Nice article man. My only question is what if it's our only chance to compete with AI? I do realize that most companies that offer the brain-computer interface will exploit it.
However, if AI does spring into existence in a meaningful way that creates a competition that we simply cannot compete with without enhancements. In that case, we might be up against a wall and forced to evolve or get left behind. I might be playing devils advocate because I do have very mixed feelings on the subject.
E.g. I'm a strong advocate of technology and computers yet I hate the way that Windows 10 and smartphones have used it to mine our data for all that we are worth. Hell, even all of your posts on the blockchain could be harvested by AI to create an artificial you without your permission. It's very complex territory, I'm not so sure that it is as simple as black and white.
I think if the singularity comes and it will if we don't nuke ourselves first we have to consider things on a case by case basis and not throw the baby out with the bath water. I think it's a well known maxim that technology primitive or otherwise is a double edged sword and if the good guys don't keep up with it then the bad guys will prevail.
What say you, is there room for a middle ground? Or, how will the future human race have a chance to compete if the tools the dark side is using are verboten?
Sorry I wrote most of the above before finishing your article. I see now that you also see the singularity as an inevitable factor. I think that our only hope is to use the tech for good as much as possible. Yet, if we can't shake the desire for free apps and operating services that provide them we'll be doomed to enhancing their capabilities against us.
Even on Steem, we're feeding them and all they need to do is harvest our thoughts and use it against us. It is no doubt, a very complex problem indeed.
The premise is that there is a need to compete. Alternative ways of life can be engaged in that provide mechanisms for survival. Not that it's easy. Feudalism, and other ways of living were changed not because it was the only way to compete, but because there were people who chose to do things differently by getting out of a purely survival based mindset and thinking within the construct provided by the mainstream current condition.
AI could work, but it's like nukes. Nukes are a horrible invention. They don't have a mind of their own. AI would. It could even used nukes against us inferior carbon based moral life forms.
I am always left with the question of why AI not under the control of human beings (that evolved in a competitive ecosystem) would be competitive with us. Controlled by people with malign intent, sure. But sentient and autonomous? Why would it view us as anything but amazing features of an amazing universe it wants to hang out in?
If it has a conscience capacity for moral inclusion, sure. But if it's just data, then it would seem to conclude in it's superiority over the flailing biological form ;) It depends on what it is actually. Humans have consciousness and we view others as lesser and enslave and murder them and eat them. it can view us as lesser as well.
No doubt, after the advent of AI people can choose to splinter outward, like Amish groups. Even today, if people wanted to they could choose to not use energy from the grid because it's based on nuclear power.
The reasons I mounted a 60 watt solar panel on my truck were more immediately compelling than opposition to nuclear power, although that is amongst them.
Power becomes free to me. I can take my electricity manufacturing plant wherever I go. I can't be cut off from power by the utility, government, or etc... These reasons were more relevant factors in turning my pickup truck into an electrical power generating plant, and better illustrate why the myriad technologies burgeoning today are going to be adopted by a lot of people.
That's awesome! : -)
I think that in time the desire to minimize expense for the tech we want to use will drive Open Source Hardware and personal manufacturing (3D printing) to make the capitalist manufacturing paradigm obsolete. As our ability to make stuff ourselves becomes available to more folks, less capital will be spent paying big companies to make it for us, because it will cost far less when we make our own.
There's always some people that want to be dependent, and they're not going to be the first adopters. As OSH and 3D printing continue to advance in capability, and reduce in cost, the downsides of being subject to Orwellian social control and paying for it will drive adoption by those that value their freedom - and their wealth - highly enough to take control themselves.
Hopefully, problem is big brothers tech is so high tech that they'll invest millions to infiltrate even the most obscure of technologies. In that way they can be alerted with red flags should anyone create something that endangers their ability to be "big brother."