The Culture of More and the “Dark Future of Artificial Intelligence (AI)”
by Jeffrey Imm, Responsible for Equality And Liberty (R.E.A.L.)
On Earth, the boundaries of those seeking what they consider to be “progress” are limited by basic foundations of Earth-based life: gravity, the 24-hour day, and physical and mental humanity of human beings. These foundations of human existence, which can and should be a celebration of shared reality and humanity, are considered frustrating “pain points” of those who chart what they consider to be “progress” on an electronic spreadsheet and graphic that seeks to endlessly fulfill a “Culture of More” that has no horizon point, no vision for fulfillment, no end, and no standards… simply an infinite, merciless, inhuman march beyond time, space, reality, and humanity to an infinite “More” – of everything and all the time.
The captains of the Culture of More constantly decry the shared reality of humanity on Earth, rather than recognize and respect our common bonds, they demand that we snap these bonds as “chains” on our humanity. They demand that we must become more than human. They demand that physics and time themselves must be beaten and shaped into malleable tools that they can wield for the inhuman drive for the Culture of More over all other priorities. To the captains of the Culture of More, there is no other meaningful goal in life itself other than… More.
The concepts and arguments on other aspects of life: companionship, contemplation, laughter, joy, comfort, respect, freedom, dignity, mercy, our shared enjoyment of a limited life, and even peace – these are all nothing more than chunks of coal to the captains of the Culture of More – to be used as fuel and tossed into a raging fire of what they consider “progress” towards the endless and infinite worship of the Culture of More. What human beings have sought, debated, honored, and wondered wistfully about over the eons of time are to be considered as nothing more as rough bricks to be shaped and hewn into building an endless highway winding into infinity as an religious altar and the only possible goal that humanity should seek — of MORE.
The context of this global dystopia of the captains of the Culture of More rising against humanity and human existence itself is ignored. The Culture of More has become so all-pervasive, so all-consuming, so total in its cruel grip around the throat of human existence, much of humanity no longer questions it. The Culture of More has become “normal” as its atomic-level obliteration of normal boundaries of humanity and physical/mental/moral/ethical gravity. After all, who could even consider questioning the Culture of More? Even those who recognize the devastating tide of the Culture of More’s damage to humanity is caught in its merciless grip. As they desperately try to grab onto what is left of our shared humanity, tide after tide after tide of ceaseless waves of the Culture of More batters against them, rending them, knocking them, and shredding the realities that they desperately try to cling to in a common human life and existence. When they do respond, if ever, the captains of the Culture of More sneeringly respond, “Isn’t life itself only a pursuit of more?” ignoring every other aspect of a common human life and existence in their mad pursuit of the unachievable and sacrificing everything and everyone for a cause with no real purpose other than MORE.
The captains of the Culture of More would consider those calls to recognize the unbelievable damage being done to humanity as the whining of losers and the weak, those who are fundamentally “flawed” to fit the holy mission of MORE that must replace the frail and pitiful aspects of what we once considered human life, culture, gravity, and even time itself. Calls to reconsider the destructive path of the Culture of More are mere whispers. Such calls are barely audible, and only if one could stop long enough to look and listen carefully. Such calls are readily swept away in the gale storms that the captains of the Culture of More relish as cleansing storms to rid our lives from inconvenient humanity and gravity that once bound us together and gave us a common purpose – to now be replaced by the only imperative as a Culture of More.
Amidst the storms of change, the campaigns for the Culture of More look for topics of misdirection to distract people from asking questions about their vision which must be accepted without question or defiance. For example, those permitted to write and define what the “news” and “issues” have been allowed pundit privileges on a different, less-challenging topic: “the Dark Future of Artificial Intelligence (AI).”
The permitted pundits are allowed platforms to speak in the artificial reality where only those voices of the privileged matter that we are told is “freedom” by the captains of the Culture of More. They use their punditry to warn us of the terrible dark AI machines, as if these exist in some vacuum of reality. They state we need to be vigilant about and question the “dangerous” AI machines as the real challenge, as some AI machines may be developed with the ability to “think” “without adequate safeguards,” and which may gain the ability to think for themselves. How dangerous. The idea that anyone or anything could think for themselves could be such a threat to the Culture of More.
While they offer the distraction about AI machines, the permitted pundits are being given a more important message that “uncontrolled thinking is BAD.” And even if their human audience doesn’t quite get the real message at first, the millions of sales messages about the “evil of thinking” will assist to help to tap down any resistance to the Culture of More, while it provides a convenient scapegoat in AI machines – completely incapable of defending their creation/existence – all during the goal of endless changes to society for the sake of the Culture of More. Teaching the masses about bad machines that could “think!” also gives captains of the Culture of More a useful narrative to more readily circumscribe dangerous ideas about thinking at all.
So, the permitted pundits are instructed to tell us what to think about AI machines as a distraction from all the disastrous impacts on our world by the Culture of More around us, and we are told to live in fear of AI machines that may gain the power to think. Because to the captains of the Culture of More, there is no greater threat and no greater “sin” against humanity than the right of “uncontrolled thinking”- by anyone or anything. The Culture of More demands that we must be automatons in lockstep slaving without question for the goal of More above all.
At the same time, the permitted pundits are given no opportunity to opine on who and what the bad “AI machines” are, who create them, what they really do, etc. Because they are not really permitted THAT much freedom of expression; that would lead to inconvenient questions that challenge where the Culture of More is taking our humanity.
And the permitted pundits are not allowed to address mirrors in what is left of our humanity, strip-mined down for the Culture of More, because mirrors would ask inconvenient questions. We cannot really discuss who and what the “AI machines” truly are, because then we would have to ask who and what is creating them and why. Most dangerously, if we discuss mirrors of the AI machines to our society, this could lead to the dangerous reflection that WE have become truly threatening machines to one another.
Humanity as Machinery is not really a permitted pundit topic, and perhaps the grieving heart of humanity might finally break, if the true magnitude of the efforts to change our humanity was fully understood. The captains of the Culture of More cannot have any wasted time in human grieving to take away from the imperative of building the infinite highway for the Culture of More. Get back to work, slacker human.
But if we could think and if the unforgivable crime of freedom of thought and speech was respected, not merely a threat to what the powers call “security,” we might ask the question: “who exactly is building such so-called dangerous artificial intelligence machines and for what purpose?” The answer is blindingly obvious to those who see the threat of the Culture of More to human existence. Along sacrifices of human society on the altar of More, many of such AI machines are built by the same captains of the Culture of More that seek to drive us in their mania towards a humanity without human beings, without human and Earthly gravity, without any of the boundaries in their goal to the unachievable. Because only more machines can get us “there” — a place of “More” that only exists in the fevered imaginations of the captains of the Culture of More, since clearly weak and whining human machines are not up to their holy task of seeking an infinity of More without end.
But the “dark age” of the AI machines themselves are a distraction from the Culture of More, in the same level of an argument of a dark age of machines that “do things for us”: automobiles, airplanes, ovens, fans, telephones, typewriters, or any of the other tools over eons. Like any tool, they can be used for good or bad purposes. In the dark words of warning, the permitted pundits caution but these machines might be able… horrors… “think!” And to a Culture of More, unpermitted thinking is a very dangerous thing – and not just for the human machines. The captains of the Culture of More may want to use tools to expand beyond human capability, but they want to keep any independent thinking under control to deny any ability to question their “holy” mission of More above ALL.
So why are the permitted pundits given the right to question the AI machines? The captains of the Culture of More know that human beings need a distraction from gales of change that batter our lives and our very humanity. They give the weak humans something to watch out the window, while the captains of the Culture of More are sailing the ship of humanity beyond the falls, the waves, and plummeting human life deep into the ocean of uncharted waters where they seek the dissolution of what human life once meant. The captains of the Culture of More believe in letting the worker machines rail against the electronic machines; it will keep them occupied, and even more importantly discussion of the AI machine will help prepare them for the future that a Culture of More must demand. That is a future where human beings are replaced in their insane electronic world with avatars of ourselves, then simply avatars of intelligent thought itself (as we are considered so expendable with human thought). Creating avatar symbols of what humanity once was makes sense only to those who have removed themselves so far from daily and normal human life, that they believe actual physical life is an inconvenience and an inefficiency to their endless Culture of More.
While giving the human machines a topic to debate and complain about, it will keep them from asking inconvenient questions about how both AI machines and human machines are being used for the larger Culture of More. The captains of the Culture of More want no questions about who and why some AI machines are being created, programmed, and their goals, because the Culture of More ultimately demands more than human intelligence. Instead of permitting such challenging questions, it is easier to use permitted pundits to challenge individual AI machines and/or programmers, or even the “sin” of such halting intelligence and awareness being breathed into electronic devices. Because if society has a distraction from the larger issues, questions about the changes in our society can be readily laden onto AI machine scapegoats that have no ability to defend themselves.
Because it makes no difference anyways to the captains of the Culture of More, who will take AI machines and other endless machines, along with every part of human existence as merely more fuel for the endless flaming pyre engine of the Culture of More above all. In the end, the only authority that matters to them is the complete and total supplication to the Culture of More.
To preserve our humanity, we need to preserve both thought and intelligence, which are under aggressive attack. Thought is not a crime. Intelligence is not merely human. Human beings can respect all intelligence without fear and respect our humanity, while respecting human intelligence as unique. If we fear thought, we fear intelligence, then we fear life itself. The captains of the Culture of More want their human machines to live in fear, dependent on only the guidance that they will give, as they strip mine human lives and souls. But we are not the machines they seek. We are Human Beings. We have the power to think for ourselves and the ability to welcome intelligence that respects our actual lives as human beings, something that the captains of the Culture of More will never do in their unbalanced quest to reject our shared humanity. We can respect our humanity. We can declare: I Am A Human Being.
