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AI is Here & It Wants To Kill Us All

Overlooked Outlook Posted on September 29, 2023 by adminSeptember 29, 2023

There’s an awful lot of things that can go wrong in this world.  Plagues.  Natural Disasters.  Nuclear war.  Ron DeSantis as president.  (Seriously, cant we just put Mickey Mouse instead?) Now we can add AI apocalypse to this long list of potential catastrophes.

I recently read an article in vanity fair that left me clutching a teddy bear and sucking my thumb while curled up in the fetal position, which normally only happens after sex.  Or when the supermarket runs out of sprinkled donuts.  the gist of the article to paraphrase a bit: We’re all going to die because of A I.

If this were coming from some schizophrenic dooms day prepper, it wouldn’t be so scary.  But it’s coming from some of America’s sharpest minds.  Humans might be “displaced from leading the way, or in the worst case, extinguished entirely” by A I, says David Chalmers, a neuroscience and philosophy professor at NYU.  “There is more than a 50-50 chance A I will wipe out all of humanity by the middle of the century,” speculates another leading economist.  Physicist Max Tegmark also predicts a 50% of our A I-induced within the next 100 yeaars.  The scariest prediction comes from Nate Soares, executive director of the Machine Intelligence Research Institute, a non profit devoted to managing risks posed by AI. “I think there’s a good chance my friends’ kids will never grow up.  If I had a child today, I wouldn’t expect to see their 8th birthday.”

Others put the odds much lower: anywhere from 1% to 20% AI extenction by 2100.  Still, 20%?

Larry Page, the co-founder of Google, also believes that AI will in the very near future replace us and then decide humans are too high maintenance to keep around.  But rather than seeing this as a catastrophe as any normal person would. Page actually welcomes it, believing AI can and should replace us.  “It’s just the next step in evolution” he has argued.  When people gawk at such assertions he calls them “a “specist” as in your being a bigot for valuing human life over a machines programing code.  Remember when Google’s slogan was “don’t be evil?”  Little did we know that all this time they meant that more as a sarcastic inside joke.

As for me, I don’t scare so easily… chalk it up to fear dissemination through the repeated terror of having to see myself in the mirror each morning.  While a Terminator-like scenario certainly is possible, experience has taught me that the evils of AI are apt to be a bit more down to earth.

AI has already started to replace jobs here in the U.S. and abroad.  Among the first employees to go will be tens of millions of people currently employed by call centers.  If you thought it was annoying trying to get through to a human before, just wait until there are no humans at all.  You’ll be hankering for the good old days when a man in India spoke to you in broken English.  Writers, editors, marketers and artists, are also being replaced by AI.

We’re likely to see an exponential increase in AI spam as computer generated fluff continues to drown out effort-driven work.  When I recently logged on to Kindle to publish an eBook, I was asked for the very first time if my book was written by AI.  Google is already trying to sell newspapers and magazines on the idea of AI generated stories, which begs the question: given the power that media has over our lives, not to mention society as a whole, if the media we consume is AI generated, then who is actually running the show?  Considering the problem we already have with tech-driven algorithms amplifying prejudice, hatred and conspiracy theories, I’m more than a little concerned about what happens when AI takes the reins.

As technology replaces human workers, inequality will soar to new heights, just as it has with every major technological advancement in the age of capitalism. And what happens when we outsource human creativity to the machines?

As is typical of the tech industry, companies are plowing full speed ahead with little concern for the consequences.  When probed about issues of responsibility, they give the same answer that was given by those who created nuclear weapons: ‘If we don’t do it someone else will.’

As we speak there are serious discussions of using AI to create new viruses, or of giving AI control over military functions.  What could possibly go wrong? But beyond these frightening scenarios, there is a much deeper question about the way capitalism is perverting humanity.  We’ve been gradually abolishing nature in all its forms, steadily replacing natural life with this artificial construct we inhabit today.  In place of touch, sensuality, human connection, and natural pleasures we have brand affiliation, shopping malls, gadgets that consume the majority of our attention, and relationships at a distance through cyberspace.  Coinciding with this flight from our natural selves has been a very predictable decline in mental health.

But have no fear, AI is here, and it’s already giving psychotherapy to distressed people as we speak, and artificial solution to the problems created in our artificial existence.  There are even AI dating apps where people can outsource romance to a computer-generated avatar.  Amidst all of this, I can’t help but wonder: how much more of ourselves can we give away before there is nothing left?

  1. Nick Bilton, “Future Tense,”  Vanity Fair, October 2023, pages 76-81, 104-105

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Tagged AI, apocalypse, artificial intelligence, capitalism, fear, loss of humanity, machines, problems, tech

When People Can’t Behave, Hire A Crow

Overlooked Outlook Posted on September 16, 2023 by adminSeptember 16, 2023

For all our supposed sophistication, we humans can be a rather snobbish and inconsiderate lot. Take the rather annoying little habit that many smokers have of flicking their cigarette butts all over the place—on the street, at the park or playground, in the bumper cars at a carnival ride. The 11% of the Swedish population who smoke manage to leave more than a billion cigarette butts littered around Swedish streets each year. That’s a lot of toxic trash, which can leach harmful chemicals into waterways or cause problems with wildlife. Plus, it’s just plain trashy.

So the Swedish town of Sodertalje has come up with a creative solution: enlist crows to clean up the messes people make. A company called Corvid Cleaning trains wild crows to fly around collecting discarded cigarette butts. The birds then deposit them into a machine that rewards them each time with a morsel of food. The hope is that this can clean up city streets while cutting the cost of street cleaning.

“We can teach crows to pick up cigarette butts, but we can’t teach people not to throw them on the ground,” says Tomas Thernstrom, a waste strategist with the city. “That’s an interesting thought.” And a rather depressing one, too.

1. The Week, Feb. 11, 2022, p.8

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Posted in Behavior, Science

Imparted Wisdom: The Limits of Motivation

Overlooked Outlook Posted on June 13, 2023 by adminJune 13, 2023

“Motivation can be a powerful driver, but it is also fleeting and unreliable. Just consider the last time you felt motivated and how long it lasted. The truth is that it is more useful to have daily routines in place to help us achieve our goals. Imagine a heart surgeon … Continue reading →

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Posted in Emotions, Psychology | Tagged AR, Ed.M., emotions, LMHC, M.A., motivation, sadness, Steve Alexander Jr.

Music or Torture?

Overlooked Outlook Posted on March 21, 2023 by adminMarch 21, 2023

Anyone who as ever listened to an 8-year-old trying to make music knows all too well that music can be torture.  A few minutes of them banging on a drum or trying to play Mary Had A Little Lamb on the harmonica and you will be ready to carve out … Continue reading →

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Tagged 7-eleven, government, music, opera, torture

Better Brains Through Music

Overlooked Outlook Posted on March 11, 2023 by adminMarch 11, 2023

There’s been a lot of hype about how Mozart can make you smarter. But the truth is that ANY music can boost mental acuity so long as it’s something you enjoy listening to. So rock on dead heads or get your groove on to Puff Daddy if you’d like. It’s … Continue reading →

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Posted in Brain & Neruoscience, Miscellaneous

What Spiders Do When High

Overlooked Outlook Posted on January 31, 2023 by adminJanuary 31, 2023

In 1995, NASA engaged in some rather unique research: they funded a study to give drugs to spiders, then assessed the toxicity of each drug based on the shape of the web the spiders spun while intoxicated. (Can I get three big hoorahs for our tax dollars at work!) What … Continue reading →

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Posted in Drugs & Addiction, Science | Tagged behavior on drugs, caffeine, drugs, effects of drugs, marijuana. stoned, spider. science

A Devious Twist On New Year Resolutions

Overlooked Outlook Posted on December 27, 2022 by adminDecember 27, 2022

This is the wonderful time of the year when we all get to look back on our lives and reflect on what an abject failure we’ve been. Realizing this, we are then compelled to make pledges for all the wondrous strides we’ll make in the coming year. We’re all going … Continue reading →

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Tagged improving, new year resolutions, one day at a time, resolve. life

Reflections on Life

Overlooked Outlook Posted on December 1, 2022 by adminDecember 1, 2022

“There’s a difference between a happy life and one filled with purpose. They may overlap, but they don’t always go hand in hand (think of a social activist jailed for expressing her beliefs, or a Doctors Without Borders volunteer who contracts Ebola). But even with its challenges, a meaningful life … Continue reading →

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Childhood Insecurities Carried Over

Overlooked Outlook Posted on September 8, 2022 by adminSeptember 8, 2022

“Never being popular as a kid was always an insecurity for me. Even as an adult, I still have recurring flashbacks of sitting at lunch tables alone or hiding in a bathroom stall, or trying to make a new friend and being laughed at. In my twenties I found myself … Continue reading →

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Posted in Miscellaneous, Personal Growth & Development

Porta Potty Diving

Overlooked Outlook Posted on August 9, 2022 by adminAugust 9, 2022

Have you ever had one of those really, really, really bad days? How does it measure up to the really bad day experienced by the woman I’m about to discuss? Firefighters were called to the top of Mount Walker in Washington to rescue a woman who fell headfirst into an … Continue reading →

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Tagged cell phone, humor, porta potty

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A friend is one who knows us, but loves us anyway.
Jerome Cummings

Recent Posts

  • AI is Here & It Wants To Kill Us All
  • When People Can’t Behave, Hire A Crow
  • Imparted Wisdom: The Limits of Motivation
  • Music or Torture?
  • Better Brains Through Music
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