…which are fully programmed, with updates downloaded as required. Yes, they appear as human beings, but don’t be fooled.
A very good discussion between Jonathan Pageau and Paul Kingsnorth, with the title “Civilization and Control.” In it, they discuss the dystopia of our age and the complete transparency of this over the last two years.
I left the following comment:
Two aspects of our last two years are most stunning…and frightening. First, how easily almost all of humanity could be moved to give up every aspect of life that affords meaning. Second, how easily and quickly one narrative can be disappeared and exchanged for another, with almost all of humanity making the switch as if the earlier narrative never existed.
Overlaying this, society went from total fear of a non-event that threatened almost no one to total motivation to bring on an existential event that will destroy the world.
In other words, we are already machines, responding to commands. Automatons. It isn’t the robot dog that is frightening. We are faced with robots occupying what we would have previously described as human beings.
The video is about 80 minutes long. It is worth a watch.
"Two aspects of our last two years are most stunning…and frightening. First, how easily almost all of humanity could be moved to give up every aspect of life that affords meaning. Second, how easily and quickly one narrative can be disappeared and exchanged for another, with almost all of humanity making the switch as if the earlier narrative never existed."
ReplyDeleteAnd there are additional aspects about each that are also stunning and frightening. First, that people still claim to value freedom, except Howard (F#@& Your Freedom) Stern who has always seemed honest, if nothing else. And second, that this happens even though polls show very low confidence in the mainstream media.
Reminds me of the Hitchhikers' Guide to the Galaxy when the main character, Arthur Dent, complained about the prospect of having having his brain replaced with an electronic one. He was told that it would be a simple matter and that if the new brain was capable of expressing, "what?" and "where's the tea?" that no one would notice the difference. After saying "what?" Arthur protested that HE would notice the difference. He was then assured that he wouldn't, because he'd be programmed no to.
Christ is risen! Happy Easter to all!
ReplyDeletePatrick
I think I like the term "NPC" better (a non-player character in a video game). An algorithm-driven entity in the game world, made to superficially resemble an individual, in order to create a Potemkin village effect, helping the player feel like the world has substance.
ReplyDeleteIt's not an entirely fair comparison, though. Many NPCs respond to input in a logical and reasonable manner, more than can be said of many Covid/Ukraine drones.
"It's not an entirely fair comparison, though. Many NPCs respond to input in a logical and reasonable manner, more than can be said of many Covid/Ukraine drones."
DeleteMerely demonstrating the shortcomings of artificial UN-intelligence.
I'm watching this series on HBO Max called 'Raised by Wolves' by Ridley Scott. Being a Ridley Scott fan (Alien, Gladiator, Bladerunner, etc.), at least somewhat, I thought I would give it a try, but the first episode was so off-putting (with kids and people dying at the hands of a self-righteous girl-boss AI), I almost gave up on it entirely. I ended up giving it a second chance and have watched it through its second season. I'm still not sure if it was a good decision. Anyway, it has some interesting quasi-Biblical symbolism going on that I wanted to try to understand and guess at where they were taking this series.
ReplyDeleteThe basic premise of the show is that there was a big war on Earth between the atheists and the Mithraic (a fictitious religious community with shades of Christianity written in) that got so bad the earth was ruined. Both groups were forced to venture out into the stars for sanctuary and each happened to choose the same planet to colonize. As you can guess when they get to the new planet the same conflict is stirred up again. Atheists are more or less portrayed as the good guys, but there is a bit of surprising and welcome nuance to this as the episodes progress. On reflection, it seems the show tried awful hard to make sure there was no good or bad side, just a complex and ever shifting muddle of right and wrong actions committed by members of each group.
The first group to arrive is comprised of two AIs, Mother and Father (white female and black male, with the female being the dominant one, obviously), and some embryonic humans tasked with raising humanity from the ashes to be irreligious and hence peaceful and rational... They raise up some kids from embryos (or clusters of cells) and through their own incompetence in the first episode allow 5 of the 6 to die in various ways, but mostly due to illness. The second group are the religious community whose scouts pick a war with the two AIs in order to save the last remaining kid from them. Turns out the female AI is a repurposed destroyer bot that can kill anything with sonic blasts and can fly around like a metallic angel of death (Terminator meets Marvel's Shriek). She ends up killing nearly the whole Mithraic community by crashing their ship, but not before kidnapping a few more kids to try her hand at mothering again.
I'm getting to the point I promise. At a lull in the conflict, when it seems the atheists are completely triumphant, the male AI finds a hobby trying to bring an ancient AI skeleton back to life that he found. This AI eventually awakes and has a sinister plan for humanity, and it becomes apparent she has already carried out this plan at least once before. Previously, the humans had been attacked in various biomes by quasi-humanoid monstrous creatures. Well it turns out that this ancient AI had colonized with other humans on this planet before, and her AI solution for getting them to live and thrive on the new harsh planet was to de-evolve them on purpose to mere animals adapted to the different biomes.
The idea that AIs would de-evolve humanity in order to save it is an interesting one. "I Robot" touches on this and so does "2001: A Space Odyssey". In the former, the AIs try to establish a totalitarian government in order to save humanity from itself, but in permanently taking away their freedom it would also render them less than human. In Kubric's film, humanity must unplug the AI in order to take the next leap in human evolution. Whichever way you slice it, those that wish to rule us, whether AI or not, want us to be a degraded form of ourselves, whether that means devolved, infantilized, or enslaved. They wish to strip us of our humanity for the sake of Humanity as a species. I guess that's my point, which I feel resonates with your statement that "we are faced with robots occupying what we would have previously described as human beings."
"They wish to strip us of our humanity for the sake of Humanity as a species."
DeleteBut that's the rub, isn't it. What, exactly, is the thing that has been saved? We can't call the resultant species human.
But the funniest part: "(white female and black male, with the female being the dominant one, obviously)"
No, most definitely NOT obviously. Which begrudged minority victim group gets to be on top? The question isn't so simple, and, gladly, it is one of the questions that is and will destroy the leftists.
Look at how confused they are when they can't figure out what to do with a man who swims as a woman. The woman swimmers say "I'm all for transgender rights and all...but...but..."
And they can't say what the "but" is.
In the Victim Olympics, female always trumps male, because although black men had to deal with slavery for a few hundred years, women have been enslaved by the patriarchy for all of recorded time... But yeah you're right, the various letters of the 'betabet' (instead of alphabet) will eat each other in their contest of grievances and needs for inclusion and representation.
Delete"Look at how confused they are when they can't figure out what to do with a man who swims as a woman."
Well what did they expect enterprising young males would do when 'The Message' told them that the "future is female." Lol
A scheme for the patriarchy to dominate women's sports! I think that's hilarious. Might even be true!
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