My observation is the rate of innovation - acceleration I guess - has just been increasing uncontrollably, driven by technology and capital. Is anyone mindful of the risks? “Technologist” here, not a luddite at all.
Looking back 500 years or so, you can put your finger on some innovations that have changed the world positively - Enlightenment, printing press, steam/coal/etc power, assembly line etc. These have all had some unseen societal cost associated with them, where change propagates and feeds back leading to unknowable outcomes. We’ve gotten through it (well most of us).
Looking back just 50 years, computing, internet, globalization of trade, mass communication and media, social media/peer to peer, decentralization, and now AI; social mores have gone 180 degrees, social groups/religions that have persisted for centuries are falling away, hobbyists from across the globe can converge and share their interests with the rest of the world, and so can anarchists and bad actors. And if AGI happens, given we’ve trained it on 50 years of digitized “two feet on the accelerator pedal” innovating, I am not sure our civilization can take it. Or if anyone cares (besides a few anti accelerationists who are widely derided).
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My observation is the rate of innovation - acceleration I guess - has just been increasing uncontrollably, driven by technology and capital. Is anyone mindful of the risks? “Technologist” here, not a luddite at all.
Looking back 500 years or so, you can put your finger on some innovations that have changed the world positively - Enlightenment, printing press, steam/coal/etc power, assembly line etc. These have all had some unseen societal cost associated with them, where change propagates and feeds back leading to unknowable outcomes. We’ve gotten through it (well most of us). Looking back just 50 years, computing, internet, globalization of trade, mass communication and media, social media/peer to peer, decentralization, and now AI; social mores have gone 180 degrees, social groups/religions that have persisted for centuries are falling away, hobbyists from across the globe can converge and share their interests with the rest of the world, and so can anarchists and bad actors. And if AGI happens, given we’ve trained it on 50 years of digitized “two feet on the accelerator pedal” innovating, I am not sure our civilization can take it. Or if anyone cares (besides a few anti accelerationists who are widely derided).