This post is a very different tone from the rest of the blog. I do think it is important, and I’d like to explore more fringe ideas I have been thinking about.
I’ve spent a lot of time engaging in mindfulness practice. A simplistic interpretation of the practice is to be present. You are, usually, instructed to pay attention to your breath. The in. The out. You begin to appreciate how simple, and difficult the practice can be.
A contention with this practice is how to act when your life requires you to think about the future. Sometimes there is a difference between planning and pondering. A deliberate choice and a random occurrence.
Lately, I have been trying to plan for a future that is ‘wacky’. Where AI systems roam in millions. Digital, perhaps even sentient, beings roam in billions. Where human beings are no longer top of the hierarchy. There are other words to describe this future. But wacky. Yes, this carries the right feeling. The right mix of vividness and bizarreness.
What happens when you start falling in love with an AI?
What happens when companies are run by AIs?
What happens when the world is controlled by the narratives of an AI?
What happens when we create a god?
Your favourite movie is one made completely by machines.
Your favourite artwork is one made completely by machines.
Your favourite book is one made completely by machines.
An objection to this is, ‘but it is just feeding off what humans did, so it is not made by machines.’ I feel frustrated by this. It is not an assessment of whether we are going to head in this direction. There is something about the craving for humans to be in charge of it all. But if we keep pushing in this direction, this lead will not stay for long. All thanks to the San Francisco ‘tech bros’.
It is wacky that I have only spent two decades on this planet, and I may see the downfall of it all. It is wacky that this is the timeline we have entered. Where is the ‘normal life’?
I am unsure how to stay mindful in the midst of this. When these systems explode in numbers by the millions, what world will we see? A wacky one, perhaps.
