This is a well articulated, illuminating, and deeply important piece by our friend Lewis. The dangers of AI are so very real. We humans need to do a deep dive into how AI serves as a very real threat to us all. — Molly
 |
| Credit: iStock-metamorworks |
Sociopaths are people who do not feel and have little or no empathy for the feelings of others. Sociopaths are isolated in a narcissistic prison because they cannot authentically relate to others and feel no connection except as a means to satisfy their own needs. To do this, successful sociopaths learn to mimic real feelings and learn to act in socially acceptable ways, pretending to ‘feel’ and ‘express’ feelings that mimic authentic expressions. Sociopaths are actors, using their acting skills and pretense to fool others to accomplish whatever it is they need or think they need. Most of us do this sometimes in some circumstances to appear acceptable, to fit in, to appear as caring, etc. Dysfunctional sociopaths do it all the time. An extremely dysfunctional and dangerous sociopath will even manipulate healthy cultural norms of behavior by attempting to normalize their insensitivity and callousness by declaring that empathy is weakness, that empathy is bad for our culture. Elon Musk said on the Joe Rogan show: “The fundamental weakness of Western civilization is empathy.” He went on to call empathy cultural suicide. This is akin to the pessimistic and cynical statement “No good deed goes unpunished.” In my opinion, it's a bit sick, and a very cold, lonely, and isolated place to live.
What does this have to do with Artificial Intelligence? AI is the mass, cultural equivalent of individual sociopathy. By its very name and structure, it is artificial. It mimics authentic intelligence by using algorithms to analyze and replicate intelligent language and emotions. It is a pretense based on the use of data taken from biased, dysfunctional, cultural sources; data stolen without permission from the humans who used their authentic or sociopathic intelligence to create. AI ‘learns’ to imitate intelligent and, at times, empathetic language. But it is artificial. Do we want to develop and expand intelligence that is artificial (fake) intelligence? Do we want to speak, write, create, and make decisions, sometimes life or death decisions, psychological health decisions, based on an artificial, imitative intelligence? Have we so lost touch with our inherent intelligence, creativity, empathy, compassion, and connection to the real world that we have chosen to give it over to computers via AI? I would have to say YES! Can AI, like any substitute for real experience, bring us back to reality, to interconnection with each other and the world we live on? Can AI restore our climate? Is AI reliable? NO. It is artificial, pretentious. It is the coded lie we have been creating, justifying, and defending since the beginning of the information age. The amazing, wonderful instant gratification and ability to ‘connect’ via computers and satellites has resulted in the greatest pandemic humans have ever faced: Mortal Isolation. We have never been more alienated from each other, personally and globally, than we are now. We have created artificial lives, promoted sociopathic behavior, dulled and condemned empathy and elected cowardly, sociopathic, narcissistic, even sadistic ‘leaders’ to chart our path and determine our cultural mores. We have surrendered our authentic lives to tech, adult adolescents, and wealthy dogmatic autocrats. Our intelligence has become artificial.
It’s not too late to save ourselves and our planet. We can still think for ourselves and honor our intelligence, feelings, and empathy. We can ask each other what needs to be done, not AI on our devices.
Please check the box: “I am not a robot”
No comments:
Post a Comment