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by elmomle 56 days ago
The sad thing that I haven't been able to resolve in my mind is that this is a cultural multi-party prisoners' dilemma among sovereign entities.

From a power-centric point of view, if my neighbors intentionally cast off modern technology, they are ripe for domination, economic exploitation, etc. The history of human civilization from the age of city-states onward is about navigating the need for protection from hostile, arrogating outside forces (and/or being one of those hostile forces).
2 comments
pocksuppet 54 days ago
The only navigable path is to gain power in any way you can, and then once you have it, use that power for good. Despite being the most navigable, it's still a very treacherous path. And there's a risk for everyone else, if you take this path, you might end up worse than the last guy, and if that happens, someone else will have to repeat the process.

Be like Zohran Mamdani. Zohran only had to win an election where everyone hated the incumbent, which is one of the easiest ways to get power. His enemies are floundering now, they're trying to pin baseball losses on him because they've got nothing else. Most of us here, being nerdy technologists and not charismatic politicians, will have to do it by creating technology and learning the tricks of back-end sales, the way ZUckerberg or Page did.

Dictators win elections and then replace them with hereditary lines of succession. We don't have a word for kings who hold elections for their successors. Usually they only do so at knifepoint. Game theory - inter-agent power dynamics - is one of the strongest forces in the universe, almost as strong as entropy. Game theory is Cthulu, Moloch, SCP-3125, that thing from Homestuck that eats universes, and both God and Satan. But if we give up, we lose.

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aj_hackman 56 days ago
This doesn't account for the potential instability of modern technology. If you have an efficient electric range and your neighbors are still burning wood when the power goes out, you're in dutch. This is relevant to the AI discussion, as there is still a class of people doing things "the old way", and their skills might come in clutch for a society that's let itself atrophy in convenience.
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make3 55 days ago
no one pragmatic, realistic and grounded who uses the tools regularly thinks that "the death of AI" contingency is something worth planning your career around
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pocksuppet 55 days ago
Meaning that if AI dies I'll get rich and if AI doesn't die I'll die? I agree - that would be a stupid bet to take.

Or meaning that if AI dies I'll be one of the ones who knows how to do things? That's not so stupid.

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make3 54 days ago
this assumes you're not giving anything away by doing things the old way. but you're giving away AI competency, the ability to compete with your peers at your job etc.
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pocksuppet 53 days ago
The same AI competency that has to be relearned from scratch every 6 months?
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