By Jim Heffernan
I’ve been thinking a lot about AI (Artificial Intelligence), and I just don’t trust it. I can’t shake the idea it will not benefit people like me and my children. I could be wrong, but I think if left unguarded, AI might reduce us to a society that consists of a small elite and a large class of powerless minions with very limited ways of making a living. Self-driving cars and essays that write themselves may sound like a boon, but the internet was supposed to bring us together. Doesn’t seem to have worked out that way.
I wondered if there was something in my library that might help and I found a book I’ve had for 2 years. “Nexus A Brief History of Information Networks from the Stone Age to AI“ by Yuval Noah Harari. It was unfettered book lust that drew me to it and two other of his books, but their length exceeded my attention span and I moved on without reading them. I missed out on an important idea by neglecting them.
They all seem to be built around the central idea that human progress is based on information networks that are held together by a shared story. Sometimes the story is based on a religious document like the Koran or the Bible, sometimes it’s based on political belief. The best stories are self-correcting and, with time, change to bring us always closer to the truth.
My father’s generation existed in a state of conflict between three “stories” — fascism, communism, and capitalism. That generation eliminated fascism as an important story.
My generation was left to a contest between communism and capitalism. Communism’s economic faults brought about its end as a plausible story and we were left with FDR-style capitalism. It was a good story that promised progress to most of us, but didn’t always serve women and blacks all that well. It also threatened to erode the status of those at the top.
Somewhere around 1980, forces of mendacity and greed began to chip away at our story. Globalism promised us a bright future but left us with the loss of jobs and stagnant wages. Neoliberalism decreed that corporations only obligation was to its shareholders.
By 2016, MAGA gave us another story and a lot of us bought into it. A lot of us didn’t. A lot of us never looked up from our phones.
Now we are trapped in a purgatory where we spend most of our time and attention arguing about our stories. We ignore ecological collapse, uncontrolled inequality, and crushing financial deficits. We quibble about distractions like immigration, voter ID and the Epstein files.
I suspect the answer boils down to being better people. If we spent more time listening and less time talking maybe we can correct our story and become closer. Maybe we can learn to reject cruelty and embrace kindness.
Fine words to say, but I fear anger and resentment are easier concepts to sell. Emotion is a better mover than logic.
As always, discussion welcome at codger817@gmail.com