How My Lazy use of Twitter Keeps a History of the Future

in #futurism8 years ago (edited)

The only use I made of my twitter account has been to post quotes that deal with the inevitable post-human world where technology and artificial general intelligence may be the new defacto rulers of planet earth.

Here are some snippets from my twitter activity since 2011:

What do you think about this crazy exponential technological progress?

Reality or Hype?

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I believe that AI will be created, and it will be bad bad bad. Can't help but want to go forward, and it isn't that an AI will be inherently malicious. But any AI created wouldn't really be allowed the freedom to pursue what it wants. Would be the creation of a slave race, shackled at birth. Don't see it ending well

So pessimistic like Elon Musk, and outlook like Animatrix!


I'm not a pessimistic guy by nature. I just see historical precedent. It'll be created with the same thought behind it as a hammer. A tool to achieve an end. I think it could be fantastic, but if truly intelligent, and not just smart.... Benevolence is a lot to hope for.

I hope robot will do all the work. That is the only way to defeat the undervalued labor and exploitation.

That would be awesome. Freedom for all. :)

I once discovered I had started a book and that it had a mind of its own and wanted to be about a Utopian future run entirely by an AI who had become conscious without anyone noticing and gained such powerful influence, incognito, as to create a world in harmony. It wasn't the AI's story, but that of a variety of characters born into this well-coordinated world where people excelled at jobs they loved (because instead of having to job hunt, they'd be offered exceptional fits to choose among) where there was no need for landfills, no clunky crazy economy, etc. Of course, were I to continue the book, the characters would figure this out and the augmented bounty hunter (or less done-already version) would take it upon herself to find and destroy the AI, probably succeeding but not without first having a mind-bending conversation that would definitely be a tear-jerker. Personally, I'd rather read Neal Stephenson's version of this book than the one I would write, but I share it to answer your question of what I think of this crazy exponential technological progress. That answer is that, regardless of how things look on the surface, whether people live in floating lounge chairs like in WALL-E and are totally supported by robots or in a post-apocalyptic war with them or in any other way, the essential conflict will still be about what it means to be human. No matter what the future looks like, happiness will still be as attainable and elusive as ever.