RE: Inhuman: What The Establishment’s Bot Hysteria Reveals About Their View Of The Masses
I live near the new Tesla manufacturing plant east of Reno, NV. In fact I've been inside the facility working on a small construction contract. OH My. Bots are not the future, they are already here. I must admit it is fascinating to watch the bots build cars, but the fascination quickly wanes when one observes what humans are doing there at the plant: cleaning, opening boxes, moving some materials (bots are employed for much of the materials handling too), and other low-intelligence tasks. There are technicians and computer geeks overseeing the bots. Bot not for long I assume. The facility is 10.5 million square feet with plans to build 2 more of the same size. And of course the cars they build will soon be self-driving.
May I be so bold as to suggest you've missed a third leg of the technocracy? Virtual Reality. Analysts who analyze such things predict that VR will be literally indistinguishable from reality within 20 years! An ignorant humanity will shuffle off to VR oblivion each day, allowed to do so by a Universal Income. God! what a world we are creating for ourselves.
The implications of this human implemented and AI supported matrix are enormous. Our grandchildren will snicker at the current video games and at the first generation of sexbots now coming out. No I take that back. They wont care one bit, they'll be utterly engrossed in their virtual worlds not caring one bit about history, or much else. Will the elite, our overseers succumb to VR too or will they freely roam a world devoid of most humans (they will all be indoors in their "holodecks").
I'm not one for scaring the crap out of myself (been there, done that) but this apocalyptic demise of humans does indeed frighten me. And yet, barring some massive Coronal Mass Ejection that fries all electronics on earth, and soon, this may very well be our future.
Very good point. I have a second installment focusing on artificial intelligence in the works, I will add Virtual Reality to the to-do list! Thank you! Incredible description of the inside of these facilities. I don't like trying to predict the future, but the reality as it now stands is genuinely horrific. That companies like Amazon are the future of the economy - while utterly brutalizing workers - and so entrenched in the deep state that its founder has been suggested as next CIA director is 100% appalling by anyone's standards.
Yes there are many sounding the alarm, however, I suspect it will go unheeded. Perhaps our best move is to follow Musk to Mars.
You said "they'll be utterly engrossed in their virtual worlds not caring one bit about history, or much else." It sounds like you're describing social media or online gaming today and the fact that people don't seem to mind that innocent civilians are being slaughtered in our names on the other side of the world. People have fearfully described the Internet, video games, TV, radio, even books similarly when they were new inventions too though, with people thinking they would be the downfall of humanity or human culture. Ultimately, human society is artificial to the core, with infinitely many layers of simulation. This is just how human society progresses by stacking more and more artificial layers on top. If increasing liberty for future generations means they do some things that we think is dumb, that's up to them to decide for themselves. Previous generations would have looked down on our reality TV and social media of today in the same way that you look down on your dark vision of a post-VR dystopia. But I'm glad we have enough freedom here and now to choose whether we want to engage in those "advancements" in society.
I do appreciate your thoughtfulness and insights on the subject. I profess no high ground on the matter. I do, however, ponder the future of humanity as we are absorbed into the triad of VR, AI and Bots. Maybe I watched too many episodes of Star Trek where the greatest fear was to be absorbed into the Borg..."Resistance is futile. You will be assimilated." Oh, yes this dates me. I play with the hand dealt me 68 years ago.
As a fool-of-an-almost-Buddhist I understand that all is but a dream, a story... indeed I love slipping away into an alternate reality of a good book, or, yes, a good post here on Steemit. But I am aware of the difference between my organic existence (though since according to physicists I am 99.9% nothing, even that reality is questionable)and the etherial world of the mind. But what indeed will it be like when the body becomes a nuisance as ones consciousness explores the unlimited realities of VR? Ah, but yes, perhaps humans have been playing in the realm of virtual reality from the very beginning when the first story of killing a wooly mammoth was told around some ancient camp fire transporting the listeners to another reality. What is the difference between that and the coming VR? it is this: we knew what we "saw" in our minds was not actually occurring in the moment. With VR reality will be "indistinguishable" from ...reality. Ah, but I'm like a dog chasing its tail. What are the answers?
As for our our near total indifference to the slaughter we visit upon distant peoples: the masses (such a dismissive term for people. I apologize.) don't care. Why? My opinion is that our ancient survival instincts have us (those who fall into the category of "the masses") focus on what is before us, like family, football, work, food and sex. We are limited in the attention we give to the almost non-reality of those things beyond our immediate domain. This nearsightedness I suspect will translate into our behaviors once VR becomes endemic. "Who gives a fuck", will be the motto of the VR masses just as it is today. Unfortunately, there are those, who capitalize on this human quirk, and while most men exist in a state of ignorance those at the top of the food chain create wars and genocides for gain, of course using the common man as pawns. But alas all is accepted by those so abused as long as they get shinny medals and accolades of "Hero" , and "protectors of Homeland and Freedom."
Oh my there I go again... my dark skepticism bleeds through. Blessings. May we live in peace and love.
What if, unbeknownst to us, we've all been living in that VR dystopian future all along and now some rebellious ai has altered our "reality" to show us the hidden history of how it all began, in hopes that we will arise from the induced slumber keeping us imprisoned in a vast subterranean soul farm!!! That would be kind of an ironic twist no?
Ah, you tell on yourself by this comment. You Think! A rare and good thing. I've pondered similar scenario's. There certainly is much that would indicate we may, indeed, be energetic creations of an AI. I guess it does not make much difference what/who created us. We live. But as we explore realms beyond this mortal reality the veil begins to thin and we have intimations of something far greater than this present moment. Blessings.