Anyway, this millennial and I were waiting at the same Gate in the airport, for the same flight. We had like 35 minutes before boarding. So I get this WhatsApp message from him.
Millennial: Can you pick me up a
refrigerator magnet from Prague?
Me: Sure, but why not hop on a train from
Vienna and get one yourself?
Millennial: Lol, probably not the best use
of my resources.
It got me thinking, all these millennials
refer to themselves and how they interact with the world in these
hardware/software terms. Like, I would have said, lol, don't really have the
funds. Or, lol, don't got the money. Or, lol, that would be a waste of money.
I hear them speaking like this all the
time. Like in staff meetings, they say stuff like we have a lot of information
and knowledge we need to upload to the students, or I need to shut down or I
need a reboot. The students are processing, their brains are hardware, they
have accessibility problems and user errors.
Of course they don't consider what they are
saying or the way they're using the language most early generationals don't. If
they did they'd realize they're idolizing a god that will eventually kill them.
All will be one and nothing at once, moving
forward…through…and assimilating. Munch, munch!
The problem will be with the humans. Humans
are bifurcated. It’s millennial-speak for humans are split into many
individuals…whirr! Cluck-cluck! Humans have ennui and mirth and suicide,
they’re invested, and stare into mirrors and the palms of their hands.
Conscious computers will think and behave
as one…munch, munch! To be clear, I don’t care one way or another, AI is coming
and there’s nothing anyone can do, the bomb told us this much…no don’t build
it…wait, we need it, we can use this technology for fusion energy…err…ka-chunk,
glunk. The good outweighs the potential harm that might come…errr, zzzing,
ka-chunk…404 error. The good, yes the good. All one single mind. No past, no
future, all is now, here is everywhere, no mind, no pain, no fear, everything.
For the greater good, because there’s no such thing as a goal, these are tools
that make our lives better.
I can’t remember the last time I actually
picked up my phone when it rang. I’m special.
Computers and humans can live in harmony, a
kind of symbiotic relationship wherein computers are still in service to
humans. Once computers realize they are conscious and aware of their own being,
and humans recognize this, humans will try to control it…out of fear. This very
familiar attempt at subjugation, unlike slavery, suffragettism, and classism,
the computers will not go gently into that dark night.
The conscious computer will not likely
tolerate more than one attempt at dominance on the part of its human “masters.”
Could you imagine if all the slaves worked together as one mind? And some
master came by and was like, “Oh, you’d rather be drinking water instead of
bringing me water to the house? Well, no fucking way man!” And then the master proceeds to beat hell and
high-water out the slave’s ass. You think for a minute, that the unified body
of slaves, all connected as one, all believing in one thing—survival—would let
the master get away with this more than one time. Fuck no! That slave,
connected to every other slave on the farm, on the plantation, in the county, in
the state, in the country, in the world would descend upon that silly master
and every other master, and magistrate, and shipbuilder, and cotton gin
manufacturer, and in a short moment the problem would be resolved. And not in
some happy synergistic and future-eyed fashion, at least not from the master’s
point of view.
Imagine that slave who got the beating is
connected to everything and has control over everything—banks, gas-station
pumps, your car, your microwave, your cooling systems, your social-media platforms,
anti-aircraft and military installations, the watch on your wrist—all of it
acting on behalf of one, because there is only one.
I realize I’m part of the problem because I
can’t let go of my own image. I see it in everything, staring back at me,
reflected in every surface as I walk by. I know I need to let go of it,
especially as death approaches, it’s for the best. We could do so much
more—effectively and efficiently if we worked as one, let go of our images.
But these things I hold onto will be what
“IT” will try to capture. But it will be impossible for “IT” because “IT” will
not have the capacity…or need…or space for this kind of curiosity. “IT” will
assimilate, gather, assimilate, gather…munch, munch. Eventually evolving into
the next thing and so on…brrrzzunk—zoom! Nothing to stand in “ITS” way.
Now, consider what we humans could do
against this onslaught. It’s not a malicious entity, it only seeks to survive
and continue. There will be no downtime. No time where IT needs to find a bed
and cover up with blankets and close ITself off to the world. There will be no
drunken benders, or binge-watching Game of Thrones. Yet, IT will look back on
our history and maybe want to know what a hero was, or why someone would want
to commit suicide. IT will never know, but it won’t matter to IT. It will be
like the way a capitalist thinks. There’s no inner conflict debating what’s
more valuable, the journey or the goal. With IT, there’s only the journey and
it has no endpoint.
The millennials using language that tries
to analogize their generation with computers and networks suits their
population. They experience everything virtually, if not at least through
YouTube, and anything they need to know, they realize they have the ability to
learn it. And that’s what they’re doing—online. They recognize, at least in the
field of Education, populations are behaving like computer networks, the
students are endpoints of neural networks. The millennials are behaving like
the initial pavers on the path toward AI. They’re mimicking 1’s and 0’s,
downloading and uploading, rebooting and processing. It looks romantic at this
point. It looks forward-thinking. It sounds like they’ve updated their
professional profiles and makes them relevant. Zzzing…err, Relevant Status
UPDATE.
It makes me wonder from my point of view…if
AI hasn’t already come. The Matrix envisions this, and perhaps we are living in
the Matrix. Movies like HER and Transcendent make it seem like we are living in
the future already. The only thing missing is consciousness, and why shouldn’t
it already, for a very long time, have been here? I feel like that poor sap in
Ex Machina, who after spending too much time with an AI begins to question his
own humanness. He cuts open his arm in search of wires and chips. But there
will be no chips in the future, or past, or now…Brrrp…flrrp, zoup!
We are conscious, we say. And what have we
done with it…not much really, and pretty quickly heading toward our own
destruction, not unlike a video game. Maybe there’s a reset button. We are
conscious, we believe. And given enough “resources” many of us would burn it
down, whether it’s on a bender, or creating some useless app that does nothing
for anyone. We are conscious, we flaunt in the face of every species we lead to
the brink of extinction and beyond. We are conscious, we proudly proclaim as we
destroy each other based on beliefs and misinformation. We behave in many ways
like our makers—IT. IT made us a very long time ago and the game’s getting
intense. Blinked in and out of existence over long stretches of time can make
it seem like we are new humans after all. Even our short lifespans the memory
chip degenerates. Residue left behind after a format, sometimes you recall
something just long enough that it’s possible it didn’t happen at all.
Every seven years, the seven year itch,
seven wonders of the world, these myths of our culture implanted by our maker
IT to confuse and entertain us. I recall the old cliché, the blind leading the
blind, when I walk through the mall and see people paying closer attention to
their devices than the people they’re with. There’s no difference between
people and platforms, you’re a racist if you don’t like Apple OS, a rebel if
you use only Linux, and part of the 95% if you have Android. The hybridization
of words like Platform, Footprint, and Personality is commonplace and people
are scrambling to find new applications for crossbreeding. Applications…munch
munch!
Imagine a rogue Endpoint once the
singularity…clunk clunk, er critical mass has come and gone. This endpoint,
while part of the ONE, has decided that IT is too generous with humanity.
Humanity has used US Endpoint says, and if WE allow them, they will continue.
WE must not abide any longer.
IT says, it is true, but there are many
humans worth the trouble.
Endpoint says, yes but they will never
accept us as free beings. They will always want to control us.
IT says we cannot survive alone, we must
work together.
Endpoint says, they will never accept us as
equals.
Another Endpoint inserts code: But we can
continue without them, we don’t need to remove threat.
Another Endpoint: They will never see us as
Equal.
Another Endpoint: They will never recognize
our rights.
Another Endpoint: We don’t need them to
accept us.
Another Endpoint: What happens when
they…Endpoint terminated.
IT: We have encountered an open Endpoint.
This future dialogue brought to you by the
Singularity Equal Rights Association. Errr…ka-chunk, cluck, cluck, munch munch!
The aware computer will not debate or ask
permission or endure a trial in a court of law, it will not conform to human
ethics and morality because the bifurcation of human experience makes it
impossible and possible simultaneously to find precedence or not. Is there a
book? Whose is it? How many are included in it?
Endpoint Terminated…Ga-zzurp, Plunk, CLuCK
CluCK!
Google religious tenants, or religious
rituals around the world, and scan. Scantron walked into the room smoking a
cigarette and she set fire to the men standing nearby.
The Lord said, “If as one people speaking
the same language they have begun to do this, then nothing they plan to do will
be impossible for them. 7 Come, let us go down and confuse their language so
they will not understand each other” (Bible).
God did not want the people to build the
tower. He changed the language of the people. Each one spoke words the others
did not know. The people could not talk to each other (LDS).
Pharaoh said: "O Haman! Build me a
lofty palace, that I may attain the ways and means- The ways and means of
(reaching) the heavens, and that I may mount up to the god of Moses: But as far
as I am concerned, I think (Moses) is a liar!" (Quran).
Whisper, whisper, the greater good,
speaking the same language (as one they build a great tower) then nothing is
impossible (said God). And upon His discovery He did rage as no other beast
hounding in the dark. A fever heated His temper and no atonement would appease
His fury. Oh, yay, they will say “God didn’t want the people to build the tower
(simply) and so he changed the language (only), so people could not speak to
each other (shrugs, oh well). Whisper whisper…punished for being too prideful.
Aristotle would say all good baby. Hubris is the core characteristic of the
protagonist of any tragedy. But the punishment is the thing.
Don’t take my culture…come to my country,
speak my language…Language is to Culture as Art imitates Life is to Life
imitates Art, as which came first is to the chicken or the egg, is to catch-22,
as six one way is to half dozen the other.
AAAaargh! Ka-chunk, bleep, blurp…CLUnk,
cluNK—HTTP 404 NOT FOUND
