The progression of technology has been relentless and has hastened the acceleration of its own progress. Whether or not artificial machine intelligence (AI) becomes technology’s ultimate expression, humanity already faces an unprecedented challenge. The intersection of politics and technology has created not only The Surveillance Society but increasingly supports a totalitarian architecture of social control.
Observe the ascendancy of Palantir, Google, Meta, and X (formerly Twitter) and their collaboration with governments around the world; revealed are the ways in which systems of exploitation and behavior modification are proliferating. The commodification of attention propels trillions of dollars into the hands of very few corporations, and those few have become their own Tech-based Nation State, with resources and power beyond that of any individual or single nation.
AI uses machine learning and what is termed Natural Language Processing within Digital Neural Networks that mimic the neural structure of the human brain to identify patterns, recommend outcomes, and modify social behavior. For AI, everything becomes language: memes, symbols, images, artifacts, slogans, slurs, poetry, art, music – the entirety of human culture. People, their history, activity, ideas and interactions become a data stream, and, in this way, individual lives are reduced to digital serfdom propping up the likes of Ubermensch Tech Evangelists like Peter Thiel. In a recent interview with conservative New York Times columnist Ross Douthat, Thiel clearly indicated that he holds a post-apocalyptic view of human society, calling the likes of environmentalist Greta Thunberg an Anti-Christ. He seeks immortality in a digital realm: Tech Heaven.
Elon Musk shares Thiel’s post-apocalyptic vision, slyly masking his own expectation that a failing humanity will have to abandon Earth behind a tech-elite optimism about colonizing the planet Mars. Techno-libertarians, with a sleight-of-hand sales pitch, don’t see a beginning, just the end.
Predicting the end of the world is a well-worn adventure; “Repent, The End is Near!” The Hopi Prophecies, generated by a culture perhaps 10,000 years old, call it The Great Purification. Hindus revere the God Kali, the destroyer of worlds. Christians look to the Bible for their apocalypse. Scientists now warn us of the impending Sixth Extinction. For the philosophically minded, being naturally engenders thoughts of non-being. We’re fascinated by the idea of eternity, even though “the eternal now” is, ironically, as close to eternity as any of us will get.
The Luddite movement developed during the Industrial Revolution, but it might as well have begun with the invention of the wheel. We are highly clever primates capable of great invention, but just because we can, should we? The answer is not simple.
Each technological innovation enhances a trait provided by a previous technology, making those previous innovations obsolete, while simultaneously retrieving their names and retaining echoes of their functions that ease our fears of change. The powerful minicomputers in our pockets are still called “phones.” Car brands are named after animals and are rated in “horsepower.” In addition, every new technological change produces a clamoring for the past, a movement towards reversal. Vinyl “records” are now collected as treasures and turntables have made a comeback.
In some sense, the Luddites understood these laws of technology. Their rebellion against industrialization and machinery was based on fear of dehumanization and lack of meaningful work, the very thing that AI is now prompting. We face hard questions: If civilization is defined as progress, what is civilization without people, and is that progress?
