Thread
Every few years humans have gone beyond their limits and scared themselves.
Fire, The atomic bomb, Genetic Engineering, now AI.
We can stand still and live a meaningless existence at the humanity level, or move forward taking risks.
Giving humanity meaning, can jeopardise the meaning individual humans give themselves.
The needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few, to quote Star Trek.
Of course, Star Trek reversed that.
Replies (3)
But the reality is that "the interests of the minority are always above the interests of the majority."
> Giving humanity meaning, can jeopardise the meaning individual humans give themselves.
I struggle to see what the meaning is that we're supposedly giving humanity by technological progress. I'm not talking about AI only here, but all forms of technical progress.
I don't think there's a meaning here other than higher levels of "complexification", as Terence McKenna would say: the universe seems to be an engine of novelty creation and preservation. As time goes by, more things happen and at a faster pace. This seems undeniable, yet why would it be meaningful? The same McKenna also stated many time that history is an absolute nightmare.
Just some thoughts on the spot!
''No good deed goes unpunished'' but the punishment for a meaningless life is life itself.
