Treasury for Economic Policy and associate editor of the Wall Street Journal. He was columnist for Business Week, Scripps Howard News Service, and Creators Syndicate. He has had many university appointments. His internet columns have attracted a worldwide following. Roberts’ latest